and how the Forgeries are by him confirmed He hath the 〈◊〉 of Atticus and 〈◊〉 by which Pope Zozimus was convicted of Forgery in the sixth Council of Carthage Cap. 11. Of Nicolinus his Tomes and their Contents for the first 〈◊〉 years How full of Forgeries His Testimony concerning the sixth Council of Carthage with his way of desending the Popes Forgery therein Cap. 12. Nicolinus his Fpisile to Pope Sixtus V. His contempt of the Fathers He beginneth to confess the Epistle of Melchiadcs to be naught He overthroweth the Legend about Constantines Donation Cap. 13. The Epistle of Pope Damasus to Aurelius Archbishop of Carthage commanding the Decretals of the Roman Bishops to be preached and published and Fathering those Forgeries on the H. Ghost Cap. 14. Counterfeit Canons made in the Apostles names defended by Binius A Glympse of his Pretences Sophistries and Contradictions A forged Council of the Apostles concerning Images defended by Binius and Turrian Cap. 15. A Book called the Pontifical falsly fathered upon Damasus an Ancient Bishop of Rome How the most Learned of the Popish Collectors use it as the Text on which they Comment in their voluminous Books yet confess it to be a Forgery full of lyes and contradictions Cap. 16 Of the Decretal Epistles forged in the Names of Holy Martyrs and Bishops of Rome for many hundred years together The first was sent from S. Clement by S. Peters Order to S James as they pretend Bishop of Jerusalem seven years at least and by the truest account more than seven and twenty years after he was in his Grave S. Clements Recognitions a cónfessed Forgery which detecteth the first Epistle of S. Clement to be a real fraud Cap. 17. Of Higinus and Pius A notable Forgery in the name of Hermes Where you have the Testimony of an Angel concerning the Celebration of Easter never cited while the matter was in controversie Cap. 18 A Letter Eathered on Cornelius Bishop of Rome concerning the removal of the Apostles Bones about the year 2 4. It gives Evidence to the Antiquity of many Popish Doctrines but is it self a Forgery Cap. 9. The ridiculous Forgery of the Council of Sinuessa put into the Roman Martyrologies How the City and the Name of it was consumed no man can tell when by an Earthquake c. Cap. 20. Divers things premised in order first to the Establishment and then to the Refutation of Constantines Donation the first by Binius the latter by the Author The Forgeries of 〈◊〉 Pope Eusebius and Binius together opened Cap. 21. The counterfeit Edict of our Lord Constantine the Emperour wherein the Western Empire was given to the Bishop of Rome Cap. 22. The Donation of Constantine proved to be a Forgery by Binius himself He confesseth the Acts of Pope Sylvester which he before had cited for good to be Forged Cap. 23. Pope Melchiades Epistle counterfeited Isidore Mercator the Great Seducer of all the Roman Collectors confessed to be a Forger The Council of Laodicea corrupted by the fraud of the Papists Cap. 21. Threescore Canons put into the Nicene Council after Finis by the care and Learning of Alphonsus Fisanus Epistles counterfeited in the name of Sylvester and that Council A Roman Council under Pope Sylvester wholly counterfeited Spurious Letters Father'd on Pope Mark Athanasius and the Bishops of Egypt to defend the Forgeries that were lately added to the Nicene Council Appendix Cardinal Baronius his Grave Censure and Reproof of the Forgeries His fear that they will prove destractive and pernicious to the See of Rome A TRUE ACCOUNT OF FALSE RECORDS Discovering THE FORGERIES OR Counterfeit-Antiquities OF THE CHURCH of ROME CAP. I. Of the Nature Degrees and Kinds of Forgery THe Sin of Forgery is fitter to be ranked with Adultery Theft Perjury and Murder than to be committed by Priests and Prelates One Act of it is a Crime to be punished by the Judges what then is a whole Life spent in many various and enormous Offences of that nature If a Beggar forge but a Pass or a Petition putting the Hands and Seals of two Justices of the Peace to it he is whipt or clapt into the Pillory or marked for a Rogue though he doth it only to satisfie his Hunger If a Lease a Bond a Will or a Deed of Gift be razed or interlined by Craft it passeth for a Cheat but if the whole be counterfeited the Crime is the greater If an Instrument be forged in the Kings Name or his Seal counterfeited and put to any Patent without his privity and consent it is High Treason If any Records of Antiquity be defaced or wilfully corrupted relating to the benefit of men it is like the Crying Sin of removing thy Neighbours Land-mark which Solomon censures in the Proverbs But if those Records appertain to the Right of Nations the Peace of Mankind or the Publick Welfare of the World the Sin is of more mysterious and deeper nature If Counterfeits be shufled in among good Records to the disorder and confusion of the Authentick and a Plea maintained by them which without those Counterfeits would fall to the ground upon the deposition of False Witnesses Theft and Perjury are effectually couched together with Lying in the Cheat. If the Records so counterfeited concern the Church either in her Customs or Laws her Lands or the limits of her Jurisdiction the Order of her Priests or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Affair besides other sins contained in it there is superadded the Sin of Sacriledge The highest degree of Forgery is that of altering the Holy Scriptures because the Majesty offended being Infinite as well as the Concernment the Crime is the more heincus The highest next under that is to counterfeit Rules in the Names of the Apostles Oecumenical Councils most glorious Martyrs and Primitive Fathers that is to make Canons letters Books and Decrees in their Names of which they were not the Authors If the Church of Rome be guilty of this Crime her Antiquity and Tradition the two great Pillars upon which she standeth are very rotten and will moulder into nothing If Money be spent in promoting the Forgery or any thing given directly or indirectly to its Fautors and Abettors in order to the Usurpation of any Spiritual Priviledge or Power he that doth it is guilty of Simony And in many cases Simony Lying and Sacriledge are blended together Finally If they that make the Forgeries ather them upon GOD or upon the Holy Ghost the Sin of Blasphemy is added to Forgery for it maketh God the Father of Lies and being done maliciously it draweth near to the unpardonable sin That some Popes have been guilty of Simony cannot be doubted by them that are any thing versed in Church Antiquty Hart in his Conference with Reynolds 〈◊〉 out of Dr. Genebrard that the Popes for the space of seven score years and ten almost from John VIII to Leo IX about fifty Popes did revolt wholly from the vertue of their Ancestors
Bishop usurped an Authority which neither Scripture nor Canon gave unto him It is recorded also that they sometimes acquitted Malefactors without hearing Witnesses and sent Orders for the Restauration of those who made such irregular flights into the Provinces of other Patriarchs that were Subject indeed to the Roman Empire but not within the Province of the Roman Patriarch Nay when those Orders were rejected if some of their own Collectors may be believed the Roman Bishops through favour of the Empire got Magistrates and Souldiers to see them executed by Plain force which grew chiefly scandalous in the times of Zozimus and Boniface of which you may read the three last and best Collections of the Councils set forth by the Papists Binius 〈◊〉 abbè and the Collectio Regia unanimously consenting in their Notes on the sixth Council of Carthage And that this was the cause of calling that Council they confess in like manner For to stop these intolerable Incroachments and to suppress the growth of an Aspiring Tyranny this seasonable Council was called at Carthage consisting of 〈◊〉 Bishops among whom S. Augustine was one present in particular To this Council Zozimus the Roman Patriarch sent three persons one of which was Faustinus an Italian Bishop to plead his Cause with two Canons fathered upon the Nicene Council designing thereby to justifie his Power of receiving Appeals both from Bishops and Priests but by the care and wisdom of that Council they were detected and confounded the Fraud being made a Spectacle to the whole world For first the Copy which Caecilianus Archbishop of Carthage brought from Nice he being himself one of the Fathers in that Council was orderly produced and the two Canons which the Roman Bishop sent were not there Next because it might be pleaded upon the difference of the Copies that the Copy of Carthage must give place to that of Rome Rome being the greater See they sent Messengers to the Patriarch of Alexandria to the Patriarch of Antioch and to the Patriarch of Constantinople and admonished the Bishop of Rome to do so too that he might see sound and fair dealing desiring the Records of the Nicene Council from all the principal parts of the world from the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria they received Authentick Copies attested with their several known Authorities which agreed exactly with the Copy at Carthage but disagreed with that of Rome the Extract produced out of it by the Name of a Commonitorium being every word apparently forged Upon this the Bishop of Rome was condemned his Arrogance and Usurpation suppressed by Canons and his Pride chastised by Letters the Letters and Canons being yet extant This was done about the year 420. Zozimus dying Boniface and Celestine successively take up the Quarrel without any Dissent appearing in the Roman Clergy nay rather all the Interest of that Chair was imployed to uphold the Forgery whereby it is evident that it was not a Personal Act but the guilt and business of the Church of Rome as appeareth further by all their Successors persisting in the Quarrel by the multitude of her Members defending it and the Forgery both and by all the Popish Collectors conspiring together to maintain the Spurious and Adulterate Canons Among other things which the Fathers wrote out of this Sixth Council of Carthage to Pope Celestine they oppose the true Canons of the Nicene Council against the false ones noting that which is alone sufficient to overthrow the Forgery that these two Popish Canons were really contrary to the Canons and Decrees of the Nicene Council For desiring him no more so easily to admit Appeals nor to receive into Communion those that were Excommunicated in other Churches they tell him he might easily find this matter defined in the Nicene Council for if it seemed fit to be observed in the inferiour Clergy and Lay-men much more in Bishops They tell him that he should chastise and punish such impudent Flights as became him As also that the Canons of the Nicene Council had most openly committed both the inferiour Clergy and Bishops themselves to their own Metropolitans wisely and justly providing that all businesses whatsoever should be determined in the places where they arose Nisi fortè est Aliquis c. unless perhaps there be some one who