in an Exception to reserve the Liberties of the Gallican Church entire And in the e Id. p. 348. Low Countries when Margaret Dutchess of Parma then Governess there required the Magistrates of every Province to make search whether any thing in the Decrees of the Council of Trent were contrary to the Rights of his Catholick Majesty or to the ancient customs of their Countrey they animadverted upon several Chapters particularly upon C. 5. Sess 24. which the French likewise particularly except against and they said it was an Innovation and the King might insist upon his Ancient Right 3. I think nothing can be a greater Evidence that this Council was not General than the opposition of National Churches in behalf of their particular Privileges in points of Reformation for a General Council may undoubtedly prescribe to particular Churches in matters of Discipline as the first General Councils did and oblige them to a compliance for the peace and benefit of the whole and the Council must be judge what is most conducing to that end To deny this Authority to a General Council is plainly to lay its Authority quite aside and to receive onely as much of it as particular Churches shall think fit for it were an extravagant thing to demand absolute obedience and submission in matters of Faith when points of Discipline are insisted upon against the express Decrees of the Council a Council may err in Doctrine but if it have any Authority this must extend at least to points of Discipline which are in themselves indifferent and may be altered as it shall seem most conducing to the good of the whole Church * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb de Vita Constantini lib. 3. cap. 20. Constantine after the Council of Nice not onely determined the Controversie against Arius but the time of keeping of Easter and other things of Order and Discipline to which all Churches submitted whatever eager Debates they had had amongst themselves before The erecting the Churches of Constantinople and Jerusalem into Patriarchates and the settling of Church-Government was performed in the four first General Councils yet nothing was objected against the Authority of Councils in such Affairs nor did the Churches placed under the Patriarchates of Jerusalem and Constantinople insist upon their particular Privileges onely the Church of Rome was unwilling to have Constantinople equalled to her self and therefore made a troublesome but fruitless opposition in the Council of Chalcedon 4. But if at this day the Church of France be so jealous of her Privileges in matters of Discipline we have much more reason to be carefull of the Privileges of our common Christianity in matters of Faith if she insist that her Bishops have Authority to decide the Causae Majores i. e. all Debates arising whether in matters of Faith or Discipline according to the Decrees of General Councils how can it be denied us to defend the Ancient Faith according to General Councils truly such if they reject the Decrees of Reformation how shall we subscribe Pope Pius's Creed nay how shall they subscribe it not by virtue of any obligation from this Church but because they otherwise think the Articles of it True and for the contrary reason we cannot subscribe them because we think them false so that the Authority of the Council of Trent is really laid aside on both hands and the merits of the cause must be the onely thing in Debate For to say that a General Council properly speaking cannot abridge a particular Church of her Privileges is to say that a particular Church is above a General Council or at least exempt from its Jurisdiction This is well enough understood at Rome where Gerbais's Book in defence of the Gallican Privileges is condemned § XVIII I have done now with their Councils and have shewn how far Papists themselves have been from thinking them infallible or from acknowledging most of them to be General whatever credit they may have gained by the ignorance and superstition of latter Ages when every Assembly of Bishops greater than ordinary was esteemed a General Council and every General Council voted it self infallible For 't is certain that in the most ignorant Ages they first fansied themselves infallible and then took the liberty to say and doe what they thought fit and so imposed many superstitious conceits and gainfull Projects on the world for infallible Truths It now remains onely to consider whether we can meet with any better satisfaction from the consent of the present Roman Church and to enquire whether there be any expedient to reconcile these differences concerning the Authority of their several Councils But here we are so far at a loss that we find them in nothing more disagreeing than in the very Fundamental Point upon which all the Authority of Councils depends and so disagreeing in this they must be at an eternal disagreement concerning the Councils themselves For some making the Pope above a General Council others a General Council above the Pope and a third sort making them co-ordinate those that place infallibility in the Pope alone have little reason to regard a Council and those that place it in a Council alone do upon occasion as little respect the Pope or judge of General Councils by Bellarmin's Rule and seek no farther than for the Pope's confirmation but those that think it is in neither separately can acquiesce in the Determinations neither of Pope nor Council unless they both concur unanimously in their Determinations and whoever make the Church diffusive to be the Judge of what Councils are General and what are not so are still at a wider difference from all the rest § XIX Our English Papists seem generally to be of the last Opinion placing the Authority of the Church in the Agreement of the Pope with a General Council but making the Authority of General Councils to depend upon the Reception of the Church diffusive hereby placing the Authority Executively onely in General Councils confirmed by the Pope but fundamentally and radically in the Church upon whose Approbation all depends but by Church they understand onely the governing part of it and such as would have had a right to vote if they had been assembled in Council This is the Doctrine advanced in the Book so much valued by our English Papists The Guide in Controversies and because this way has most Artifice and Amusement in it they are willing to put the issue here though most of their Priests must needs have great Prejudices against it from a foreign Education For the French are of the second opinion and the Pope with all his Adherents of the first How well the Guide's Hypothesis has been accepted abroad I am not able to say but it will be best guessed at by the contest that has been about the two other opinions whether the Parties seem inclinable to admit of the Guide as a Reconciler § XX. The Jesuites are for no less than a Personal
