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
the Conventicle on the other side are commanded to insist upon the abolition of Cyril's Anathema's as Heretical Schismatical and unwarrantable Additions to the Nicene Faith But when they came they were not admitted into the City for fear of Tumults by the Monks the Schismaticks were dismiss't to Calcedon and indeed the business was over eight days before their arrival when the Emperor understanding the Cheat that had been hitherto put upon him condemn'd Nestorius to perpetual Banishment and set Cyril and Memnon at liberty And though the Legates of the Conventicle press't him with three Petitions one upon the neck of another for a Conference he would not for a long time grant it But at last their importunity prevails and as themselves boast they shock the Emperor for thô he would hear nothing in behalf of Nestorius yet he was offended at Cyril's Anathema's that were represented with too much advantage by the adverse Party as unwarrantable additions to the Nicene Faith of which the Emperor was very jealous and that was the point that put him upon some Demur Nestorius stood condemn'd by him from the first sentence of the Council but on the other side Cyril's Anathema's were offensive as his own private additions to the settled Faith And therefore Nestorius his Friends let fall his Cause and only pursue the condemnation of the Anathema's and that Plea was too plausible with the Emperor for though they might be Theological Verities they were no Articles of Faith not being express't in the Nicene Creed and yet so they were made by being imposed upon the Church under the Penalty of an Anathema And here stuck the pinch of the Controversie all the time that it depended at Court that the Nestorians press't for the examination of the Anathema's which the Cyrillians at last endeavor'd to baulk and insist only upon the Heresie and Condemnation of Nestorius and having the Emperor sure on their side in that point they were sure to carry the Cause at last for he being tired with the Disputes about the Anathema's le ts that Controversie fall and only abets the Sentence of the Council against Nestorius with his own sentence of banishment and commands the Bishops to choose a Successor into the See who electing Maximianus are dismist without any determination of the other Controversie And as if the sentence of the Council and the Confirmation of the Emperor had been invalid without it Pope Celestine sends his Pontifical Rescript to confirm all by the Authority of St. Peter Longius quidem sumus positi sed per sâ—licitudinem totum propius intuemur Omnes habet beati Petri Apostoli cura presentes non nos ante Deum nostrum de hoc possumus excusare quod scimus In all this Contest the greatest Looser next to Nestorius who lost all was John of Antioch who being run down in Council his confining Adversaries take that advantage to beat him out of his late Usurpations The Bishops of Cyprus over whom he had extended his Jurisdiction make their Complaints to the Council by whose Decree he is expell'd the Island And whereas he had usurpt over the Provinces of Arabia and Phaenice upon which Juvenal the new Bishop of Jerusalem a brisk and ambitious Man had cast his Eye and made some inroads of Usurpation he now thinks by the advantage of the animosity between Cyril and John of Antioch to have it confirm'd to him in Council and this was the thing that made him so active there for which reasons he was nominated one of the eight Commissioners to the Emperor Which Design is plainly suggested to the Emperor by John and his Party in their first Petition from Calcedon It is evident Sir say they that some among them have contrived and carried on this wicked design for their own ends and your Majesty will see them when they have carried through their Treachery to divide the Spoils of the Church among themselves And though Juvenal of Jerusalem took upon him to ordain some of of us we held our peace notwithstanding that we ought to have contended for the Canons lest we should have seem'd to contend for our own Ambition Neither are we ignorant of his Designs and Devices at this very time upon the second Phaenice and Arabia So that it seems he had made some overt-acts of his design in Council but Cyril detested and damn'd the Motion as Pope Leo in his 16 th Epistle tells us That Cyril himself inform'd him by Letter But though he could not carry it in Council he got at last both those Provinces and the three Palestines beside and kept them till the Council of Calcedon when both Parties being conscious to themselves of their having no right to the whole Child consent to its division the three Palestines falling to Juvenal Phaenice and Arabia to Maximus of Antioch But though the Nestorian Controversie was ended the quarrel was not that run very high between those two great Prelates Cyril of Alexandria and John of Antioch and their greatness drew great numbers of Bishops after them to the great disorder and disturbance of the Church