will say that God is able to give Justice of Judgment to one be he who he will but denies it to innumerable Priests assembled in a Council Which was in those days held so absurd and monstrous a thing to conceive that however the case is altered since they thought no man impudent enough to affirm it In these words they cut the Popes Arrogance sufficiently for that he being but One was so highly conceited of himself at least so behaved himself as if he had an extraordinary Spirit of Infallibility and were fitter to determine the Causes of the Church than a whole Council of Bishops assembled together Finally they charge him with bringing the empty puff of secular pride into the Church of Christ And so proceed to their Canons against him Notwithstanding this the Roman Bishops continued obstinate contending so long till there was a great Rupture made in the Church upon this occasion And if some Records be true namely those Letters that past between Eulalius and another Boniface the Bishops of Rome grew so impudent as to Excommunicate the Eastern Churches because they would not be obedient to an Authority sounded on so base a Forgery If they be not true then there are more Forgeries in the Roman Church than we charge her with For the Letters were feigned as Baronius confesseth by some afterwards that were zealous of the Churches welfare to wit for the better colouring of that Schism which was made by the pride and ambition of Rome These Epistles were set forth by the Papists and were owned at first for good Records but upon the consideration of so many Saints and Martyrs that sprung up in the Churches of Africa during that 100 years wherein it is pretended by those Epistles that they were cut off from the Church of Rome it was afterwards thought better to reject them as Counterfeits because the Roman Martyrologies are filled with the names of those African Saints And it is a stated Rule that no Saint or Martyr can be out of the Church Lest the Eastern Churches therefore should out-weigh the Roman by reason of the Splendour Multitude and Authority of these Eminent Saints these Letters are now condemned by some among themselves vid. Bellarm de Rom. Pont. lib. 2. cap. 25. Baron in Not. Martyrol ad 16. Octobr. and Bin. in Concil Carthag 6. This unfortunate Contest happening so near to the Fourth Century was the first Head-spring or Root of the Schism that is now between us And the matter being so on whose side the fault lay I leave to the Reader How the Roman Church proceeded in this business we may learn from Daillè an able Writer
mentioneth the foresaid business at Carthage but so briefly that it is clear he did not like it And to close up all in the Life of this Boniface he endeavours to strengthen the Title of the Roman Bishop against the Patriarch of Constantinople by the Donation of Constantine another Forgery of which hereafter The two counterfeit Canons contained in the Commonitorium which the Roman Bishop sent to the sixth Council of Carthage are these as Faustinus the Italian Bishop delivered them in Greek to be read by Daniel the Pronotary in the Council 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We are pleased that if a Bishop be accused and the Bishops of his Country being assembled together have judged him and deposed him from his Degree and he thinks fit to Appeal and shall fly to the most blessed Bishop of the Roman Church and shall desire to be heard and he shall think it just that the Tryal be renewed then he the Roman Bishop shall vouchsafe to write to the B. shops of the adjoyning and bordering Province that they should diligently examine all and define according to the Truth But if any one thinks fit that his Cause be heard again and by his own Supplication moves the Bishop of Rome that he should send a Legate or Priest from his side it shall be in his power to do as he listeth and as he thinketh fit And if he shall decree that some ought to be sent that being present themselves might judge with the Bishops having his Authority by whom they were sent it shall be according to his judgment but if he think the Bishops sufficient to end the business he shall do what in his most wise counsel he judgeth meet Here the Roman Bishop nay the meanest Priest he shall please to send as his Legate is exalted above all Councils Bishops and Patriarchs in the world he may do and undo act add rescind diminish alter whatsoever he pleaseth in any Council when the Causes of the most Eminent Rank in the Church do depend in the same All Bishops are by this Canon made more to fear the Roman Bishop than their own Patriarch and are ingaged if need be to side with him against their Patriarch the Gate is open for all the Wealth in the World to flow into his Ecclesiastical Court which is as much above the Court of any other Patriarch by this Right of Appeals as the Archbishops Court above any inferiour Bishops while we may Appeal to that from these at our pleasure Thus Bishops and Patriarchs are made to buckle under the Popes Cirdle and the Decrees of Councils are put under his foot And all this is no more but half a Step to the Popes Chair The other part of the Step in this Commonitorium was the following Canon concerning Priests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I ought not to pass that over in silence that does yet move me If any Bishop happen to be angry as he ought not and be suddenly or sharply moved against his Priest or Deacon and would cast him out of his Church Provision must be made that he be not condemned being Innocent or lose the Communion Let him that is cast out have power to Appeal to the Borderers that his Cause might be heard and handled more carefully for a Hearing ought not to be denied him when he asks it And the Bishop which hath either justly or unjustly ejected him shall patiently suffer that the business be lookt into and his Sentence either confirmed or rectified c. What is the meaning of this c. in Binius Labbè Cossartius and the Collectio Regia I cannot tell but doubtless the Canon intends the same in the close with the former that the last Appeal is reserved to the Roman Chair which made the Fathers in the sixth Council of Carthage so angry as we find them to see things so false and presumptuous fastned upon the first most Glorious Oecumenical Council which decreed the clean contrary in the 4 and 5 Canons The substance and force of which as we gave you before so shall we now the words of the Canons themselves Can. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is fit that a Bishop chiefly be ordained by all the Bishops that are in the Province but if this be found difficult either because of any urgent necessity or for the length of the journey then the Ordination ought to be made by Three certainly meeting together the absent Bishops agreeing and consenting by their Writs but let the confirmation of the Acts be given throughout every Province to the Metropolitan Can. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Concerning those that are Excommunicated whether in the Order of the Clergy or the Laity by the Bishops in every several Province let the Sentence prevail according to the Canon that they who are cast out by some be not received by others but let it be required that no man be excluded the Congregation by the pusillanimity or contention or by any such vice of the Bishop That this therefore might more decently be inquired into we think it fit that Councils should every year throughout every Province twice be celebrated That such Questions may be discussed by the common Authority of all the Bishops assembled together And so they that have evidently offended against their Bishop shall be accounted Excommunicated according to to reason by all till it pleaseth the community of Bishops to pronounce a milder Sentence upon such But let the Councils be held the one before the Quadragesima before Easter that all Dissention being taken away we might offer a most pure Gift unto God and the second about the middle of Autumn The last Appeal you see is ordered by the Canon to Councils and as they please the Controversie is to be ended without flying from one to another Bishop These are the true and Authentick Canons of the Nicene Council overthrown by the Forgery CAP. III. A multitude of Forgeries secretly mingled among the Records of the Church and put forth under the Name of Isidore Bishop of Hispalis Which Book is owned defended and followed by the Papists THe Roman Chair being thus lifted up to the utmost Height it could well desire care must be taken to secure its Exaltation After many secret Councils therefore and powerful Methods used for its Establishment for the increase of its Power and Glory furthered by the Luxury and Idleness of the Western Churches of which Salvian largely complains in his Book De Providentiâ written to justifie the Dispensation of GOD in all the Calamities they suffered by the Goths who sacked Rome in the days of the forenamed Zozimus there came out a collection of Councils and Decretal Fpistles in the Name of Isidore Bishop of Hispalis about the year 790. In which Book there are neatly interwoven a great company of forged Evidences or feigned Records tending all to the advancement of the Popes Chair in a very various copious and
foolishly for in the beginning of the Book he hath a Preliminary Tract called An Annotation of Synods the Acts where of are contained in this book In which he giveth us this account in the Aquitan Council 18 Fathers made 24 Canons in that of Neocaesarea 16 Fathers made 14 Canons in that of Gangra 16 Fathers made 21 Canons in that of Sardica 60 Fathers made 21 Canons in that of Antioch 30 Fathers made 25 Canons in that of Laodicea 22 Fathers made 59 Canons in the Council of Car thage 217 Fathers made 33 Canons I had a long time coveted a sight of these Canons and finding them numbred in such an Annotation of Synods the Acts whereof are contained in this book I was much comforted with hope of seeing them But when I turned to the place I found them not Surely to slip out 33 Canons at a time made by more Fathers than were in all the other Councils put together is a lusty Deleatur There was never Deed of more importance imbezelled in the World The Nicene Council had 318 Fathers that made 20 Canons for what secret cause therefore he skippeth over the account which he ought especially to give of this is worth the enquiry He mentions it by the by and shuffles it off without an account perhaps because he was loath to say or unsay the story of 70 Canons in the Nicene Council However he dealeth fairly with us in this that having noted Aurelius to have been President in the sixth Council of Carthage he confesseth that S. Augustine Bishop of Hipyo is recorded to have been in that Council in the Reign of Honorius Ibid. Binius and all the Popish Compilers I could ever meet with before clipped off that Council in the midst without so much as signifying the number of its Canons I was glad I had a sight of their number here though I mist of themselves and was confident that however cruelly the Pope dealt with