gainsay Which made the Authour of the e Mabillon ibid. p. 27. Annales Berliniani observe that the eighth Synod had defined concerning Images contrary to what the Orthodox had defined before For the controversie about Images was again under debate at C. P. when Nicholas the First f Nichol. I. Epist Conc. vol. 8. sent his Legate thither and their chief business was to decide it for they were to act nothing in the cause of Photius but onely to enquire how things had been managed Afterwards under Adrian the Second DCCCLXX while the eighth General Council was sitting there appears to have been another Synod opposing the worship of Images which they anathematize and it was one part of their business to establish that worship * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conc. Tom. 8. col 1360. So that this Council of Nice was received neither in the East nor in the West during one Century after it was held Nay it has been lately shewn that till the fifteenth Century the veneration of Images was rejected by the most eminent persons of the Western Church g Fallibility of the Church of Rome demonstrated from the second Council of Nice c. 4. sess 6. Afterwards Images and the Council of Nice had a blessed time of it and the People grew fond of these which they call Laymens Books when their Priests could scarce reade any other And though it may well be expected that the extravagance of this dotage should be much abated since the Reformation especially in France where Popery is new modelled and refined to that degree yet even there sober men complain and lament but cannot remedy the excess of it in our days †Mabil ib. p. 28. Richer Hist Gen. Conc. Lib. 1. cap. 11. § 13. The eighth Gen. Council or the fourth C. of C. P. An. DCCCLXX The Dates of thse 3 Councils are according to Labbe's Edition VII 1. There are no fewer than four Councils which lay claim to the title of the eighth General Council and the Pope was present either in person or by his Legates in them all Three of these were held at C. P. The first DCCCLXI in which Ignatius Patriarch of C. P. was deposed the next DCCCLXX in which he was restored and Photius deposed the third DCCCLXXIX when after the death of Ignatius Photius was again placed in that See. The fourth * Vid. Not. ad Conc. C.P. IV. col 1491. Conc. vol. VIII which goes under the name of the eighth General Council is that of Florence of which I shall forbear to speak till we come to it in order 2. The Council of C. P. which condemned Photius is esteemed the eighth General Council by the Latins generally and that which restored him by the Greeks by Zonaras Balsamon Psellus Nilus c. Marcus Ephesinus h Sess VI. in principio in the Council of Florence maintains in the name of the whole Greek Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marc. Ephes in Conc. Flor. Ses 6. col 87. Conc. vol. 13. that the Council of C. P. which restored Photius had nulled the Council which the Latins call'd the eighth General Council in which Ignatius was restored and Photius deposed and that this Council was confirmed by John the Eighth and that in the same Synod it was determined that the addition of Filióque should be taken out of the Creed and therefore from that time in the Great Church at C. P. they used he says to denounce Anathema to whatever had been written or spoken against the holy Patriarchs Photius and Ignatius To this the Cardinal Julian with whom Marcus Ephesinus had the Dispute could find nothing to reply for which he is very much blamed by another Cardinal who never was at such a loss but he always had something to say I mean Baronius 'T is plain the Bishop of Rhodes who in the next Session undertook to answer Marcus Ephesinus knew very little of the matter for he pretends to speak onely upon Probabilities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I say that this does not by any means seem probable He objects that the Pope nor his Legates did not preside in Photius's Council as if the Greeks had ever thought that necessary he makes no exceptions against any particulars in the Acts of the Synod as not authentick but would prove in general that there never was such a Synod because the Pope nor his Legates did not preside in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ib. col 127. for if they had argues he there would have been some remembrance of that Synod in the Latin Church whereas the Epistles and Commonitorium of John the Eighth shew that there was such a Synod and that his Legates did preside in it and Baronius proves that his Legates for their compliance were excommunicated at their return to Rome 3. Nor is it a Pretence of the Greeks onely that this styled the fourth Council of C.P. wherein Photius was condemned is vacated but the Epistles of Pope John the Eighth to this very purpose are cited by Ivo Carnutensis i Parti 4. cap. 76 77. in his Collection of Decrees The Constantinopolitan Synod which was made against Photius is to be rejected Constantinopolitanam Synodum eam quae contra Photium facta est non esse recipiendam Joannes VIII Patriarchae Photino Illam quae contra Photium facta est Constantinopolitanam Synodum irritam fecimus omnino delevimus tum propter alia tum quoniam Adrianus Papa non subscripsit in ea De eodem Joannes Apocrisiariis suis Dicetis quod illas Synodos quae contra Phorium sub Adriano Papa Romae vel Constantinopoli sunt facta cassamus de numero sanctarum Synodorum delemus John the Eighth to Photinus the Patriarch We have vacated and entirely abolished the Constantinopolitan Synod which was made against Photius as well for other reasons as because Pope Adrian did not subscribe in it Of the same thing John to his Apocrisiarii Ye shall say that we vacate and dash out of the number of the holy Synods all those Synods which were held against Photius under Pope Adrian at Rome or at Constantinople The same Authour in his Prologue or Preface quotes another of Pope John's Epistles at large written to the Eastern Churches wherein he tells them that they had been too hasty in restoring Photius without his knowledge but for all that he was well enough contented and brings several arguments to shew that Photius might be restored notwithstanding any sentence which had passed upon him He there compares Photius's cafe not with that of the Donatists but of St. Athanasius St. Cyril and Polichronius of St. Chrysostome and Flavianus and then concludes that if the Donatists who had been cast out of the Church by a General Council Nullâ—s excuset pro Synodis contra eum peractis nullus sanctorum Praedecessorum meorum Nicolai Adriani sententias contra eutn causetur De ipso enim
was afterwards improved into that which all Bishops c. take at their Consecration § IX 1. The fourth Council of Lateran under Innocent the Third An. MCCXV is reckoned the twelfth General Council in order by Bellarmin Possevin c. Cardinal Pole with his Synod at Lambeth owns it for General they frequently mention it and never but under the Title of General though they do not put it in the same rank among the General Councils they profess however to receive and embrace the Faith of the Church of Rome according to the Decrees of the General Council of Lateran under Innocent the Third v Decret 2. The Council of Constance * Session 39. requires all Popes to make profession of the Faith established in the VIII Sacred General Councils whereof this is set down for one and the Council of Trent x Session 24. cap. 5. it self calls this a General Council The Great General Council of Lateran y Session 14. cap. 5. and makes use of its authority again z Session 21. cap. 9. and which is yet more to the purpose a Council of English Bishops held at Oxford a Conc. Tom. 11. Part. 1. A. MCCXXII cap. 24 28 29 33. not above seven years after acknowledge the Authority of this Council of Lateran and several times quote its Decrees In short as this is placed by Bellarmin among those Councils which are received with full approbation beyond all dispute by the Church of Rome so he looks upon it as no less than Heresie to deny the Authority of it and therefore when he has produced the third Canon of this Council in defence of the Deposing Doctrine against Barclay he cries out with great zeal and vehemence Quid hic Barclaius diceret si haec non est Ecclesiae Catholicae vox ubi obsecro eam inveniemus si est ut verissimè est qui eam audire contemnit ut Barclaius fecit annon ut Ethnicus Publicanus nullo mode Christianus pius habendus erit What can Barclay say to this if this be not the voice of the Catholick Church where I pray shall we find it and if it is as questionless it is he that despises to hear it as Barclay has done is he not to be look'd upon as an Heathen-man and a Publican and by no means a Christian or a pious Man This Widrington b Discussio Discuss Part. 1. § 2. p. 28. complains of as intolerably insulting others may rather think he speaks as a Cardinal when he was managing the Popes cause so victoriously from