it being so clear an Exemplification of my design to shew the right and the wrong ways of exerting the Civil Power in Matters of the Church In the Year 449 Flavianus Bishop of Constantinople who succeeded Pâ—oclus that succeeded Maximianus held a Council of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Bishops then Resident in the City for which reason in the Acts of the Council it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sâ—journing Synod according to the new and corrupt Custom of the Bishops of that City upon their Usurpation over the Rights of Metropolitans to receive Appeals from the Legal Sentence and determine them in the Synod of these Indwelling Bishops who attended at Court for their own Affairs and Preferments A device that the Bishops of Constantinople were forced to make use of because that See being at first but an inferior Bishoprick and subject to its own Metropolitan of Hâ—raclea it could not pretend to a Power of Convening Synods and therefore they seize this opportunity of consulting with the Bishops Resident in the City without any Summons and this by Time and a little Custom became a standing Synod superior to the Provincial Synods And that was the particular occasion of this present Council under Flavianus viz. A Contest of Florentius the Metropolitan of the Lydian Sardis with John and Cossinus two Bishops of his Province who had Appealed from their Metropolitan to Flavianus and his Court-Conclave though they upon hearing of the Cause were so civil and that was not usual either with them or any other Usurpers as to judge it on the side of the Metropolitan But that matter being fairly and easily dispatch't Eusebius the Bishop of Dorylaeum a City of Phrygia Salutaris and a man eminent for Piety and Learning rises up and accuses his old Friend Eutyches having long in vain endeavoured as he declares to the Council to reclaim him by private advice or discourse â—f holding and teaching Heretical Opinions or a different Faith from that delivered from the Apostles and received by the Nicene Fathers and delivers up the Articles of his Charge in Writing Upon this Eutyches is summoned to appear and is after three Citations and all the shifts of delay unkenell'd out of his Monastery and stript of his Orders But the great Eunuch Chrysaphius was his friend and before the Heretick would appear he flies to him for help and protection and he prevails with the Emperor to send Florentius a Courtier and one of his Creatures with a Rabble of Monks and a Guard of Souldiers along with Eutyches to the Council but for all that upon a full hearing and debating of the Cause he is again deposed and eased of his Abby Upon this he makes his Address to Pope Leo procures the Emperor's Letters in his behalf and among his many other Grievances makes that acceptable Complaint That his Appeal to the Apostolical See was rejected by the Bishop of Constantinople Leo was glad of any opportunity to exert his universal Pastorship but much more to break the Power of that Rival See and therefore he greedily takes the Judgment of the Cause to himself writes a very huffing Letter to Flavianus rates him severely for not acquainting his Holiness with his Proceedings but much more tartly for denying an Appeal to the Apostolical See and peremptorily Commands him to return all the Acts of the Council to himself as the only Supreme Judge or as he expresses himself in his Answer to the Emperor Ad praedictum autem Episcopum dedi literas quibus mihi displicere cognosceret quòd ea quae in tantâ causâ gesta fuerant etiam nunc silentio reticeret cùm studere debuerit primitus nobis cuncta reserare Flavianus knowing the Spirit of the Man and being afraid of giving him any Provocation returns him a very civil and submissive Answer â—â—gether with the Acts of the Council humbly requests his Concurrence and Approbation and assures him that Eutyches had never made any Appeal to his Holiness and therefore had abused him with a palpable falshood Leo upon this Information and the perusal of the Acts is satisfied and agrees to the Condemnation of Eutyches and returns Flavianus that Famous Epistle in confutation of the Eutychian Heresie that was afterward so magnified by the Council of Calcedon as to be made of equal Authority with the Decrees of the General Councils Upon this Eutyches flies a second time to his friends at Court and complains that the Acts of the Council had been falsified by Flavianus and upon that the Bishops that were present at the Council were re-summoned and are required to give in their Answer to the Interrogatories upon Oath but this they unanimously refuse as an affront to their Order because as Basil Bishop of Seleucia replyed it was never yet heard of that an Oath was offered to Bishops and therefore upon their word they vouch the truth and sincerity of the Record and declare that Eutyches never made any offer of Appeal to the Bishops of Rome and Alexandria as he pretended in his Bill of Complaint In short the Acts themselves being examined and compared with Eutyches his own