Aurelius Archbishop of Carthage S. Aug. Bishop of Hippo and other holy Fathers in cutting out their Tongues I should at last meet with them And the Learned Justellus with much honesty and honour has made us satisfaction We acknowledge some true Records among these Spurious Abominations but a little poyson spoileth the greatest Mess of the most wholesom Meat much more doth a Bundle of Forgeries that over-poyseth the true Records in size and number The method which he useth in the mixture of the Records and Forgeries is remarkable For beginning with the Counterfeit Epistles of Clement Anacletus c. he first seasoneth the Readers spirit with Artificial Charms and prepossesseth him with the high Authority of the Roman Patriarchs and after he has given him those strong Spells and Philtres composed of Roman Drugs permits him boldly to see some true Antiquities his eyes being dazled in the very Entry with Apparitions of Popes and such other Spectres Lest the Tincture should decay he reserves some of the Forgeries till afterwards that the true Records might be compassed in with an Enchanted Circle and the last Relish of Antiquity go off as strong as the first and be as successful as the prepossession Thus he cometh down with Forgeries to Melchiades and then he breaketh off the Decretal Epistles to make room for the Councils beginning with the Nicene under pretence of its Excellency and putting the Councils before it in time after it in order that he might get a fit occasion to introduce them here so running down in a disorderly manner from Ancyra to Neocaesarea Gangra Sardica Antioch Laodicea Constantinople Ephesus Chalcedon among the Greeks and then up again to the Latine Councils many of which preceded divers of the other as the first second third fourth fifth sixth Council of Carthage all which were before the Council of Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon From the seventh Council of Carthage he runneth down to the thirteenth Council of Toledo which happened long after Melchiades Silvester Pope Mark Liberius Felix c. were dead Then he cometh in the second part of his Work up again to Sylvester and so downwards with more Decretals that he might Husband his Forgeries well and not glut us with them altogether And remarkable it is also that he doth not give us the least syllable of notice of any Fraud among them Nay even Constantine's Donation set in the Front before the Nicene and in the midst between the first Order of Counterfeits and the Councils passeth with him silently and gravely for a true and sacred Instrument which is of all other the most impudent Imposture Let Baronius say what he will it was impossible to debauch all Antiquity and Learning with so much Labour and Art without some deep Counsel and Design What use Merlin puts all these things to and how much he was Approved in the Church of Rome you shall see in the next Chapter and how highly also he extolleth this Book ofF orgeries How plainly he fathereth it upon S. Isidore Bishop of Hispalis is manifest by the Coronis of the first Part where with it endeth Give thanks to industrious and learned men studious Reader that now thou hast at hand the Acts of the Councils as well as of the Popes which Isidore the Bishop of Hispalis collected into one Volume c. What shall we believe The first Edition of the Book it self or Baronius his Testimony Old Merlin fathers it upon Isidore before Baronius was born and all the World was made to believe the Bishop of Hispalis was the Author of it though now for shame and for a shift they fly to another Author Now if Isidore were dead before the Booke was made it must needs be a Cheat which as Merlin saith honest Francis Regnault the cunning Printer ended at Paris in the year of our Lord 1535 which unusual form of Concluding instead of allaying increaseth the suspicion CAP. VI. What use Merlin makes of Isidore and the Forgeries therein How much he was approved in the Church of Rome How some would have Isidore the Bishop to be a Merchant others a Sinner HOw false and fraudulent soever the Collection of Isidore be yet its Title is very Splendid and its Authority Sacred in the Church of Rome JAMES MERLIN'S COLLECTION OF THE Four General Councils The NICENE the CONSTANTINOPOLITAN the EPHESINE and the CHALCEDONIAN Which S. Gregory the Great does Worship and Reverence as the Four Gospels TOM I. Of 47 Provincial Councils also and the Decrees of 69 POPES From the APOSILES and their CANONS to ZACHARIAS ISIDORE being the Author ALSO The GOLDEN BULL of CHARLES IV. Emperour concerning the Election of the KING of the ROMANS PARIS At Francis Regnault 1535. All we shall observe upon this Title is this If Gregory the Great did Worship and Reverence the Four General Councils as the Four Gospels they were the more to blame that added 50 Canons to one of them and they much more that stain them all with the Neighbourhood and Mixture of such
as their Fountain And for this cause I was the more desirous to see the Book which is very scarce to be found and the more scarce I suppose because if the Fountain be unknown a greater Majesty will accrue to the Streams The Booksellers-Shops afforded me none but at last I met with two of them the one with the Learned Dr. Barlow Margaret Professor and Provost of Queens Colledge in Oxford the other in the Bodleian Library The one was Printed at Collein An 1530. The other at Paris before-mentioned Either had all and both affirm Ifidore Hispalensis to be the Author Though some afterwards are careful to distinguish Isidore Hispalensis from Isidore Mercator The one failing the other is obtruded as the Author of the Work the latter Collectors unanimously leaving out Hispalensis and calling him only by the Name of Mercator But how the Name of Isidore Mercator should come before the Book the Wisest Man in the World I suppose can scarcely Divine It is said that Eulogius Bishop of Corduba had a Brother whose Name was Isidore whose condition of Life Banishment whose Nation Spain whose Trade was Merchandize And that this Spanish Merchant flying out of his Country upon the account of Religion chose rather to intrust this most precious Treasure which he had saved from the Lust of Barbarians to the care of the Germans than to expose it to the Rage of those Wasters and Destroyers wherewith Spain was at that time infested as the Monks of Mentz at least who upon his having sojourned there took occasion to put his Name before the Book that was then in their hands would have the World really to believe This is Blondel's conjecture which he raiseth from the real existence of such an Isidore But he excuseth himself for conjecturing barely in such an affair because the Work is a Work of Darkness and they that did it hated the Light because their Deeds were evil And the Patcher up of those Epistles coming forth in the Vizor of another Name in such a business a conjecture may suffice Let them that imposed the Name give us a Reason why they did it it is not incumbent on us to render an account of what other men are pleased without reason at any time to do It is not impossible but a Knave called Isidore might be sent abroad with the Book being pickt out on purpose that the Famous Isidore Bishop of Hispalis might be believed to be the Author He might come to Mentz and sojourn there under the notion of a Spaniard and give Riculphus or the Monks a sight of the Book as a rare inestimable Treasure For Sinon was let loose with as little Artifice as this to the Destruction of Troy Thus whence it came really could hardly be discovered and the Thing too would be the more admired because it came from the farthest Regions as Merlin speaks being saved so Miraculously from the hands of Barbarians But where did this Traveller find it this Merchant of whom did he receive it For morally speaking it is impossible that a Merchant should be the Author of it especially at that time when the Records lay scattered perhaps in an hundred Libraries and were all to be sought in obscure Manuscripts An Ass may be expected to meddle with an Harp as soon as a Merchant with the Mysterious Records of the Church How come Lay-men to be so Judicious Had any Merchant so great a Skill as this imports It is improbable fourscore Bishops should know its much more that they should urge him to do that which their own Learning and Function fitted them to do far better Yet Isidore in his Preface writeth thus You Eighty Bishops who urged me to begin and perfect this Work ought to know as ought all other Priests of the Lord also that we have found more than those 20 Chapters of the Nicene Council c. It is a shame to the Church of Rome that a Lay-man should be the Fountain of all her Records and that in very deed the greater part of them should be in no Manuscript nor Library in the World being never seen nor heard of till Isidore brought them out of Spain That no man can tell what Isidore made the Book which is now the President and the sole Store-house of all their Collections is a 〈◊〉 infamous especially since they believed of old unanimously that the Bishop Isidore of Hispalis was its ancient Author Baronius when he had irrefragably disproved him puts nothing certain in his stead but having a Wolf by the ears and being willing to say something raises a dust and goes out in the Cloud In the ancient Manuscripts saith he we find this Isidore the Collector of the Councils sirnamed Mercator as in those which we have in our Library but in the Inscription of the Books lately Printed he is stilled not Mercator but Peccator according to the manner of some of the ancient Fathers who for Humility sake were 〈◊〉 to superscribe and subscribe themselves so I conceive it crept in by a mistake that Mercator was written for 〈◊〉 but since the Author of that Collection reciting the General Councils in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the sixth it is evident that 〈◊〉 after the sixth Council and before 〈◊〉 seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here He had before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 detected the Collection for a 〈◊〉 and yet he now gravely troubles his Brains to know what Isidore this might be It is a blind Isidore that has left no mark of his Life behind him but only that which lies in this counterfeit Preface an Isidore that can no where else be found by the great 〈◊〉 Baronius He has no other help to know the time about which he lived but the Preface Whether Peccator or Mercator is but a superficial Controversie whether any Isidore made the Book is a deeper enquiry The old Manuscripts of Baronius are Books of yesterday all written since the counterfeit Isidore was published The variety shows that the Papists can rest no where And the liberty they take to alter what they see in Manuscripts as they please is an ill sign of a large Conscience which studies not what is faithfully to be published but conveniently For because the Name of Mercator did smell too strong of the Wares left the World should wonder how the Inscription of a Merchant should come out before the Councils they thought it fit to strain the courtesie of a Letter and because Peccator is an humble Name to turn the Merchant into a Sinner That it was a Sinner I dare be sworn and a fly Merchant too lucky Names both of them but the last is capable of a siner pretence no Cheat being so vigorous and unavoidable as that of a penitent we ping Sinner The Pride of Rome comes cloathed in Humility after the example of her Supreme Head who stileth himself the Servant of Servants while he aspires by these very Records to be the King of Kings Isidore and Merlin being two of