so infallible evidence For such is the authority and esteem in the Church of Rome of this Council that it is usually called The Great Council of Lateran either from the great number of Bishops in it or from the great importance of the matters decided or both The number of Bishops was no less than CCCCXII or in Bellarmin's reckoning CCCCLXXIII and among these were the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem and the Delegates of the other two Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch LXXVII Primates and Metropolitans besides DCCC Abbats and Priors these were all there in person and proxies were sent innumerable The Emperour likewise of Constantinople the King of Sicily Emperour of the Romans Elect the Kings of England France Hungary Jerusalem Cyprus Arragon and other Princes and Cities sent their Embassadours hither so that never was there such a show perhaps in the world again 2. The matters Determined both of Faith and of Discipline were extraordinary and of the greatest importance The Doctrines of Faith defined were Transubstantiation c Cap. 1. the Articles concerning the Holy Trinity asserted and vindicated from the errour of Abbat Joachim and those errours condemned and the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son declared d Cap. 2. The Deposing Doctrine established e Cap. 3. The Church of Rome declared to be the Mother and Mistress of all Christians universorum Christi fidelium and to have by God's appointment the Dominion over all other Churches of ordinary Authority by her extraordinary Prerogative f Cap. 5. 3. The Decrees in points of Discipline are in their kind no less considerable against the Incontinency of the Clergy g Cap. 14. against their Drunkenness h Cap. 15. against the Negligence and Debauchery of Prelates i Cap. 17. that no Clergy-man should give Sentence in Capital Causes k Cap. 18. Auricular Confession enjoyned once every year l Cap. 21. That no Clergy-man should take an Oath of Allegeance to any secular Persons unless he held some temporal Estate of them m Cap. 43. That no Clergy-man should be obliged to pay Taxes n Cap. 46. The manner of proceedings in Excommunications regulated o Cap. 47. The Prohibition of Marriages restrained to the fourth degree p Cap. 50. Clandestine Marriages forbidden and that Children of Parents married within the degrees prohibited declared illegitimate q Cap. 51. Against Simony r Cap. 63. and many other things of like nature which are of the highest consequence and fall under daily practice 4. All this one would think were sufficient to put the Authority of the fourth Council of Lateran beyond all contradiction or debate for who can imagine that a Council celebrated with so much solemnity which decided Controversies of so mighty concernment in the Church and determined things of continual use among all sorts and Orders of Men should not immediately meet with the most entire submission and always retain an undoubted Authority and veneration Thus much would have been due if it had not been infallible but being infallible what regard must every Age and every Nation and every Writer at least every Traditionary Christian pay to it yet this very Council so famous and so renowned in its Members so extraordinary in its Determinations and Decrees lay dormant unregarded and unknown till the year MDXXXVII that is till above CCC years after it was held 'T is very surprising that neither Innocent himself nor his Nephew and next Successour but one Gregory the Ninth who published his Uncle's Decretal Epistles and these very Decrees which now pass for the Decrees of this Council among the rest should put this forth among the other General Councils 't is strange that no other Pope or Bishop or at least some Canonist or other learned man should ever think of it but 't is yet more strange that Merlin in his Councils printed but three years before the fourth Council of Lateran was published should omit this though he sets down the Councils of Constance and Basil But when this Council did come to light with what Credentials did it come what evidence does it bring for its Authority is it printed from some ancient Manuscripts in the Vatican it might then be wondred how it should lie so long concealed never published never quoted nor mentioned but 't is a much greater
tells l Ibid. p. 466. Panormitan That it was falsly asserted by Panormitan that they had more Bishops of their side Minùs etiam verè dictum à Panormitano plures habere Episcopos suarum partium cùm illi ipsi quos asseclas habet longè aliter inter privatos parietes cum familiaribus quà m in publico Sessionum Actionum Theatro loqui dicere soleant se libertate dicendae sententiae non pollere à principibus suis praepediri metu amittendorum Temporalium when even those who openly declare for them talk quite otherwise in private Houses amongst their Friends than when they speak in the Theatre of the Sessions and Actions of the Council and they used to say that they had not liberty to give their opinion and that they were kept in by their own Princes for fear of losing their Temporalities He means the Bishops of Italy and Arragon for all the rest were for the Decree of the three Verities m Sess 39. as they are termed of Catholick Faith whereby 't is pronounced Heresie to maintain the Pope's Authority above that of a General Council The Council of Basil proceed to the Election of a new Pope and make choice of Felix the Fifth though he soon after resigned upon the valuable consideration of being made Dean of the College of Cardinals and perpetual Legate of the Apostolick See for all Germany § 15. Council of Florence An. Dom. MCCCCXXXVIII Secundum Labbé 1. By this means Eugenius the Fourth was at liberty to call the Council of Florence and to carry all things at his pleasure in it Thither the Greeks are invited to enslave themselves to the Pope rather than to the Turk and by pawning their Consciences to save their Bodies and Estates The business had been in agitation under Martin the Fifth who sent his Nuncio to Constantinople to prepare matters and he bespeaks the Greek Emperour and the Patriarch in a very n Sanctissimus Beatissimus qui habet Coeleste arbitrium qui est Dominus in Terris Successor Petri Christus Domini Dominus Vniversi Regum Pater Orbis Lumen summus Pontifex Papa Martinus Divinâ Providentiâ Papa Quintus mandat mihi Magistro Antonio Massano c. Acta Conc. Senens ap Richer L. 3. p. 289. magnificent style The most Holy and Blessed who has the disposal of Heaven who is Lord on Earth the Successour of S. Peter the Christ of the Lord the Lord of the Universe the Father of Kings the Light of the World the Chief Priest P. Martin by Divine Providence the Fifth commands me Mr. Anthony Massanus c. This Nuncio when he has done his Preamble and wiped his mouth tells the Emperour that his Embassadours at Rome o Ibid. had desired an Union of the Greek and Latin Churches but the Emperour in return says that his Embassadours went beyond their Commission if ever they proposed a Union with the Roman Church in general terms but that which they had in command was onely thus much to procure a General Council after the order and manner of the seven Holy General Councils and then the Holy Ghost would confirm it and establish it into a peace In the time of Eugenius the Fourth the Greeks came p Hist Conc. Florent Concil Vol. 13. and were pressed by importunity and subtilty and wrought upon by convenient management to consent to more than ever they designed or than their Church would afterwards own Bessarion Archbishop of Nice and Isidore Archbishop of Thessalonica for their good services were created Cardinals but not a Greek would ever own this Council except those few that were present at it and subscribed it being over-ruled by more persuasive kind of Arguments than any Marcus Ephesius and his party could produce I shall enter into no long story of this Council 't is sufficient that it contradicts the Councils of Constance and Basil in the point of the Pope's Supremacy and that it was its main business and design to contradict them Bellarmin Possevin Binius Duval c. maintain that the Decrees of the Council of Constance and Basil are nulled by a contrary Decree at Florence though Bellarmin and Duvall as Richerius observes q Lib. 3. c. 7. § 4. retract what they have said and contradict themselves yet still they exclaim against all that adhere to the Decrees of these two Councils as Schismaticks and Hereticks though sometimes in a fit of good nature they would fain offer something in their excuse Duvall r Ibid. p. 639. makes no more account of the Council of Basil than of the second of Ephesus but Bellarmin * Vid. Bellarm de Concil lib. 2. c. 13 17. allows it to have been lawfull till the Deposition of Eugenius though he advised ſ Ibid. p. 669. that this Council should be left out of the Roman Edition as spurious 2. 