and great grief of the Emperor who therefore advises with Maximian and other Bishops how to redress the mischief they answer that there is no remedy but John of Antioch's subscribing the condemnation of Nestorius and his Heresie Upon this the Emperor writes to John by Aristolaus commanding him to meet Cyril at Nicomedia and be reconcil'd to him upon pain of his displeasure And this Letter he seconds with another to the famous Monk Simeon Stylites Acacius Bishop of Beraea and the Bishops of all the Eastern Provinces to perswade John to return to the Peace and Unity of the Church Upon this a Council meets at Beraea and agree upon this Proposal that they would condemn Nestorius upon condition that Cyril would call in all his own Writings about the Controversie But this being refused and John being wrought upon either by the Emperor's threatnings or the importunity of his friends declares his assent to the Decree of the Ephesine Council Anathematises the Heresie of Nestorius subscribes his deposition and approves the ordination of Maximinian But for the greater solemnity of the business and to salve the dishonor of an absolute submission he sends Paul Bishop of Emesa as his Legate to Alexandria to treat with Cyril about terms of Peace and sends by him a Confession of Faith which if Cyril would accept he was his humble Servant Now the Confession being Orthodox and having nothing in it of his own but only the form of Words it was as easily accepted as offer'd and so after all this contention about nothing but mutual misunderstanding are they at last reconcil'd as both Cyril objects to the Antiochians in his Letter of Reconciliation and Theodoret to the Cyrillians in his Letter to Andrew the Monk But though they were agreed the Contest is still kept up by some Mens zeal and other Mens malice The
common ruin And again Justinian and Theodora seemâ—d to me and all othâ—rs of the Senatorian Order not of the race of Mankind but the worst breed of Devils and the very Plagues of Humane kind that consulted together how they might destroy the Universe with most expedition and for that reason assumed Humane shapes being as it were half-Man half Devil and so over-turn'd the whole World And this may be proved by the great enormity of their Wickedness in which these Devils infinitely out-stript all the villainy that Mankind is capable of acting For thô there have been divers Tyrants in former Ages that were cruel beyond all bounds of Barbarity that dispeopled whole Cities Provinces and Kingdoms yet these were the first that utterly destroyed the Race of Mankind and laid wast the universal World And once more not to be too tedious this Story of mowing down the Inhabitants of the whole World being the Subject of every Page That Justinian was in reality no Man but the Devil in the shape of a Man is evident from those unparallell'd Mischiefs that he brought upon Mankind for the height of all Wickedness is to be taken from the depth of it Authors Villainy But for that it were more easie to compute the Sand upon the Sea-shore then all the Nations destroyed by Justinian And as for my own part I am able to reckon up two hundred and ten Millions of Men that were offer'd Victims to his Barbarity A very fair reckoning this were the particulars well cast up for by the summ total one could expect to hear of no less than the old Pranks of Caligula Nero and Commodus of Phalaris his ten thousand bulls and Pharaohs ten millions of Brick-Kills of the out-rages of the thirty Tyrants and the fury of the ten persecutions of firing the City assassinating the Senate putting whole Provinces to the Sword but what do I speak of all these trifles of Cruelty if compared to the destruction of the whole habitable World for that is the Chorus to all our Tragedies that he did not only cut the throats of all the Inhabitants of the Roman Empire but buried the whole World in one common ruin What not one Man left alive the whole Race at once destroyed How then came the face of the Earth to be peopled again by Deucalion's Stones or Cadmus's Teeth Oh no says Alemannus these are only certain Schemes of Speech that the learned call hyperbolical Expressions It may be so but we that are unlearned cannot distinguish them from impudent Lies and Impossibilities For if every Man living were not destroyed then the tale as it is told is all fable but if the destruction were universal then the question returns how the Earth ever came to be re-inhabited without those Absurdities that we commonly call poetical Hyperboles But not to be too severe upon the licence of Lampoons we will grant that possibly the Hydra or the Dragon might spare some few alive but in compensation let us compute how many millions of his Subjects he devoured at every meal Where lay the Cities where the Provinces where the Nations that he so universally dispeopled How great a part of the Empire he recover'd we know from his Wars with the Goths and Vandals in Italy and Africk but that he ever destroyed any one Province is news