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Greek Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Latine by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suite and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latine out of an Arabick book brought to Alexandria by another man of the same Society I once thought a certain man had had the Book at Alexandria but now it seems a Jesuite brought it thither He does not tell you who nor from whence Jesuites are the Popes Janizaries and fit to be so imployed And the Vatican is an admirable Storehouse doubtless for the Greek too a very Pit of Witnesses for the Popes Supremacy As if Perkin Warbeck should have brought Evidences out of his own Closet to prove himself King of England If no body but he must be believed the veriest Cheat in the World must needs prevail Greek and Arabick are strange amusements else a Book out of the Vatican in its Masters own Cause or another man without a name that brought an Arabick Book to Alexandria with fourscore Canons of the Nicene Council in it would scarcely be regarded against the Evidence of the whole World especially in a matter so upheld by Forgeries Two things there are wherein he adventures to be a little cordial Licèt parcè timidè though seldom and with fear 1. Whereas Isidore and Merlin and Peter Crab and Surius c. have the Epistle of Melchiades without any Note of its dubiousness he 〈◊〉 it can be none of Melchiades because mention is made therein of the Nicene Council and of other things that were done after Melchiades Death 2. Whereas Binius lays a Dreadful Reproach upon Constantine the first most Excellent Christian Emperour as if after all his Glorious Acts done for the Church and State of Christendom he were an Apostate a Murderer a Tyrant a Perecutor a Parracide smitten with Leprosie for notorious Crimes for killing Licinius unjustly and his own Son Crispus And all that he might uphold the Counterfeit Donation Nicolinus begins the first Book of the Acts preceding the Nicene Council translated out of an Ancient Greek Book in the Vatican thus De Gestis post sublatum impium Licinium de Imperio Regis Constantini de Pace Ecclesiarum Dei Constantine when he had conquered his Enemies shewing himself an Emperour by the Wisdom given him of God took care to better the Affairs of the Christians day by day more and more And this he did several ways having a most flaming Faith and faithful Piety towards the God of all And the whole Church under Heaven lived in profound peace Now let us hear what Eusebius that most excellent Husbandman of the Churches Agriculture 〈◊〉 from the most Famous Pamphilus speaketh here In his tenth Book he saith What Licinius saw long ago to befall wicked Tyrants with his eyes he now suffered himself like to them and that deservedly for he would neither receive Discipline nor be admonished at any time to learn wisdom by the punishment of his Neighbors c. But Constantine the Conqueror being adorned with all kind of Piety together with his Son Crispus the Emporour beloved of God and in all things like his Father reduced all the East into his Power and brought the Empire of the Romans into one as it had been of old and obtained an Universal Kingdom from the rising of the Sun to the utmost borders of the West and to both the other Regions of the North and South in perfect peace Then the fear of Tyranny wherewith men were before oppressed was utterly taken away from the life of men then frequent Assemblies were held and Festivals kept then all things abounded with gladness and joy then they that were before of a dejected 〈◊〉 and sorrowful looked with a pleasant face and with joyful eyes then with Dances and Hymns throughout all Cities and Fields they proclaimed fast that God was truly God and the Highest King of all next they magnified the Emperour and his Children most dear unto God 〈◊〉 there was no remembrance of the former evils then all Impiety was forgotten then there was a sweet enjoyment of present goods and a joyful expectation of future Then 〈◊〉 not only the Decrees of the Emperour the most Illustrious Conquerour 〈◊〉 of Humanity and Clemency but his Laws also glorious in Magnificence and fraught with Tokens of true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 published in all places So the 〈◊〉 Spot of all Tyranny being 〈◊〉 away and wholly blotted out Constantine alone and his Children thenceforth possessed the Helm of the Empire which by Right pertained to them it being made secure by his Authority and Government and freed from all envy and fear Hitherto Eusebius Pamphilus of all Ecclesiastical Writers most worthy of belief Thus their own Record in the Vatican justifieth Eusebius and thus Nicolinus produceth it who also defendeth Eusebius though himself holdeth the Donation of Constantine firm not discerning how that History overthroweth the same But Binius who saw the inconsistence better crys out of Eusebius for a Lyar a Flatterer an Arrian because he stands in his way Thus all of them here and there serve the Fathers For Eusebius lived in the time of Constantine himself and was Honourable in his eyes He was Bishop of Caesarea-Cappadocia and an individual Friend of Pamphilus the Martyr a Father in the Nicene Council and one of those that disputed there in person against Phaedo the Arrian As Binius also himself recordeth in the Disputation extant in his Tomes But of such Legends as this and the Tragical Story of Constantine we have more than good store in Popish Writers As you may see at large in Dr. Stillingfleet his Book of Popish Counterfeit Miracles CAP. XIII The Epistle of Pope Damasus to Aurelius Archbishop of Carthage commanding him to take care that the Decretals of the Roman Bishops be preached and published abroad Wherein the Forgeries of the Church of Rome are Fathered on the Holy Ghost DAmasus to his mest Reverend Brother and Fellow-Bishop Aurelius We have received the Epistle of your 〈◊〉 with due Veneration Wherein we understand how your Reverence and Prudence thirsteth as is fit for the Apostolical Decrees Concerning which Affair we have sent some of those which you desired and desire to send more when you shall send unto us Yet we have past by none of our Predecessors from the Death of Blessed 〈◊〉 Prince of the Apostles of whose Decrees we have not sent somewhat to you under our certain Seal by Ammonius the Priest and Falix the Deacon Which we both desire you to keep and command to be preached and published to others that they may inviolably be kept with due Veneration of all and inviolably observed and diligently reverenced by all future Ages Because the voluntary Breakers of the Canons are heavily censured by the H. Fathers and condemned by the H. Ghost by whose Gift and Inspiration they were dictated Because they do not unfitly seem to blaspheme the H. Ghost who being not compelled by any necessity but willingly as was before said either do
great ease and satisfaction of the Roman Clergy For it reaches down you know to the lowest Orders of Readers and Door keepers So that they may write as many Forgeries as they will If it be a Pope no man can condemn him If it be a Bishop no less than threescore and twelve Bishops must on their Corporal Oath prove the Fact against him forty four Equals against a Cardinal-Priest twenty six must depose against a Cardinal-Deacon of the City of Rome and seven against a Door keeper all which must be at least his Equals A Marvellous Priviledge for the City of Rome Which word Rome though annexed only to Cardinal-Deacons yet for ought I know the Judge will interpret its Extent to all the other Orders or use it Equivocally as himself listeth or as his Superiour pleaseth So that in Causes pertaining to the Interest of the Roman Church other Priests perhaps beside them in the City of Rome shall enjoy the benefit of this Law but in Causes displeasing the Pope and his Accomplices none shall enjoy it but the Priests of Rome Many such Trap-doors are prepared in Laws where Rulers are perverse and Tyrannical and whether this be not one of those I leave to the Readers further Examination Mark succeeded Sylvester in the See of Rome Between whom and Athanasius there were certain Letters framed that stand upon Record to this day to prove the Canons of the Nicene Council to be Threescore and ten Heretofore they were good old Records magnificently cited but now they are worn out for Baronius and Bellarmine have lately rejected them who are followed by Binius as he is by Labbe and Cossartius and the Collectio Regia all concluding the Letters to be Forged The three last have this Note upon that of Athanasius Hanc Surreptitiam ab aliquo confict am fuisse quinque rationibus ostenditur c. That this Epistle is a Counterfeit devised by some body appeareth evidently by five reasons Whereof the first is this In the Controversie between the African Churches and the Roman Bishops Zozimus and Boniface concerning the number of the Nicene Canons this Epistle was unknown 2. Athanasius as is manifest by what went before was at this time fled into France and so it could not be written from Alexandria and from the Bishops in Egypt 3. That Divastation fell upon the Church of Alexandria many years after these times in the Reign of Constantius c. As Athanasius himself witnesseth in his Epistle ad omnes Orthodoxos 4. Mark died in the Nones of October this present year Constantine himself being yet alive 5. If Pope Mark had sent a Copy of the Nicene Council out of the Roman Archives to them at Alexandria surely the Roman Copy and that of Alexandria would have agreed thenceforth as the same How then were those three Canons wanting in the Copy which S. Cyril sent from Alexandria to the Africans which were found in the Roman Copy He pointeth to the Commonitorium sent from Rome to the Sixth Council of Carthage and verifies all the Story we have related by rejecting these Letters of Mark and Athanasius made on purpose to defend the Forgeries there detected For which he cites Baron An. 336. nn 59 60. and Bellarm. de Rom. Pont. lib. 2. cap. 25. This Epistle was alledged by Harding against Jewel and by Hart against Rainolds for a good Record How formally it was laid down by the Elder Collectors you may see with your eyes and may find it frequently cited by the most learned Papists Such as these being their best and only Evidences After Mark Julius succeeded The Epistle sent by the Bishops of the East to Pope Julius 1. is now confessed to be a Forgery Veram germanam non extare praeter authoritatem Baronii illud asserentis ea quae supra in