'T is pretended of late that the Council of Florence does not set up the Pope above a General Council t Launoy Epist Part. 3. ad Thom. Rulland though the same Authour tells us that the Cardinal of Lorrain understood it otherwise in his Commonitorium to Pope Pius the Fourth v Id. apud F. Walsh ' s Letter to the Bishop of Lincoln p. 282. For the Cardinal in the name of the whole French Clergy alledges this as the reason why the Councils of Constance and Basil are received in France but that of Florence rejected as neither Legal nor General because in France 't is held that the Pope is subject to a General Council and those who teach otherwise are accounted Hereticks and he moreover affirms that the French would sooner lose their lives than depart from this Doctrine and admit of the Titles bestowed upon the Pope in the Council of Florence And this is enough to ruine for ever the credit of the Council of Florence with sober men whatever fine expositions may be now put upon it by some that the whole French Nation declared against it as neither Legal nor General § XVI The fifth Council of Lateran An. Dom. MDXII The second Council of Pisa MDXI. 1. The last Council of Lateran is yet rather more obnoxious than that of Florence For the second Council of Pisa was owned and desended as General by the French and the Sorbon deputed three of their Body * Richer Hist Con. Gen. Lib. 4. Part. 1. c. 2. p. 167. to write against Cajetan on the point viz. Almain Major and another whose Book Richerius saw in Manuscript besides the learned Discourse of Philippus Decius which Richerius gives at large This second Council held at Pisa was called by the Emperour and the King of France and by the Pope himself as far as the obligation of his most solemn Promise and Oath could contribute towards it but the Pope would be held by no such Ties The Council charge him with Perjury the Pope tells them they are a company of
Infallibility in the Pope and that in matters of Fact. This is the Dispute so hotly debated of late years between them and the Jansenists For the Pope having condemned five Propositions in a Posthumous Book of Jansenius entituled Augustinus Forms were drawn up to be subscribed under pain of Excommunication though the Propositions could no where be found in that Book But as the Flatterers of the Court of Rome first raised the Pope above a General Council to secure him against the Reformation in Capite Membris which the other Bishops have so often required so the Jesuites have extended his Infallibility yet farther even to matters of Fact and so whatever he determins must be right in all cases It was upon these grounds that Subscription was to be made to the five Propositions by the Seculars and by the Regulars of both Sexes and was enforced not onely by the Pope but by the Gallican Church Notwithstanding certain Divines and the Nuns of the Port Royal resused to make the Subscription enjoyned not that they made any scruple of the Doctrine it self which they were required to acknowledge but because the contrary to it was no where to be found in the Book condemned but the Pope they said had been imposed upon by those who pretended to have taken the Propositions out of that Book Hereupon arose a Controversie concerning the Infallibility of the Church and of the Pope the Jesuites maintaining that the Pope cannot be mistaken in a matter of Fact and that therefore the Propositions are in that Book whatever ordinary Readers may think of it his Holiness has determined so and he cannot be mistaken For they f Les Imaginaires les Visionnaires la Traitè de la foy humaine Octavo à Cologne 1683. p. 81 86 88. make no scruple to assert that the Pope is as infallible in matters of Fact as our Saviour himself that he saw with the eyes of the Church as they phrase it and discovered those Propositions by the illumination of the Holy Ghost This is but what the Jesuites maintained in that famous Thesis of Decemb. 12. MDCLXI in the College of Clermont as a Catholick Truth repugnant to the Greek Heresie concerning the Primacy of the Pope viz. That Jesus Christ hath given to all Popes whenever they shall speak è Cathedra the same infallibility himself had both in matters of Right and of Fact. The Nuns of the Port Royal and all others that refused to sign the Formulary wherein the five Propositions of Jansenius are condemned were used with great severity and the Archbishop of Paris would not be dissuaded from imposing the Subscription But however the Church of France might stand affected towards the Pope at that time and in that affair yet the opinion against the Pope's Infallibility is so generally maintained in that Church that it is almost peculiar to it and is termed g New Heresie of the Jesuites p. 79. by the Jesuites Sententia Parisiensis A.D. MDCLXXXII the French Clergy in a Synod held at Paris determined that a General Council is above the Pope according to the Decrees of the fourth and fifth Sessions of the Council of Constance Against this Determination Emanuel à Schelstrate the present Vatican Library-keeper wrote a Book printed at Antwerp An. Dom. MDCLXXXIII wherein he endeavours to shew from ancient Manuscripts that those Decrees of the Council of Constance which have passed so long upon the World for authentick and were so often approved and confirmed in the Council of Basil are notwithstanding false and he sticks not to affirm that they were partly falsified by the Council of Basil and partly obtruded upon the Council of Constance against the consent of a great number in it and in the absence of others and so have been imposed upon the Church ever since in so many Editions and by so many Licences and Approbations particularly by the Bull of Paul the Fifth before the Roman Edition of the Councils and had the good luck never to be discovered by any before himself when he now sets himself to oppose the Determination of the French Clergy 2. But M. Schelstrate is not the onely man that opposed the Gallican Church in this Controversie For George Szelepechemy Archbishop of Gran and Primate of Hungary put forth his Synodical Letter containing a Censure of the four Propositions in which h Vide Not as in Censur Hungaricam 4. proposition Cleri Gallicani apud Edmun Richer Vindicias Doctrin major Schol. Paris is this assertion Ad solam sedem Apostolicam divino immutabili privilegio spectat de controversiis Fidei judicare It onely belongs to the Apostolick See by a Divine immutable Privilege to judge of Controversies in the Faith. And he with his Bishops were so zealous in the defence of that Doctrine that they profess in the conclusion they would spend the last drop of their Bloud rather than depart in the least from it This Proposition Jan. 30. MDCLXXXIII the Parliament of Paris delivered to M. Edmund Pirot Syndick of the Faculty to be examined which when the Faculty had received from him on the first of February they chose certain of their body to study and consider the Point and