Copy exhibited by his Procurators for he refused to appear in Person they were found to agree so exactly in all particulars as not only to put himself but his friends out of Countenance And therefore finding no shelter either at home or at Rome he betakes himself to Alexandria and there engages Dioscorus who succeeded Cyril in that See on his side And he being a man of an ungovernable temper and willing to put an affront upon the great Bishop of Constantinople according to the practice of those times for the Top-Bishops to endeavour to check each others greatness embraces the Quarrel with all possible Zeal and pursues it with as indefatigable diligence earnestly solicites the Emperor for a General Council to rehearâ— the Cause of Eutyches which he represents to him as nothing else then an opposition to the Nestorian Heresie and so the Emperor himself took it And though Flavianus and Leo opposed it with all their Zeal and Power yet Eutyches having the Eunuchs favour and the Emperors own aversation against Nestorius to back him he prevails and a second Council is summoned to Ephesus 19 years after the first consisting of 130 Bishops and the Presidency of the Council is by Chrysaphius his Power with the Emperor determined to Dioscorus by special Commission Pope Leo is invited but his Answer is That he neither would nor could come he could not because at that time Rome was distressed by the Huns and he would not because it was not becoming the State of the Apostolick Chair to appear in any Council but however he sends his Legates with Letters to the Council little suspecting those Irregularities that ensued but by the Artifice of Dioscorus they were not so much as suffered to be read and upon it the Legates quit the Council and upon that all
of our times that there is no Faith in Man as he often does in his Epistles but especially in the 79 th to Eustathius himself And all this upon no other account Good man than because he could not compass a kind Office for an unworthy and ungrateful Man and this found him work to his Dying day especially as he expresses it with the Pride and Superciliousness of the Church of Rome But among these various Transactions the great Athanasius dies about the year 371 or 372 perhaps sooner or later for I am not concerned in Chronological Niceties my Business is to trace the Tradition of Christian Truth not to turn Hour-glasses or watch the Motions of Pendulums But his Fall was the occasion of great stirs in the Church both Parties being at such a time highly concern'd for a fit Successor to so great a Man and so great a See Peter a grave and ancient Presbyter of that Church was by the dying recommendation of Athanasius unanimously chosen but Euzoius the Arian Bishop of Antioch upon the first News of the Vacancy flies to Court to move for his Friend Lucius who had been join'd in Ambassy with him to Jovian against Athanasius and by the help of the Eunuchs succeeds and is sent to Alexandria with Magnus a great Court-Trader in the Cause but before they came the Praefect of the City a zealous Heathen had driven Peter into Banishment and when they came the People were so averse to the Intruder that they were forced to place him in the See by Military Power upon which what bloody Tumults and Disorders followed may be seen in all the Historians but most accurately in Theodoret. Somewhat before this time arose the Heresie of Apollinaris consisting of a great many Prophane or rather wanton Novelties the chief whereof was That our Saviour had no other Soul than the Divinity it self and the Conceit because it was a new one began to take very much among the People who naturally run after any thing that is strange and unusual But it is soon quasht by the diligence of the Pastors of the Church and that not only by Writing though all the Learned Men of that Age appear'd against it as Athanasius Gregory Nazianzen Gregory Nyssen St. Basil and Epiphanius but much more effectually by the Discipline of the Church A Council was call'd at Rome by Damasus the active and leading Bishop of his time though he was here more particularly concern'd because he had unwarily given reputation to the Hereticks by granting them recommendatory Letters And here every particular Article is condemn'd by an Express Anathema against it and an account of their Proceedings is given by Damasus in a Synodical Epistle to the Eastern Bishops the Epistle is of a very peculiar strein and shews that the Gentleman began to have some thoughts of advancing the state of the Apostolick See and it is the first that I have observed of that stiff strein But however the Heresie was soon quasht by that unanimous Agreement of all Churches to suppress it every where by executing the effectual Discipline of the Church upon all its Followers In so much that I can not call to Mind more than one Imperial Law against them at that time and that was enacted by Arcadius in the year 397. against their secret Conventicles at Constantinople they not presuming to appear in Publick And when a Sect is brought so low as that it