principio Epistolarum Julii annotavi confirmant Saith Binius Again he saith This Epistle which is put in the second place bearing the Names of the Bishops of the East seems to be compiled by some uncertain Author both by the concurrent Testimony of Sozomen and Socrates and because thou mayest observe many things to be wanting and some in the words and things expressed to be changed Rescriptum Julii The Epistle which Julius returned in answer hath the like Note upon it Hanc mendosam corruptam a quodam ex diversts compilatam c. That this Epistle is counterfeit corrupt and compiled by some body out of divers Authors the Consulships of Felicianus and Maximianus evidently shew c. The matter in these Epistles is the Popes Supremacy the unlamfulness of calling Councils but by his Authority his Right of receiving Appeals with other Themes which Ambition and self Interest suggest and of which genuine Antiquity is totally silent Having so fortunately glanced upon that Sixth Council I shall not trouble the Reader with any more but bewailing what I observe beseech him earnestly to weigh this Business walking in the Dark and take heed of a Pope and a Church that hath exceeded all the World in Forgerie For let the Earth be searched from East to West from Pole to Pole Jews Turks Barbarians Hereticks none of them have soared so high or so often made the Father of Lies their Patron in things of so great Nature and Importance Since therefore the Mother of Lyes hath espoused the Father of Lies for her assistance and the accursed production of this adulterate brood is so numerous I leave it to the Judgement of every Christian what Antiquity or Tradition she can have that is guilty of such a Crime and defiled with so great an Off-spring of notorious Impostures AN APPENDIX Cardinal Baronius his Grave Censure and Reproof of the Forgeries His fear that they will prove destructive and pernicious to the See of Rome APiarius a Priest of the Church of Africa being Excommunicated by his Ordinary for several notorious crimes flies to Rome for Sanctuary Zozimus the Bishop receives him kindly gives him the Communion and sends Orders to see him restored Hereupon the African Churches convene a Council namely the sixth Council of Carthage whence they send a modest Letter but as Sincere as Powerful shewing how after all shifts and Evasions Apiarius had confessed his Enormities and that both the Nicene Council and clear Reason was against the disorder of such Appeals All Causes being to be determined in the Province where they arose by a Bishop Patriarch or Council upon the place Otherwise say they how can this Beyond-Sea Judgment be sirm where the necessary appearance of Witnesses cannot be made either by reason of weakness of Nature or Old Age or many other Impediments They decry the Innovation of the Bishop of Rome in arrogating that Authority lest the smoakie 〈◊〉 of the pride of this World should be brought into the Church of Christ. This Epistle is on all sides owned and confessed to be a good Record It was sent to Celestine the Successor of
Roman Forgeries Or a TRVE ACCOUNT OF FALSE RECORDS Discovering the IMPOSTURES AND Counterfeit Antiquities OF THE CHURCH OF ROME By a Faithful Son of the Church of ENGLAND LONDON Printed by S. and B. Griffin for Jonathan Edwin at the three Roses in Ludgate-Street 1 Tim. 4. 2. Speaking lies in Hypocrisie having their Conscience seared with an hot iron 2 Tim. 3. 8 9. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE S r ORLANDO BRIDGEMAN KNIGHT and BARONET One of HIS MAJESTIES Most Honourable Privy Council The AUTHOR Devoteth his best Services AND DEDICATETH The VSE and BENEFIT of his Ensuing Labors A Premonition THe Bishops of Rome in the persons of Zozimus Boniface and Celestine Successively opposed the Sixth Council of Carthage consisting of 217 Fathers among whom the great S. Augustine is acknowledged to be one in the matter of Appeals which was the first step made by that irregular Chair to the Exorbitant Supremacy which they afterward claimed In vindicating that Claim before the Council they produced two counterfeit Canons fathered upon the Oecumenical Synod at Nice which were by the Records of Carthage Alexandria and Constantinople in the presence of all those Fathers in the sixth Council of Carthage detected to be forgeries as well as by the Tenor of the undoubted Canons of the Nicene Council it self which are contrary to those by the Roman Church pretended and so they were esteemed by the Fathers in that sixth Council who were startled at the sight of those New unheard of Monsters at their first Publication above 1200 years ago Vpon this Passage I redoubled in the Book an observation to make it more remarkable which you will find cap. 2. pag. 9. to this purpose That in the first General Council of Nice it was ordered that the chief in every Province should confirm the Acts of his inferior Bishops And if any Trouble did arise which could not be decided by the Metropolitan Provision was made Can. 5. in words so clear and forcible that none more plain can be put into their places that the last Appeal should be made to Councils and that the Person condemned in any Province should not be received if he fled to others That Parenthesis In words so clear and forcible that none more plain can be put in their places relates to the CANON it self which here follows that you may see how forcible it is and how much plainer then the very Words into which I had contracted it It is worthy your Consideration as on of the most Important Records in Antiquity consented to by all the Popish Compilers of the Councils themselves Can. 5. Concerning those that are Excommunicated whether in the order of the Clergy or the Laitie by the Bishops in every several province let the Sentence prevail according to the Canon that they who are cast out by some be not received by others But let it be required that no man be excluded the Congregation by the Pusillanimitie or contention or any such vice of the Bishop That this therefore might more decently be inquired into we think it fit that Councils should every year throughout every Province twice be celebrated that such Questions may be discussed by the Common Authority of all the Bishops assembled together And so they that have evidently offended against their Bishop shall be accounted Excommunicated according to reason by all till it pleaseth the Community of Bishops to pronounce a milder Sentence on such But let the Councils be held the one before the Quaaragesima before Easter that all dissention being taken away we might offer a most pure Gift unto God and the second about the middle of Autumn Had the Canon said The last Appeal shall be made to Councils they that are accustomed to such shifts without blushing might easily have evaded the Words by affirming the Bishop of Rome to be particularly excepted without any need of expressing the exception because by the general and Tacit Consent of all he is above the Limits of such Laws and above the Authority of that and all other Councils Thus they might still render the matter doubtful by their Subterfuges and Pretences as indeed they do in evading one expression of the Canon it self For whereas the Fathers say Let the Sentence prevail according to the Canon that they who are cast out by some be not received by others Those Popish Hirelings make an exception of the Bishop of Rome where the Oecumenical Synod maketh none and might as well except him here though the Council had said in terms The last Appeal shall be made to Councils For the last Appeal to any subordinate Authority over which the Council had any Legislative Power was ordered they might say to be made to Councils But the Bishop of Rome being the Head of the Church and having the supreme Authority over all Councils was not thought of in this Canon nor was fit he should be at all mentioned because that would imply he was under their authority The Prodigious Height of their usurped Claim being their sole Defence and their incredible Boldness the amazement of ignorant People which is their chief security But the Council adding to the former expression this clause That Councils should every year throughout evry Province twice be celebrated for this very end that such Questions may be discussed by the common authority of all the Bishops assembled together it puts an end to the business especially when they add That they who have evidently offended their Bishop shall be accounted excommunicated according to reason till it pleaseth the community of Bishops to pronounce a milder Sentence But that which renders it most plain and forcible is this Let the Councils be held the one before the Quadragesima before Easter that all Dissention being taken away we might offer a most pure Gift unto GOD. And the second about the middle of Autumn All the wit in the world could not have invented a more clear and apparent provision against the Roman Bishops absurd and impudent Pretences No Evasion I think can possibly be made there from when it is once noted and understood For the Bar put in against the Pope is not here in Words but Things It implies that the Controversie must before Easter be fully determined The very end of calling such a Council and holding it then being the taking away of all dissention that we might offer up a most pure Gift or Sacrifice to God that is That Vnity being restored to the Church at that time we might receive the Sacrament in Peace and Charity Whereas if after the Sentence of the Council the business were to be carried to the Court of Rome Suits and Quarrels could not be ended against Easter but would be lengthened in many Provinces beyond