then after due deliberation to give their Judgment upon it This they did March the first and asterwards for three months together in their several Assemblies which were no less than fourty five in number the Question was propounded to be disputed upon and when they had by this means throughly debated and concluded the Controversie they declared That the Proposition as it excludes Bishops and General Councils from that Authority which they have immediately from Christ in judging in matters of Faith is rash erroneous contrary to the practice of the Church and to the Word of God as well as to the constant Doctrine of the Faculty This answer the Faculty of the Sorbon gave to the question May the eighteenth and then reviewing it the day following confirmed it moreover from the several Censures which had been formerly passed by their Body in this and former Ages upon such Tenets Thus that Reverend and Learned Society i Censura sacrae Facultatis Theolog. Paris ad dandum Senatui responsum data in propositionem de qua ille quaesierat quid ipsa sentiret Parisiis 1683. made the most deliberate and solemn determination that could be possibly made in any case But the controversie would not end here for another Authour under the name of Eugenius Lombardus took the Propositions into Examination MDCLXXXV and in contradiction to them asserts that the Pope has Authority to depose Kings that he is above a General Council that he is Infallible when he determines è Cathedra that he can dispense with Oaths and Vows made to God Almighty And the same year M. Maimbourg answered M. Schclstrate but Schelstrate replyed the year following and so the dispute is still depending unless we can suppose the desence of
distinguish betwixt Latria and Doulia as Bellarmin himself and then proves that neither of them may be given to Images That the Council of Frankford could be ignorant of the Doctrine established at Nice can seem probable to no man who considers that the Pope had caused the Canons of Nice to be translated into Latin that his Legates were present at Frankford and that they refused to consent to the Decree of that Council as Bellarmin and Baronius affirm To imply that the Bishops at Frankford did not understand Greek might pass well enough from Sirmondus but might have been spared by men of no greater accuracy in that Tongue than the two Cardinals if not one among them all were skilled in the Greek yet why could they not read the Translation why could they not consult the Legates The Cardinals perhaps might be sensible enough how liable men are to mistakes for want of a little Greek and Anastasius a Praefat. in septim Synod Concil Tom. 7. Col. 29. says the Translation was very perplext and hardly intelligible but I can never be persuaded that the Legates would stand by and deny their consent and yet not endeavour to undeceive the Council and at least advise them to send to Rome for Instructors Pope Adrian wrote himself in defence of the Synod of Nice which he had confirmed and so must be allowed to understand it and Greek could then be no very strange Language at Rome nor consequently at Frankford neither among three hundred Bishops gathered together from all parts of the West when the Pope had so lately renounced his Allegiance to the Greek Emperour and yet still a correspondence was held between Rome and C. P. by Adrian with Constantine and Irene and Tarasius b Concil Tom. 7. as appears by their Letters 5. But 't is in vain to argue from probabilities if the Canon it self as is pretended be grounded upon a mistake Allata est in medium quaestio de novâ Graecorum Synodo quam de adorandis Imaginibus Constantinopoli fecerunt in quâ scriptum habebatur ut qui imaginibus sanctorum ita ut Deifici Trinitati servitium aut adorationem non impenderet anathema judicaretur qui supra sanctissimi Patres nostri omnimodis orationem aut servitutem eis impendere renuentes contempserunt atque consentientes condemnaverunt The question about the new Greek Synods held at C. P. about Worshipping of Images was then debated therein it was written that whosoever should not pay that Service or Adoration to the Images of the Saints which he would pay to the B. Trinity should be anathematized whereupon our Holy Fathers by all means refusing to pray to them or pay them service despised and unanimously condemned it Here is first C. P. mistaken for Nice and then it is said that the same Worship is under Anathema commanded to be given to Images which is given to the blessed Trinity Sirmondus c Not. in Concil Francoford Conc. vol. 7. Col. 1066. is so ingenuous as to propose a way of reconciling the first mistake of C. P. for Nice by supposing that the Synod is said to have been at C. P. not that it was held in that City but because it was in the Constantinopolitane Empire and at the command of the Greek Emperour Constantine and his Mother Irene This I must confess seems to me strained but it were yet a grearer force upon the imagination to be told that Charles the Great with three hundred Bishops met together to condemn the Worship of Images decreed in a General Council about seven years before should yet not be certified where this Decree was made nor be able to distinguish Nice from C. P. and that the same Pope should send his Legates to both Synods and yet give them no better instructions than to suffer them to be ignorant in so late a matter of Fact which must be known all over Europe For when the Worship of Images which had undergone so much debate and had been the cause of so great Troubles and occasioned the calling divers Councils but had never the good luck to succeed was at last in a General Council enjoyned under Anathema and when the Popes Legates at their coming from the Council brought a Copy of it subscribed by Constantine and Irene which the same Pope that now sent his Legates to Frankford commanded to be translated into Latin and placed in his Library when the Pope himself had answered the objections propos'd by the Emperour against this very Council of Nice who can conceive that the whole Transaction should not be noised abroad and talked of in all places and among all persons and in all its circumstances so exactly known that it would have been impossible to have picked out three hundred men of any tolerable rank and conversation who could be ignorant that the General Council of Nice had at length decided the vexatious controversie about Images If its judgment had been acquiesced in as infallible or but of sufficient Authority to enforce any submission upon the conscience it certainly had been taken more notice of than to be unknown to any man of ordinary observation in its less material circumstances of time and place and number of Bishops the Doctrine however had been taught and practised every where among all sorts of People or if it had been rejected by some yet these would have found themselves obliged to give an account why they rejected it and so to enquire thorowly into it but to suppose so many Western Bishops with the Pope's Legates among the rest and the Emperour himself in the midst of them so grosly and even stupidly ignorant as to know neither the Doctrine it self nor the place where the Synod was held but seven years before is to cast too great a blemish upon the Western Church and would be apt to make men suspect that the Western Clergy at that time could make no pretence to the least share of infallibility either in a Council or out of it The Emperour's Book mentions the Greek Council as held in Bithynia and it were extreme weakness to imagine that Charles the Great after he had been at the pains to write a Book upon the subject or had ordered one to be written had not intelligence good enough to set the Synod right in the circumstance of place at least if any will be so free with him as to say he was rash enough to oppose he knew not what 6. But to free that wise and great Emperour and the whole Western Church from so stupid an absurdity It can be no wonder that the Decree concerning Image-worship should be related in the Council of Frankford as made at C. P. to him who remembers that the first meeting of the Nicene Fathers was at C. P. and that there first they began to Anathematize those who were against the worship of Images but finding C. P. too hot for them were forced to remove to Nice And this may give a