dares not venture to make any publick Appearance it is vanquisht and scarce worth the Notice of the Government § IV. In the year following i. e. Anno 374. a Council was held at Valentia in France for reforming some Abuses and Corruptions that had crept into that Church and restoring the force of some ancient useful Canons In the same year hapned that strange Election of St. Ambrose to the Bishoprick of Milan after this manner Upon the Death of Auxentius the Emperor Valentinian hapning to be then at Mâ—lan calls the Bishops together and Exhorts them to take care to choose a Person of eminent Abilities for so great a See They in all humility refer it to his Majestie 's own choice No says he that is a Province not proper for me to undertake but to you that are inlightned by the Divine Spirit most properly belongs the Office of choosing Bishops Upon this the Bishops take time to debate among themselves but whilst they are consulting the People of each Faction flock together into the Market-place and there as it usually happens in popular Assemblies from Disputing proceed to Tumult St. Ambrose being Governor of the Place flies according to his Office to appease the Multitude Who no sooner appears than they all cry out An Ambrose an Ambrose for their Bishop at which he being astonish't ascends the Tribunal with an austere Countenance as if he were resolved to put some of them to Death but they still cry the louder Upon that he accuses himself of such scandalous Crimes as by the Canons of the Church render him uncapable of the Episcopal Office but that is all one to them neither will they believe him And therefore in the last place he betakes himself to flight by Night and designs for Ticinum but having wandred all Night and thinking himself near his Journeys end he found in the Morning that he had walkt in a Circle and was just entring into one of the Gates of Milan at which being surprized and fearing lest there should be something of the hand of God in it he returns home and submits they acquaint the Emperor with it for his consent because by the Constitution of Constantine the Great they were forbidden to take any Officers either Civil or Military into the Clergy without it lest the Common-wealth should be left destitute of able Men. But the Emperor is highly pleased with the Election and is proud of his own choosing such Magistrates as are fit to be made Bishops and through this odd concurrence of Circumstances is he made Bishop contrary to the Canons for he was then no more than a Catechumene which Learned Men think may be excused by the miraculousness of the thing as if it had been immediately brought about by the special Interposition and Authority of God himself and for such extraordinary cases the Canon it self has provided an Exception adding this Clause at the end of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it be done by the special favour of God And that this was so done all Parties concern'd in it thought they had good reason to conclude from so great a Conjunction of Wonders Soon after this Valentinian dies of an Apoplexy or some suddain Death upon which Ammianus Marcellinus reads a Lecture with as much Gravity as if he were President of the College of Physicians as he takes all Opportunity of shewing his Knowledge in all sorts of Learning a fondness very incident to all half-learned Men. But in the mean time Valens goes on in
Clergy and upon it they Address to the Emperor with a Petition for Redress against his oppressions and for a general Council to settle the Peace of the Church which he immediately grants and so Summons a Council to Ephesus in the 24th Year of his Reign and in the Year of our Lord 431. And sends Candidianus one of his great Officers to the Synod to keep good order in it and not as he declares in his Letter to the Council to intermeddle with the determination of Questions or Controversies that should be debated about matters of the Christian Faith because it is not lawful for any man that is not admitted into the Order of the Holy Bishops to interpose himself in Ecclesiastical Affairs and Debates And so bids them proceed to a peaceable decision of the present Controversie and no other and as he gives them full Liberty and Freedom of Debate so he assures them that whatever they agreed upon he would ratifie The Bishops met at the time appointed to the number of above 200 M. Mercator who himself was present there says precisely 274. Only Capreolus Bishop of Carthage writes to the Council to have the African Bishops excused who could not Travel at that time because of the Incursion of the Vandals over the whole Country so that there were none wanting but only John of Antioch and his Eastern Bishops and after he had made the Council wait 16 days he at last sends them word not to stay for him because his coming would be altogether uncertain It was easie for him to foresee which way the Council would incline and therefore he was unwilling to be present at the Condemnation of his old Friend And so the Council suggest to the Emperor that he sided