and were Apostatical rather than Apostolical and that some of them came not in by the Door but were Thi ves and Robbers That it is not impossible to forge Records for the Bolstering up of Heresies those counter eit Gospels Acts Epistles Revelations c. that were put forth by Hereticks in the Names of the Apostles do sufficiently evidence which being extant a little after the Apostles decease are pointed to by Irenaeus condemned in a Roman Council by Gelasius and some of them recorded by Ivo Cartonensis in a Catalogue lib. 2. cap. 〈◊〉 The Itinerary of Clement and the Book called Pastor being two of the number I note the two last because S. Clement in his first Epistle to S. James is made to approve the one and Pope Pius in his Decretal magnifieth the other Which giveth us a little glympse of the Knavery by which those Ancient Bishops and Martyre of Rome were both abused having Spurious Writings fathered upon themselves for had those Instruments been their own they would never have owned such abominable Forgeries But of this you may expect more hereafter Cap. 16. and Cap. 17. These aggravations and degrees of Forgery we have not mentioned in vain or by accident In the process of our discourse the Church of Rome will be found guilty of them all except the first which is beneath her Grandeur and in so doing she is very strangely secured by the height of her impiety For because it does not easily enter into the heart of man to conceive that men especially Christians should voluntarily commit so transcendent a Crime the greatness of it makes it incredible to inexperienced people and renders them prone to excuse the Malefactors while they condemn the Accusers But that the Church of Rome is guilty in all these respects we shall prove not by remote Authorities that are weak and feeble but by demonstrations derived from the Root and Fountain I will not be positive in making comparisons but if my reading and judgment do not both deceive me she is guilty of more Forgeries than all the Hereticks in the world beside Their greatness and their number countenance the Charge and seem to promise that one day it shall pass into a Sentence of Condemnation against her CAP. II. Of the Primitive Order and Government of the Church The first Popish Encroachment upon it backed with Forgery The Detection of the Fraud in the Sixth Council of Carthage IT is S. Cyprian's observation that our Saviour in the first Foundation of the Church gave his Apostles equal honour and power saying unto them Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Cyprian Tract de Simpl Praelator The place has been tampered with but unsuccessfully For though they have thrust in other words into the Fathers Text in some Editions of their own yet in others they are left sincere As Dr. James in his corruption of the Fathers Part. 2. Cap. 1. does well observe But the most remarkable attempt of the Papists is that whereas they have set a Tract concerning the Primacy of the Roman Church before the Councils containing many Quotations out of the Bastard Decretals which they pretend to be extracted ex Codice antiquo out of an Old Book without naming any Author closing it with this passage of S. Cyprian they leave out these words of Scripture Whose soever sins ye remit c. as rendring the Fathers Testimony unfit for their purpose You may see it in Binius his Collection of the Councils c. When the Apostles had converted Nations they constituted Bishops Priests and Deacons for the Government of the Church and left those Orders among us when they departed from the world It was found convenient also for the better Regiment of the Church when it was much inlarged to erect the Orders of Archbishops and Patriarchs The Patriarchs being Supreme in their several Jurisdictions had each of them many Primates and Archbishops under him with many Nations and Kingdoms allotted to their several Provinces every of which was limited in it self and distinct from the residue as appeareth in that first Oecumenical Council assembled at Nice An. Dom. 327. where it was ordained Can. 6 that the ancient custom should be kept the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome being expresly noted to be equal to that of the other Patriarchs In the two preceding Canons they ordain 1. That in every Province Bishops should be consecrated by all the Bishops thereof might it consist with their convenience to meet together if not at least by three being present the rest consenting but the confirmation of their Acts is in every Province reserved to the Metropolitan 2. That the last Appeal should be made to Councils and that the person condemned in any Province should not be received if he fled to others Can. 4. and 5. In the first of these Canons it was ordered that the chief in every Province should confirm the Acts of his Inferiour Bishops the Patriarch of Rome in his and every other Patriarch in his own Jurisdiction In 〈◊〉 last if any trouble did arise that could not be decided by the Metropolitan provision was made in words so clear and forcible that none more plain can be put into their places that the last Appeal should be made to Councils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the City of Rome being in those days Queen of the World and lifted up above all other Cities as the Seat of the Empire the Bishop thereof began to wax proud in after-times and being discontented with the former Bounds invaded the Jurisdictions of his Fellow-Patriarchs For though the Foundation upon which the Government was laid was against it yet when persons were Immorigerous if any Bishop were censured by his Metropolitan or Priest excommunicated by his Bishop or Deacon offended with his Superiour who chastised him for his guilt though the Canon of the Church was trampled under foot thereby which forbad such irregular and disorderly flights the manner was for those turbulent persons to flee to Rome because it was a great and powerful City and the Roman Bishop trampling the Rule under foot as well as others did as is confessed frequently receive them Nay their ambition being kindled by the greatness of the place it tempted them so far as to favour the Delinquents and oftentimes to clear them for the incouragement of others invited by that means to fly thither for relief till at last the Cause of Malefactors was openly Espoused and while they were excommunicated in other Churches they were received to the Communion in the Church of Rome Hereupon there were great murmurings and heart-burnings at the first in the Eastern Churches because Rome became an Asylum or City of Refuge for discontented persons disturbing the Order of the Church spoiling the Discipline of other Provinces and hindering the Course of Justice while her
of the French Nation He tells us that the Legates of Pope Leo in the year 45 in the midst of the Council of Chalcedon where were assembled 600 Bishops the very Flower and choice of the whole Clergy had the confidence to alledge the sixth Canon of the Council of Nice in these very words That the Church of Rome hath always had the Primacy Words which are no more found in any Greek Copies of the Councils than are those other pretended Canons of Pope Zozimus Neither do they yet appear in any Greek or Latine Copies nor so much as in the Edition if Dionysius Exiguus who lived about 50 years after this Council Whereupon he breaketh out into this Exclamation When I consider that the Legates of so holy a Pope would at that time have fastned such a Wen upon the body of so Venerable a Canon I am almost ready to think that we scarcely have any thing of Antiquity left us that is entire and uncorrupt except it be in matters of indifferency or which could not have been corrupted but with much noise c. He further tells us in the place before-mentioned That whereas the Greek Code Num. 206. sets before us in the XXVIII Canon of the General Council of Chalcedon a Decree of those Fathers by which conformably to the first Council of Constantinople they ordained that seeing the City of Constantinople was the Seat of the Senate and of the Empire and enjoyed the same Priviledges with the City of Rome that therefore it should in like manner be advanced to the same Height and Greatness in Ecclesiastical Affairs being the second Church in Order after Rome and that the Bishop should have the Ordaining of Metropolitans in the three Diocesses of Pontus Asia and Thrace Which Canon is found both in Balsamon and Zonoras and also hath the Testimony of the greatest part of the Ecclesiastical Historians both Greek and Latine that it is a Legitimate Canon of the Council of Chalcedon in the Acts of which Council at this day also extant it is set down at large Yet notwithstanding in the collection of Dionysius Exiguus it appears not at all no more than as if there had never been any such thing thought of at Chalcedon He hath other marks of Dionysius Exiguus which sufficiently brand him for a Slave to the Chair but omitted here as out of our Circuit However I think it meet to lay down the Canon as I find it lying in the Code of the Universal Church CCVI. Altogether following the Decrees of the H. Fathers and the Canon of those 150 Bishops most beloved of God which was lately read which met under the Great Theodosius the Pious Emperour in his Royal City of Constantinople called New Rome we also define and decree the same concerning the Priviledges of that most H. Church of Constantinople that is New Rome For the Fathers justly gave priviledges to the See of Elder Rome Quod urbs illa imperaret because that City was the Seat of the Empire And the 150 Bishops most beloved of God being moved with the same consideration gave equal Priviledges to the most holy See of New Rome rightly judging that the City which is honoured with the Empire and the Senate and enjoys equal priviledges with the Royal Elder Rome ought in Ecclesiastical Affairs also no otherwise then it to be extolled and magnified being the second after it c. Upon this advantage the Patriarch of Constantinople advanced himself above the other Patriarchs and his See being made equal to the See of Rome by the Authority of the Church upon the Interest he had in the Empire then setled in Greece he arrogated the Title of Vniversal Bishop Which Gregory then Bishop of Rome so highly stomacked that he thundered out Letters against him calling the Title a proud and prophane nay a blasphemous Title denying that either himself or any of his Predecessors had ever used it and plainly affirming that whosoever used that Title was the forerunner of Antichrist And to this purpose in the 34. Epistle of his fourth Book he asketh What else can be signified by this pride but that the times of Antichrist are drawing near For he imitates him says he who despising the Fellowship of the Angels in their common joy endeavoured to break up to the Top of Singularity This he spake against John of Constantinople because he brake the Order of the Patriarchs and despised the Equality of his Fellow-Bishops Now whether it does not hit his own Predecessors Zozimus and Boniface and Celestine and Leo I leave to the judgment of the Reader They were not contented with an Equality in Power but aspired and that some of them by the most odious way that of Lying and Forgery as well as Pride and Ambition to the top of Singularity Whether this Zeal of Gregory was according to knowledge that is whether it proceeded from integrity or self interest I shall not determine All that I observe is this which followeth when the Tyde turned and the Emperour next sided with the Bishop of Rome the very next Successor of Gregory but one took up the Title a little before condemned for blasphemous which is claimed by the Roman Bishops to this day The Emperour sided with the Roman Bishop because the Roman Bishop sided with him For when Phocas had murdered his Master the good old Emperour Mauricius and usurped the Throne in his stead the Title of Vniversal Bishop was given to the Patriarch of Rome by this Bloody Tyrant to secure his own which had so great a Flaw in it and needed the assistance of some powerful Agent Hereupon a Council was called at Rome by Boniface 3. wherein the priviledge of the Emperour Phocas was promulged and the Bishop of Romo made a POPE upon the encouragement of the Tyrant by the consent of the Council but his own viz. a Roman Council Thus Boniface and Phocas were great Friends The Imperial and Triple Crown were barter'd between them Connivance and Commerce soiling them both with the guilt of Murder Simony Treason and if S. Gregory may be believed with Sacriledge and Blasphemy For being involved in a mutual Conspiracy they became guilty of each others crimes to partake with Adulterers and comply with Offenders being imputed as sin in the H. Scriptures Platina an Eminent Writer of the Lives of the Popes and a Papist himself informeth us sufficiently of this business in these words Boniface 111. saith he a Roman by Birth obtained of the Emperour Phocas but with great contention that the Seat of blessed Peter the Apostle which is the Head of all the Churches should be so called and so accounted of all which place the Church of Constantinople endeavoured to vindicate to it self evil Princes sometimes favouring it and affirming the first see to be due to the place where the Head of the Empire was In the Life of Zozimus the first Episcopal Forger in the Church of Rome Platina