that he had communicated with Photius and had deposed Ignatius but not a Syllable of any Bribe mentioned Rhadoaldus y Epist 7. Col. 289. 10. Col. 355. the other Legate stood out still and would not confess nor would by any means be persuaded to abide his Tryal but fled for it notwithstanding all the kind words and promises of fair dealing the Pope could give him though in the thirteenth Epistle they are said both to confess the Fact z Col. 381. and afterwards Rhadoaldus flies So little is there to be relied upon in the Invectives against Photius This is certain not a Act. 1 2 3. a Bishop was suffered to sit in the Council called to depose him till he had first subscribed a Writing sent thither from the Pope wherein they denounced Anathema to Photius and condemned his Councils and owned those against him then it can be no wonder if they libel him in the most bitter manner calling him by all the ill names they could think of and treat him in such Terms as could not become them to use whatever he might deserve that nothing might be wanting to the keenness of their malice they made Iambicks upon him which Anastasius has taken care to translate but the Greeks were ashamed of them for their Copy tells us they were ill Verses and so it has omitted them but Anastasius b Act. 7. in sin had no such nice Stomach he knew no distinction of good or bad so they were but against Photius At the end of the ninth Action the Greeks it seems were not so witty in their own malice but Anastasius has supplyed that defect and added some Rhimes of his own I mention this the rather for the honour and antiquity of this way of confutation because a late Authour has turned all the Papists Arguments and all their Railery too into Rhime In Conclusion c Nicetas in vita Ignat. ap Labbé Conc. Tom. 8. the Fathers subscribe his Deposition not with Ink but with Wine consecrated in the Sacrament which is a surer sign of the hatred they bare to Photius than of their belief of Transubstantiation for what malice could transport men to so extravagant Impiety as to profane our Lord 's own bloud to such a use What the Proceedings of this Council were may be sufficiently understood from this which has been but intimated out of it and I need not refer to the account Photius gives but to the Acts themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Phot. Epist 118. And if hitherto they were not daring enough yet it was an unexampled thing to change the Ambassadours and Servants of impious Saracens into High-Priests and to give them the precedency of Patriarchs and to set them up as Heads of their wonderfull Assembly to observe their heat and fury against him He complains of great terrour and violence used in the Synod and that certain Embassadours from the Saracens were received there and took their places as Patriarchs of the East And there is still exstant d Philippi Cyprii Chron. Eccles Graec. cum Com. Henr. Hilarii p. 137. an Epistle of Elias Patriarch of Jerusalem which confirms the Truth of what Photius says in this matter He makes frequent Complaints in his Epistles of the hardships and miseries which himself and his Party endured and declares how unwillingly he entred upon the Patriarchate and professes that if it had been in his own Power he would sooner have chosen to dye than to venture on so high and difficult a station and was now ready to resign and he makes these complaints not to any friend at a distance from Court or who could be a stranger to his Affairs but to Bardas the man who is said to have conspired with him to get Ignatius deposed if that were true what need could he have to make such pressing solicitations to one so deeply engaged in his Interest and how ridiculous would such Protestations be could he be so forsaken of all modesty and common sense as to tell the very man e Epist 3. 6. who contrived the whole business with him how great a force and reluctancy he had upon himself in consenting to be made Patriarch Theophanes f Epist 83. his Deacon and Prothonotary was put to the Torture that by any means he might be compelled to accuse Photius which he afterwards lamented and besought his pardon Photius g Epist 174. gives a large description of his miseries in an Epistle which he wrote to the Bishops while he was in Banishment And all this he suffered for his Loyalty h Zonar Annal Leo Grammat Chronograph to his Prince for he was deposed because he refused to receive Basilius to Communion after he had murthered Michael the Emperour Whoever considers his unshaken Loyalty and reads his Writings will not easily believe that he could be so notorious a Villain as he is represented but if so much wickedness could meet in one man in one Bishop yet how improbable is it that the whole Greek Church should respect and reverence this Bishop as a Saint or that Pope John the Eighth after his cause had been so narrowly examined and his Enemies had said and done their utmost should yet think him a man of an orthodox Faith and an unblameable Life and compare him to St. Athanasius St. Cyrill and St. Chrysostome But he had discovered that his Predecessours had been imposed upon or that something more severe must be said of them and so are all those imposed upon or would impose upon others who give us so monstrous a Character of so excellent a Man. He is charged with having corrupted the Acts of the Councils which restored him and particularly those passages which import that this fourth Council of C. P. was cancelled by that But is it a sure proof of Corruption and Forgery if Copies differ as the Greek and Latin Copies often do The next Question will be where the Forgery lies and who is to be taxed with it To go no farther the Version of Anastasius and the Greek Original of this fourth Council of C. P. differ very much for besides other Variations there are twenty seven Canons in the Latin and but fourteen in the Greek yet both of them must pass for authentick enough though the seventeenth of the additional Canons will give the French some pains to reconcile it to the practice of their Church For it appoints that all Metropolitans shall meet in Council at the summons of their Patriarch notwithstanding any prohibition from the secular Magistrate and that Princes should not be present in any but General Councils both which are contrary to the Practice of the French Church For their Princes are wont to be present in their National and Provincial Synods and their Bishops if they be detained by command from the King think that a sufficient excuse for absenting themselves from any Synod their Patriarch shall call them to Two eminent