with Nestorius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as they express it in their Letter to Celestine that he avoided the Council either out of Friendship to Nestorius because he had been a Clerk of his Church or because he was overcome by the perswasions of others though the true reason was the disgust that he had taken against the Anathema's and a Compact between him and Nestorius by them to disturb and perplex the Proceedings of the Council as will appear by the Event For when the Council proceeded upon it Nestorius refuses to appear till the coming of John of Antioch but they after 3 Summons and 3 days patience go on to Judgment and upon hearing the whole Evidence he is Condemned and Deposed by the Unanimous Vote of the Council and his Condemnation is proclaim'd through the City by the publick Cryer and fixt up in Writing in the Chief Places of Resort to the great joy of the People And an Account of their Proceedings is with all possible speed certified to the Emperor beseeching his Majesty to keep the Condemned Doctrine of Nestorius out of all Churches cause his Books to be burnt in all places with such Penalties upon Offenders as he should think fit in his Royal displeasure to inflict and so the Apostolical Faith will â—e protected and preserved by your Imperial Power But this Letter was delayed by Candidianus who sided with Nestorius against the Council which Cyril suspecting informs the Clergy of Constantinople of the real truth to prevent false News and it was but necessary for before the Letter came to the Emperor's hands Nestorius and ten other Bishops that stuck to him had sent him a fair Story of the illegal and violent proceedings of the Council But as for all Letters from the Council they were diligently intercepted and as the Clergy of Constantinople inform the Council all ships were searched and the high-ways beset so that no Person that came from the Council was suffer'd to pass to the City whilst correspondence was free and open to the Enemy and this was done with that strange diligence that the Messengers who brought the Letter from the Council to them could find no other way of conveighing it into the City then by a begger-Man that had it closed up within a walking Cane But when John of Antioch comes to Ephesus a few days after the Sentence he protests against it requiring them upon pain of Deposition and Excommunication to acquiesce in the Nicene Faith to piece no Novelties to it and to reject Cyril's heretical Anathema's and by the encouragement and perswasion of Candidianus rakes together a little Council of forty three Bishops whereof the greatest part had been deposed and some were meerly titular for re-hearing the Cause And here he is solemnly inform'd by Candidianus himself that he was order'd by the Emperor not to open his Commission but in full Council and that when Cyril and Memnon and their Associates combin'd to meet before the arrival of the Eastern Bishops he forbid them in the Emperor's Name but they forced him to comply for fear of a Sedition and that he left the Council and protested against their Proceedings and that when he found the sentence of Deposition set up against Nestorius he caused it to be pull'd down and knew nothing of it till he was inform'd by its publication in the Market-Place And yet being farther askt whether they entred upon the Examination of the merits of the Cause before they past sentence he replys like a raw and unexperienced Evidence that they made no Inquiry at all and this he attests as an Eye witness though he had all along declared that he was absent from the Council and knew nothing of the Sentence till it was publisht in the City But though the contradiction of the Testimony did not convict it self of falsehood yet the Acts of the Council would the particular Votes and Debates of the several Bishops as they were taken by the Notaries standing there upon perpetual Record But upon thâ—s the Conventicle deâ—ose Cyril and Memnon anathematise the Anathâ—ma's and all that refuse to anathematiâ—e them and certifie to the Emperor the deposition of Cyril and Memnon in the name of the Council Though Socrates is here so far mistaken as to impute that to Nestorius which was now done by John of Antioch viz. that himseâ—f and his smaâ—l Council of 10 had deposed Cyril and Memnon immediatâ—ly upon tâ—e Sentence of the Council against him But the Schismaticks having charm'd the Emperor by their Letter and by his President Candidianus who sung the Chorus to their Song theâ— sing over the same Tune in several Addresses to the Clergy the Senate and the People of Constantinople and to clinch all to the Empress and Princess Royal. But about this time arrived the â—ope's Legates with Letters from his Holiness to the Council that fâ—r the greater State are only to be read in the Latin Tongue and afterward by way of Condescension in the Greek at the Petition of the Fathers though they were writâ—en in both Languages this was one of the most early Affectations of Lordly State in the Papacy The next day they require