thereupon to enquire diligently into the cause thereof and seeking to find it Nay this was the design of the blessed Peter and therein he imitated the Holy Scripture Whether to counterfeit or blaspheme the Scriptures be the worse I cannot tell but of this I am sure that they who think such courses lawful as this fastned on S. Peter and the Holy Scripture here will stick at nothing which they take for their advantage For that it was lawful to counterfeit S. James his Name he proveth afterwards very largely and now he is giving the reasons of it One intention was to stir up all people to Enquiry their admiration at so strange a thing being very prone to make them diligent to learn the cause of it Another was that all Bishops might see the more clearly that they were taught in the person of James For James being dead and uncapable of receiving the instruction it is evident that he was not intended thereby and therefore it must be for others in his capacity A third reason was the preventing of envy for had S. Peter vouchsafed being our Saviours Vicar and Head of the Church to write to any Bishop alive the Honour done unto that Bishop had been so great that all the rest had been tempted to maligne him shrewdly for that advantage His intention was saith he to transfigure these things in the person of James after the manner of the Holy Scripture and that as well for other Bishops as especially those that should succeed him in the Church of Jerusalem whence the preaching of the Gospel began according to the Prophesie of Isaiah that they might thus think with themselves If the Prince of the Apostles commanded Clement to write these things to James the Brother of our Lord whom Peter James and John did first of all ordain who now ceased to be a Shepherd and was rewarded with his Crown he certainly did not command him to write for his sake but for us to whom Solomon saith Look diligently to the face of thy Cattel and consider thy Herds c. Let this saith he be one cause of the Transfiguration or counterfeiting a person in this Epistle Having noted how S. Paul transferred a certain business on himself and Apollos by a Figure he concludeth thus Why therefore may we not think that S. Peter for the same reason commanded Clement to transfer his Epistle concerning his Death and Doctrine pertaining in common to every Bishop by a Figure to S. James already dead lest if he should have commanded him to have written to Simon the Bishop of Jerusalem who succeeded S. James or to any other as to Mark the Bishop of Alexandria or Ananias of Antioch or any other he should then perhaps seem to love him or honour him more than the residue Much more he saith to this purpose but all made vain with one small observation Whereas he pretends that Clement knew S. James to be dead there is a 〈◊〉 Epistle written by the same Clement To his most dearly beloved Brethren dwelling at Jerusalem together with his dearest Brother James his Fellow-Disciple So that S. James after all was still thought to be alive by those that transferred this Epistle on S. Clement by a Figure S. Peter's influence over the Bishop of Jerusalem and our Lords Brother was thought a considerable Circumstance for the Establishment of the following Popes And till the Protestants discovered the Fraud let Turrian say what he will there was scarce a person in the World that thought not the Letter timed well enough for the purpose And whereas he pretendeth so many and so great Testimonies of the Ancients confessing the Epistle to be S. Clement's he is not able nor does he so much as attempt to name one from S. Clement downward till this Spurious Isidore that affirmed any such matter Howbeit he quotes Origen Theodoret Gregory Nazianzen c. to prove the lawfulness of a Transfiguration and makes great Ostentation of the Fathers in shewing that S. Peter and S. Clement did wisely in the business CAP. VIII Of Peter Crabbe's Tomes of the Councils Wherein he agrees with and wherein he differs from Isidore and Merlin BEsides the Forgeries that are in Merlin and the Bastard Isidore Peter Crabbe whose Tomes of the Councils were published eight years after the first Edition of Merlin published more of as great importance as the former not omitting those of Isidore and Merlin but recording and venting them altogether He pretends to give an account of all those Councils that have been from S. Peter the Apostle down to the Times of Pope John II. He wrote before Turrian as Carranza and Surius did whom it is Turrian's business to defend The End being proposed before the Means with what design these Editions of the Councils are so carefully multiplied we may conjecture by a Treatise that is set in the Front of them concerning the Roman Primacy Almost all the Compilers after Peter Crabbe having prefixed the same with one consent before their Work as the Aim of their ensuing Labours It is extant in Crab Surius Nicolinus Binius Labbe and Cossartius and the Collectio Regia Carranza hath it not nor Paul V. Paul V. in his own Work published at Rome Anno Dom. 1608. touches the Forgeries but very sparingly It does not become the Majesty of a Pope in his own Name to utter them It is moreover a thing of hazardous consequence for him to appear in Person in such a disgraceful business It besits his Holiness to act rather by Emissaries and Inferiour Agents as all great Statesmen and Polititians do being unseen themselves in matters that reflect too much upon their safety that Method you know is more stately as well as more Honourable and secure Yet he approveth others at a distance as his dear Son Severinus Binius in particular who dedicated all his Tomes to Pope Paul V. in the year 1608. and has a particular Letter of Thanks from Pope Paul himself as a Badge of his Favour before the Work As for Carranza he is but an Abstract or brief Compendium This Treatise of the Primacy thus put before the Councils containeth a Collection of Testimonies out of Counterfeit Epistles of the Primitive Bishops and Martyrs of Rome proving under the Authorities of most Glorious Names that the Holy Apostolical Church obtained the Primacy not from the Apostles but from our Lord himself that it is the Head and Hinge of all the Churches that all Appeals are to be made thereunto the greater causes and the contentions of Bishops being to be determined only by the Apostolical See that she is the Mother of all Churches and as the Son of God came to do the Will of his Father so ought all Bishops and Priests to do the Will of their Mother that all the Members ought to follow the Head which is the Church of Rome that the first See ought to be judged by no man neither by the Emperour nor by Kings nor
with him in his Preface But then he maketh amends for the Omission for he hath the Synodical Epistle of the Nicene Council a new Record which I find not in Isidore or in any before him It is an humble Address of the Nicene Council to Pope Sylvester beseeching his Holiness to ratifie their Decrees To shew that no Council is of any value unless it be approved by the Bishop of Rome And he has a Gracious Answer too by the same Pen or I am sorely deceived for they are both alike so full of Barbarismes and false Latines that another Dunce can hardly be found like the first to imitate them In good earnest they are the most feculent Forgeries that ever I saw To speak much in little is they are worse than the Sinuessa Council They are without Greek Copies which where all the rest is in Greek is an evil sign But as they are you shall have them when we come to Binius that the more Learned may judge of their Excellency He has a Pseudo-Catholick Council at Rome under Pope Sylvester with the same Premonition to the Reader word for word which he set before the Sinuessa Council Propter Exemplariorum intolerabilem nimiamque Differentiam Depravationem c. He has the other Forgeries of Isidore Mercator and among the rest the Epilogus brevis concerning the number of Witnesses He defaces and suppresses the sixth Council of Carthage as well as his Predecessor What with blotting out and putting in he so disguizes the Face of Antiquity that unless it be to very clear eyes the Primitive Church appeareth not the same Yet are his Voluminous Tomes dedicated to the Invincible Emperour Charles V. being Printed in the year 1538. by Peter Quintell Cum Gratiâ Privilegio tam Caesario quam Regio Colloniae That is At Collein by the consent and Authority both of the King and Emperour So far even Monarchs are deluded sometimes with a shew of Piety and the Light of Depraved and Corrupted Learning CAP. IX of Carranza his Epitome of the Decrees and Councils He owneth the Forgeries CArranza being but a short Compendium was Printed at Paris An. 1564. to wit very fitly for the more general sprcading of the corrupted Councils All the other Collections being great Volumes but this a little Informer or Companion for the Pocket It was dedi ated to the Illustrious Dicgo Hurtado Mendoza Orator in the State of Venice and his Imperial Majesties Vicegerent in the Holy Council of Trent He lays down all the Apostles Canons for good Laws even the last it self being not excepted and selects Decrees out of the Decretal Epistles for good and Catholick Canons The Decretal Epistles themselves would be too long for so short a Compendium and therefore he has not the Decrees themselves but Excerptions He has the Pontisical of the Popes Lives but more modesty than to ascribe it to Damasus It is a part of his Text however He has but 〈◊〉 Canons of the Nicene Council and skippeth over the Council of Sinuessa He omits the Epilogus Brevis but owns the Council to which it is annexed He followeth Isidore and exceeds him a little CAP. X. Of Surius his four Tomes and how the Forgeries are by him desended He hath the Rescripts of Atticus and Cyril by which pope Zozimus was condemned of Forgery in the sixth Council of Carthage LAurentius Surius was a Monk of the Order of the Carthusians He wrote four Tomes He pretends to have all the Antiquities of the Church at large and to mend and restore the defects of the Ancient Manuscripts What their mending and restoring is you begin to discern He dedicates the whole Work to Philip King of Spain Sicily