to this very day How many stately Cities he built is recorded by Procopius but if he ever reduced either any of them or any other to Ashes he would have done well to have told us in his own defence if he could but have alledged any one Example What strange way of writing history is this to tell us of such vast numbers of Cities Provinces and Nations destroyed without specifying but one Village But though he might not mow down whole Cities and Provinces at a stroak yet he might commit such vast numbers of out-rages at divers times and in divers places as might amount to the two hundred and ten millions of lives That may be but as vast as the Empire was I doubt it would scarce afford pasture enough for so great a Butchery But if it would I would only know where when and by whom these vast Oceans of blood were shed He reign'd 39 years by himself and govern'd nine years more under his Unkle Justin in all which time if we inquire of our Libeller the Catalogue of his Executions Why to be short Amantius and Vitalvanus were put to death They were so but what are two Men above two hundred millions of Men This is the priviledg of hyperbolical Historians But seeing this is all our Martyrology let us inquire into the merits of the Cause for it is that they say and not the suffering that makes the Martyr and by that we shall easily discern that these unheard of Cruelties were so far from that that they were not only necessary Acts of Government but of common Justice too Amantius had been the Author of all the Severities against the Catholicks under Anastasius insomuch that at the Coronation of the Emperor Justin the People cryed out for his blood But that was not the cause of his death but his endeavor to set up Theocritus against him in the Empire for which as they were both justly put to death so was it an Action necessary to the preservation of the Government it self But as the Author of the Libel tells the Story he discovers himself to be no true Procopius for first he says that Amantius was put to death by Justinian whereas he was immediately executed by Justin at his first coming to the Crown as appears not only from all the co-temporary Historians Marcellinus Comes Jornandes Evagrius Victor Tunonensis but from the matter of Fact it self he being taken off for setting up Theocritus for the title of the Crown against Justin. But when he farther adds the Cause of his death he utterly betrays the Imposture of the whole Libel viz. that he had been too saucy in his language to John Bishop of Constantinople whereas there was no such Bishop of that name in all the long Reign of Justinian till the last year of his life But here for a Reconciler commend me to the Apostolical Librarian that when there were two Patriarchs of Constantinople one that dyed in the first year of Justin surnamed Cappadox and another that came to that See in the last year of Justinian surnamed Scholasticus to make sure of a John in his reign he pieces up one Bishop of these two Men and says that Procopius meant Johannes Scholasticus Cappadox though Cappadox was dead near 50 years before Scholasticus was consecrated and four Bishops of other Names were ranged in the Dypticks between them Epiphanius Anthimus Mennas and Eutychius And yet the learned Librarian is so strangely or rather so wilfully ignorant as to make that the grand Article against Justinian that he was the Man who first granted the Title of Oeâ—umenical Bishop to this Joannes Scholasticus
thinking of something else at that time it was quite out of my mind Just such is the Memory of the Author in declaring Justinian's faults and offences amongst the Clergy he would have told what strange havock he made amongst them but that as often as he came to mention it it flipt out of his Memory Of all his faults this was the greatest it added Sacriledge to Oppression his hard usage of other Sects is capable of a defence but for a Prince to rob and trample down his own Clergy 't is the height of Barbarity and therefore to leave it out in the Description of his Vices is the exact Story of the blind Horse But he intended the ill usage of Pope Silverius Vigilius and the African Bishops in the Controversie of the tria Capitula This is pure conjecture especially the guess of the tria Capitula which it is evident from the â—ccount that Procopius has given of the disputes of those times that he did nor understand But however I have already discoursed both that and the Case of Silverius and Vigilius and that will be answer enough to Alemannus his foul surmise of their barbarous treatment Only I would advise him and the Roman Courtiers once more not to concern the Apostolick Chair in the Vindication of Vigilius but rather to thrust him out of the List into the Catalogue of the Anti Popes both because it is confest on all hands that he got into the Chair by Usurpation when it was full already and because his Actions were so foul that no Wit no Apology no Candour can wipe off the Scandal As for the Reverse of this Calumny the Emperors