Prelates of that Church de Marca and Bosquet have endeavoured to explain this Canon so as to justifie their own Doctrine and Practice but Christianus Lupus was so little satisfied with the attempt that he exclaimes against it as becoming rather Eusebius of Nicomedia or Acacius of Caesarea than Bishops of the Gallican Church and whereas they alledge the Authority of Hincmare of Rhemes he plainly says that they might as well have alledged Luther's testimony against the Council of Trent Natalis Alex. interposes to mediate the business and would willingly make up the Debate with what success let Lupus's Party judge But still these Canons must be all acknowledged authentick though they are not in the Greek but if the Greek differ from the Latin in any thing material that goes in the least against the Church of Rome loud Outcries are presently made of Falshood and Forgery For the Charge here seems to lye not against Photius alone but against all the Greeks in general even from the second to the eighth General Council So Anastasius i Praef. in Conc. C.P. IV. col 972. complains that they had falsified the second the third the fourth the sixth the seventh General Councils and he suspects that they might use the same fraud as to the eighth Nay they did so The sly Greeks k Anastas not ad Action 1. col 989. stole away the Subscriptions which they had made in the beginning of this Council and though they restored them after they were discovered Omne quod ad laudem Serenissimi nostri Caesaris sancctissimus Dominus Hadrianus in Epistola sui decessoris Arsenlo Episcopo imminente adjecerat c. Guilielmus quidam alter Bibliothecarius continuator Anastasii in Adrian II. p. 389. yet at the end of the Council they had shewn them such another trick if Anastasius had not been too cunning for them They had already taken out some expressions which Adrian the Second foisted into an Epistle of his Predecessour and so they had robbed the Western Emperour of all the fine things which the present Pope had made his Predecessour say of him but Anastasius who with another as cunning as himself by great Providence as 't was thought was there found out the wrong done the Emperour and great Clamours were raised about it nor would the Legates at last subscribe otherwise than conditionally Vsque ad voluntatem ejusdem eximii Praesulis l Anastasii Continuat in Adrian II. p. 339. As far as it was the desire of that worthy Prelate which may convince us what a noise has used to be made of Forgery against the Greeks of whatever Party for Basilius and Ignatius we see are not exempted the whole Greek Church of all Ages is accused of these fraudulent Practices which assures us that there have been such Practices on one side and which side the fraud lyes may easily be determined if we consider that the passages pretended to have been forged were received by all other Churches and are not now denyed to be genuine by the most learned men in the Church of Rome as has been shewn T is no new thing to hear of Complaints of Forgery when any thing goes against the Church of Rome and Photius is not the first man that has been blackned to make the Charge find a more easie belief 6. Well! But Photius has before been guilty of making alterations in an Epist of Pope Nicholas m Epist 6 10. as that Pope complains Very likely and that he might be sure not to be discovered it was sent n Ibid. back again falsified to the Pope with the Acts of Photius's Council This is such an odd kind of Cheat that it lays one thing to his charge which his worst enemies never durst brand him with and is so great an Instance of Folly that it ruines all the rest of the Character they have been pleased to bestow upon him for it is acknowledged on all hands that he was peculiarly eminent for his Learning and for that which his Enemies call subtilty and his Friends wisedom That John the eighth did consent that Photius should be Patriarch is not denyed nor that he sent his Legates with Instructions for that purpose as both his Epistles and his Commonitorium certifie So far no Forgery is pretended but they say John never consented to the abrogating of the fourth Council of C. P. and that if the Legates consented to any such thing they went beyond their Commission but they rather incline to think that though the Legates were guilty of too much connivance and so betrayed the Trust reposed in them yet the Acts of the Council that restored Photius are falsified as the Epistles of John the eighth are in all those passages which speak any thing in derogation to this fourth Council of C. P. 7. But first it is certain that the restoring of Photius and the owning him not onely for a Patriarch but even for a Bishop onely is so far a derogation to this Council which fourth Canon decrees that Photius is no Bishop and pronounceth all his Episcopal Acts void so that the Council which afterwards by the consent and approbation of John the eighth acknowledges Photius for a Bishop and a Patriarch too does most certainly declare this whole Canon null and bids fair towards the justifying all that is pretended to be forged in John's Epistles I cannot think the Alterations in these Epist by whomsoever they were made are so ancient as Photius's time perhaps they may be much later than Ivo Carnutensis but if they be of so ancient date and if it be true that this Pope afterwards recalled his approbation and renounced communion with Photius and anathematized him and his own Legates for no other reason but because he was laugh'd at for a Tame-man o Bin. Not. in vit Joh. Octavi Andr. Schot Praef. ad Photii Bibliothecam and in mockery called a Woman Pope Pope Joan instead of Pope John if he was so weak and unconstant so soon to contradict his own Epistles and his Commonitorium which are confessed to have been sent on purpose to restore Photius for no other reason but because he was upbraided with casting such a reflexion upon his two Predecessours Nicholas the First and Adrian the Second the sworn Enemies of Photius he might then be willing to have his Epistles so altered as to make him most consistent with his Predecessours and with himself But much more would he be inclined to be consenting to such an alteration if there were other motives more forcible for the Truth is Photius was the great Champion for the Liberties of the Greek Church and therefore he must be sure to enjoy no favour from the Church of Rome which began to be as angry with Ignatius when he shewed himself in the same cause For the first breach between the Greek and Latin Churches was occasioned by contentions about Jurisdiction though afterwards it spread it self farther
declares that the Council of Lyons was so little considered that in the famous contest between Philip the Fair and Boniface the Eighth the King founded his pretensions on the practice of St. Lewis and not on the Decree of that Council However this Council was General enough to depose the Emperour Frederick the Second and to be appealed to as a sufficient warrant for the deposing of Emperours ever since But the English could not get Justice done them upon Martin the Pope's Legate though they often and earnestly demanded it in the name of the whole Nation they remonstrated several times and made divers and repeated Complaints of the great Extorsions that had been made upon them but were sent away without Redress they complained that there was an infinite number of Italians in England who exhausted all the Revenues of the Church but performed nothing at all of the Duties required that besides Subsidies and other ways the bare Revenue paid yearly out of this Kingdom to Italians amounted to above threescore thousand Marks which was more than the King's Revenue But all they could say availed nothing This General Council m Con. Tom. â—â— part 1. was called for deposing Kings not for redressing Grievances and for the Glory of Popes and the Terrour of all succeeding Emperours To explain the Story of this Council Sixtus Quintus n Angelus Roccha Bibliothec Vatican p. 208. placed the following Inscription in the Vatican Innocentio Quarto Pont. Max. Imp. Fredericus Secundus hostis Ecclesiae declaratur Imperióque privatur Frederick the Second Emperour is declared an Enemy to the Church and deprived of his Empire by Innocent the Fourth Pope And while the Emperour was thus depressed the same Council advanced the Cardinals and set them on Horse-back in Red Hats and Purple Robes § XI The second Council of Lyons A. D. MCCLXXIV The History of the second Council of Lyons is in short thus Michael Paleologus o Pachymeres Fragm à Dionys Petavio edit p. 330. after he had put out the Eyes of the young Emperour Johannes Lascaris whose Guardian he was and was excommunicated by Arsenius the Patriarch and by this means became odious to all mankind and was in imminent danger from Charles