exorbitant kindness and indulgence to the Christian Clergy I must confess it was very great to a degree of fondness we have seen above in his Novels what Endowments and Priviledges he setled upon the Church what care he took to secure their setled Revenues and to protect them against the oppression of great men But that he ever run into any Act of Injustice out of Zeal and partiality to their Interest we have no one Instance upon Record the only thing that can be pretended is his Grant to the Church of Emesa of the Prescription of an hundred years which as this Author tells the Story was a very lewd act of Fraud and Oppression but then the cheat was put upon the Emperor as well as upon the Subjects that suffer'd by it It is this one Mammianus a Man of a noble Family and vast Wealth had long before made the Church of Emesa his Heir But it hapned that under Justinian one Priscus was imployed to take the census of the Families of that City who being dexterous at imitating other Mens hands and diligently observing the hands of some of the Ancestors of some of the most wealthy Families he draws upon them Bills and Bonds for great sums of Money to Mammianus these he communicates to the Procurators of the Church but because the Law of only 30 years prescription lay against them they repair to the Emperor to relieve them in so pious and charitable a Suit and he being satisfied with the piety of the Case is easily prevailed upon to grant to them and all other Churches a power of looking back to 100 years whereas before 30 years prescription was a legal Bar to any claim Upon this they put all their counterfeit Bonds in suit to the utter ruin of the best Families in the City But Longinus a wise and an honest Man that the Emperor sent thither with a particular Commission to be Judg in this particular Cause suspecting some cheat by the vast Sums of Money that were challenged he therefore takes Priscus to task commands him to bring in all his Bonds but he refusing it because that would put an end to the Plot he in a rage beats him who upon it fearing that he had discover'd his Cheat confesses all and the Emperor being inform'd of it and finding by this example the inconvenience of this Law that there would be no stopping of Frauds in behalf of the Church-Estates if they might be allowed to claim against so many years prescription he repeals it and because he would not utterly spoil his Courtesie he takes it down from an hundred to forty years and that was ten years more than any other Plaintiff was allowed Now which way can the Emperor be blamed in all this Transaction he had no ground to suspect the imposture and then it was evident that great sums due to the Church had been basely embezel'd and to prevent such Abuses for the time to come he takes off the usual limits of Prescription in Pleas of this Nature And yet this impudent Libeller is so foolishly malicious as contrary to the circumstances of his own story to insinuate as if the Emperor himself were privy to the design Which if he were how durst Longinus have so disgracefully exposed it who if his Master had any such Plot must have been privy to it because without him it could not be managed and therefore when he so rudely spoil'd it that shews both his own and his Masters ignorance of it and he was so far from incurring his displeasure that he was not long after advanced to the Prefecture of the City If we may trust our Author for otherwise I find no such Man as Longinus in all Justinian's Reign and therefore cannot but suspect the whole story to be meer fiction But granting its truth the Emperor is innocent and when our Author suggests that he was privy to it he ought to have told us how himself came to know the Secret and so indeed he ought to have done through his whole history but to tell us that such prodigious things were done in the dark and with great secresie and give us no account how he came to know them is but a very poor way of vouching for an history These are the grand Articles of this Libel against this great Prince for the following Chapters are little else than the same Rhapsody repeted and things are heaped together so confusedly so without art and decency as plainly proves that so elegant a Writer as Procopius could never have writ it but that the true Author was some unpolisht and unlearned Barbarian § XXXIII But though we have little else than meer repetition remaining yet there are some few scraps behind that discover the Author's malice and ignorance upon these I shall make some brief reflections and so conclude And first what can we think of his ascribing all the publick Calamities of the Age as Inundations of Rivers destructions of Cities by earthquakes and Plagues to the Emperor and his ill Genius This Malice is too childish even to be despised and it is hard to determine whether it have in it more of spite or folly though it has so much of both as forever to destroy that Man's credit that could prevail with himself to make and vent such an accusation against