King of Sicily who was preparing to recover C. P. lately regained by Michael Michael being in these circumstances bethought himself of recalling the two Churches as a proper expedient to settle himself in his new gotten Dominions but his Patriarch Joseph was utterly averse to any such proposal and had engaged himself by an Oath never to agree to any Union with the Latin Church upon the Terms insisted on him therefore Michael forces to resign and hide himself in a Monastery but upon condition of resuming his place again if this business could not be effected with the * Pachym p. 335. Latins the rest of the Clergy he proceeds p Pp. 345 347. with in a powerfull way of Conviction by Punishment Bonorum videlicet Publicationibus Relegationibus Carceribus Excaecationibus Plagis Mutilationibus id genus aliis Poenis Angelus Roc. Biblioth Vatican ex Niceph Greg. lib. 5. in teterrimos carceres conjectus fuit Beccus ib. ex eod Imprisonment and Torments Beccus the Chartophylax a man of a ready wit and q P. 329. a fluent tongue not without much difficulty and hard usage is at last in Prison persuaded to apply himself to the study of certain Books very edifying for the purpose and so is converted to the Emperour's party and argues the point against all Opposers In the r Ib. p. 334. mean time Theophanes Bishop of Nice and Germanus once Patriarch of C. P. a known Favourite of the Emperour 's with three of the Principal Officers at Court are sent to Lyons where in a short time all is Å¿ Ib. p. 357. concluded with Gregory the Tenth and the Pope's utmost desire fulfilled and Beccus is made Patriarch for his pains as soon as they came home But at their return these men were the common object of hatred to their Countreymen t Con. Tom. 11. part 1. p. 996. and whatever Promises and Protestations they had made in the Council they soon forgot them all whereupon Pope Martin excommunicates Michael who was most of all detested on both sides and after about seven years spent in a troublesome Reign died unlamented and was not allowed the most ordinary Rites of Burial by his own Son. § XII Council of Vienne A. D. MCCCXI After a Vacancy of the Popedom for about eleven months Philip the Fair had procured Clement the Fifth to be chosen Pope but did before oblige him by Oath to certain Conditions which being drawn up under six Heads were agreed upon and sworn to one of which was to absolve Philip from the Censures of his Predecessour Boniface the Eighth another that he should brand the memory of Boniface with Anathema for the Crimes charged upon him which were no less than Heresie Schism and Perjury The first Clement readily performed but stuck at the second and at once both to avoid the Odium of the thing and to put a better colour on those Crimes in himself which he was required to condemn in Boniface he was advised to call a Council he did so at Vienne in which he found an easie expedient to acquit Boniface from the Crimes objected and himself from the performance of his Oath This was the ground v Vercerius de rebus gestis Hen. Septimi p. 4. citatur à Binâ—o in notis ad Concilium and occasion of the calling this Council But since they were met the better 't is likely to amuse the King and that their onely business might not appear to be to delude him they proceed to condemn the Biguardi and Beguinae and certain Hereticks of those times and for the abominable Enormities * Conc. Tom. 11. part 2. committed by the Knights Templers they dissolve that Order and settle their Endowments upon the Knights Hospitalers of Jerusalem The Feast of Corpus Christi was likewise in this Council confirmed and the Procession on that day instituted and the Study of the Eastern Languages encouraged As for the Clementine x Prooem ad Clement Constitut Constitutions most of them were made before or after the Council and published by Clement's Successour John the Twenty second But one y Conc. Afric Art. 6. Constitution had been worth at least four Books of the Five viz. ut primae sedis Episcopus Princeps Sacerdotum vel universalis Ecclesiae non appelletur that the Bishop of the principal Church should not be called Prince of the Priests or of the Universal Church as it had been formerly determined in a Council at Carthage and was now proposed among other particulars to this Council by Durandus in a Treatise z Tit. 34. p. 130. concerning the manner of holding General Councils published by him at the Command of Clement the Fifth and
every one of them ADDENDA Page 10. line 14. before Cardinal Contarenus add And as the form of the Profession of Faith in the Council of Constance Session 39. mentions but eleven General Councils in all so it gives higher respect to the first eight than to the rest and takes no notice of any more than one of Lateran and one of Lyons Ego N. electus in Papam omnipotenti Deo cujus Ecclesiam suo praesidio regendam suscipio beato Petro Apostolorum Principi corde ore profiteer quam diu in hac fragili vita constitutus fuero me firmiter credere tenere sanctam fidem Catholicam secundum Traditiones Apostolorum aliorum sanctorum Patrum maximè autem sanctorum octo Conciliorum generalium viz. primi Nicaeni secundi Constantinopolitani tertii Ephesini quarti Calchedonensis quinti sexti Constantinopolitanorum septimi item Nicaeni octavi quoque Constantinopolitani necnon Lateranensis Lugdunensis Viennensis Generalium etiam Conciliorum Et illam fidem usque ad unum apicem c. Page 36. line 15. after none of the three add and at the end of the Fourth Lateran Caranza puts Explicit Concilium Lateranense primum Page 42. line 10. leave out from except the forty sixth to Churches or Churchmen line 17. in the room therof add though it is not probable that that Council should be quoted at large under the name of the General Council of the Lateran without some particular note of distinction either of the Popes name under whom it was called or of the third Lateran Council for this is the usual way in Citations and had been necessary here to distinguish it from the other two Lateran Councils but if we suppose these Canons drawn up by Innocent the Third after the Dissolution of the Council there could be no need of particularizing the Council which had been so lately held by himself and he could be reasonably understood to mean no other than his own Council unless he had specified it But farther yet c. Page 66. lin ult But Mr. Schelstrate has one Argument which indeed is extraordinary in that it makes a remarkable discovery of the Artifices of the Court of Rome for he assured the same Person that at the very same time in which the necessity of their Affairs obliged P. Martin to confirm the Decrees of the Council of Basil he contrived a secret Bull which in another Age might be made use of to weaken the Authority of the general Confirmation and withall Mr. Schelstrate promised him a sight of the original of this Bull. Page 50. lin 27. after Bishop of Rome add Though indeed he did revoke it as to its Exercise in the Kingdom of France by declaring that the Privileges of the Gallican Church were no ways infringed by it Inter Extravag cap. Meruit tit de Privilegiis CORRIGENDA Pag. 3. lin 3. for before Labbé and the Acts of the second Council are omitted by him too reade before Binius and the Acts of the second Council of Pisa are omitted by Labbé too p. 4. l. 5. marg for c. 6. r. c. 7. p. 669. p. 6. l. 2. Buxhornius r. Boochornius p. 10. l. 35. the quotation of Launoy should be set against Abraham Cretensis p. 12. l. 29. r. make them so these p. 15. l. 31. r. young son Constantine p. 18. l. 12. r. appear p. 20. l. 10. r. Deificae p. 27. l. 14. dele p. 29. l. 9. r. why he ought p. 30. l. 14. dele own p. 48. l. 18. r. Emperours to explain ibid. l. 34. for recalling r. reconciling p. 50. l. 26. for accessory r. necessary p. 52. l. 11. marg r. cap. 3. p. 54. l. 38. marg r. cap. 4. p. 62. l. 14. for Church r. Council p. 68. l. 24. almost r. at the most THE END