and Neapo lis c. and directeth it in another Epistle to the most August and Invincible Emperour Charles V. It was Printed at Collein by Geruvinus Galenius and the Heirs of John Quintell in the year of our Lord 1567. He has the counterfeit Preface of Isidore Mercator before detected The Treatise of the Primacy of the Roman Church all the 84 Canons of the Apostle and the Apostolical Constitutions of Pope Clement newly added to the Tomes of the Councils for good Records though Isidore Mercator some of the Apostles Canons and Clement's Constitutions are rejected by some of the best of his most able Followers as you shall see hereafter not I suppose upon mature deliberation but inevitable necessity The Liber Pontisicalis of Pope Damasus that notorious Cheat is the ground-work upon which he commenteth It so exactly containeth the Lives and Acts of the Bishops of Rome that when I first approached it I apprehended every Life to have been recorded by some person contemporary with the Pope of which he was writing for it nominates the time of their Session to a Year a Moneth a Week and a Day from S. Peter downward Which being done for no Episcopal Chair beside it made the Roman See seem of more Eminent Concernment than the residue from the very first beginning such a peculiar and extraordinary care being no mean Indication of its High Exaltation above all other Chairs that were not for a long time together so accurately regarded But a little after I found a shrewd sign for beside the errours and contradictions noted before in the midst of all this exactness he 〈◊〉 sometimes 3 4 5 〈◊〉 9 years together This shall be proved hereafter with more than we yet say when we come to Binius He has all the Decretal Epistles and the Donation of Constantine for good Records The Epistle of Melchiades concerning the Munificence of Constantine the Spurious Roman Council under Pope Sylvester with the Epilogus Brevis the Letters between Athanasius and Pope Mark concerning the number of the Nicene Canons Those Letters tell us the Canons of the Nicene Council are 70. and yet he records but 20 of them The most of these Great Appearances are rejected afterwards by Baronius Binius Labbè and the Collectio Regia By good fortune he has the Rescripts of Atticus and S. Cyril the Patriarchs concerning the true Records of the Nicene Council sent to the sixth Council of Carthage upon the occasion of Zozimus before related The Letter of that Council to Celestine the Bishop of Rome concerning that Controversie And a Scrap of the Council it self but he omits the Decrees Did I follow them throughout all Ages my work would be endless We should find much foul Play in following Councils and Records of the Church but for several weighty Reasons I have at present confined my self within the compass of the first 400 years next after the Death of our Lord whose Name is not to be mentioned without praise and glory Note well I go on thus to observe particularly what Forgeries every Collector of the Councils owneth and what Emperours Kings and Popes their Books are dedicated to and what priviledge in all the principal parts of the Popes Jurisdiction they come forth withal and
assembled also from every Quarter especially the most Excellent Father Dominicus Bollanus a Noble-Man of Venice of the Order of Preachers never enough commended for his excellent parts who by his Industry Care and Learning was a vast help both to me and to the Work And that I may in one word signifie my study and pains bestowed thereupon lest I should seem to draw the Saw backward and forward too often upon the same Line I have taken care to perform whatever could be done by one man and he a private person that this Edition might come forth from me and be offered to you more Copious and Illustrious than any other Publications hitherto sent abroad In which I trust that as a just and knowing Judge you will discern some Accomplishment Wherefore I suppose I may affirm that nothing is perversly or too concisely exprest but all things most rightly and clearly as far as was possible according to their Primitive Candour This my Gift therefore from which men may receive so great profit and benefit since both those things that before were wanting and those that have hitherto been dispersed may be had together in it and this Work of mine not of less cost in Printing the great expences of which may easily be proved by the magnitude of the Volume than labour to which I was not so much present as presiding earnestly desiring that it should come forth most free from Errour and Faults for the benefit of the Studious I doubt not but according to your Humanity you will accept it with a willing mind as some kind of Token of my will to serve you even as I desire with all my Soul and humbly pray that your Holiness may receive it In the mean time Holy Father I desire that all things may fall out prosperously to your Blessedness And I pray that you may long be preserved in health and more plentifully adorned with Heavenly Gifts for the good of the whole Church Venice VI. Kal. Octob. M. D. LXXXV Here you see one of the Popes Old Servants laying down all the Councils at his Holiness Feet boasting of additions to the Nicene and Ephesine Councils never before published ascribing the Councils to the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost and yet adding for the good of the Roman Church eight and fifty Canons to the most glorious of them all ascribing the power of calling and confirming Councils to the Pope sparing no cost though he draws the Saw too often upon that point which as if he were enchanted he cannot leave throughout all the Epistle assisted as himself confesseth with a confluence of the best Popish Divines permitted to come forth under the Popes Nose with all these Abominations By which you may perceive it is not the work of a private Doctor but the Disease of the Church of Rome His Typographus Lectori His contempt of the Fathers appears in his Printer to the Reader for by one of Turrian's Transfigurations he covers that Admonition with the Printers Name though too Learned for any Printer and evident enough to be his own for he there unfoldeth the matter order and use of the Work far above a Printers reach and especially notes its Corrections and Emendations to us which he reduceth to four Heads 1. To the observation of the time wherein Councils were held and under what Pope Whereupon we note the manner of ordering the Councils under such and such a Pope seemeth a new thing Nicolinus else arrogates too much to himself in ascribing this to his own Invention Certainly the custom of computing times by the Popes Lives is of no long standing but an Artisice lately taken up by his Flatterers to dazle the eyes of their Readers for it adds much to the Splendour of the Chair to see Kings and Councils marshalled under the Reign as it were of this and that and the other Pope down from S. Clement throughout all Ages But from the beginning it was not so 2. To the truth of History and Actions As when various Authors are often cited either for the confirmation of Sentences or to show the variety that is among Writers or to reprehend some falsity Quod interdam parcè tamen timidé fecimus In his Dedicatory Epistle he told the Pope that he did nothing perversty but all things most rightly and clearly as far as was possible according to their Primitive Candour As you see before But here he confesseth the business of repieving falshoods to be a tender work which he went about with great caution and trembling Some he detected but timerousiy and sparingly he durst not meddle with them all 3. To the consutation of some contumacious and rebellions persons who lay hold on the lightest occasions and oftentimes wrest the plainest matters to the disgrace of the H. Roman Church As when from a slight contention of the African Fathers about Appeals to the Church of Rome they foreibly conclude against the very truth of the Acts and the Faith of the History that those Fathers did not acknowledge but refuse its Primacy over them In the Body of his Tomes he 〈◊〉 Epistles of Boniface and Eulalius as good Records testifying the Excommunication of all the African Churches by the Pope yet here he calleth it a light contention Himself wresteth the plainest matters forcibly against the very truth of the Acts and chargeth the fault on the Protestants For in this very place he pretendeth that the African Fathers did not refuse the Primacy of Rome but acknowledge its Supremacy or its Primacy over them Yet it all this but a Copy of his countenance a common flourish in the Frontispiece of their work For if they submitted to the Popes Primacy over them why should they be Excommunicated He knows well enough when we come close to the matter that these Rebellions Protestants and those Catholick Fathers were of the same judgment and acted the same thing By way of provision therefore he addeth that this was far from the mind of those Fathers but if they had conceived so it would have redounded to their Infamy and not at all have tended to the lessening of the Supreme Authority of the Roman Church ordained and established by God Two hundred and seventeen Bishops in an ancient approved Council even the sixth Council of Carthage protested against the Popes Supreme Authority to their perpetual Infamy as Nicolinus would have it for should all the Bishops in the World joyn together they would but dash themselves against that Rock and do things to their Infamy and there 's an end This is the value which Papists have for the Councils and Fathers when they stand in their way And this Impudence comes abroad by the consent of Nicolinus and the Pope without Blushing His fourth Head is Addition His Emendations are referred lastly to Addition either by making those things perfect and entire that before were imperfect and marred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Canons of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts of that
so many did 〈◊〉 use in 〈◊〉 the Apocryphal from Cennine Books and this Sentence was Desinitive by a Pope in his Council So that 2. A Pope in his Council is not 〈◊〉 3. If Einius be right Gelasius and fourscore Bishops did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in condemning the Code 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Canons which S. Clement wrote from the mouth of the Apostles 4. The Church of Rome is divided the New and the Old Church of Rome are against each other The New is all for Additions and the very Apostles Canons allowed in Gelasius his time which was 1260 years ago are not sufficient unless more be added But let us now consider Binius his reasons Quia tamen ex his posterioribus ferè omnes praeter praedictos duos c. But because all these latter almost besides the two forementioned are either by the Authority of the Roman Bishops or by the Decrees of other Councils or by the Sentences of some Fathers confirmed and approved as is manifest by these our Marginals and Annotations So that it may not lightly or rashly he doubted whether they were taken hence by the Bishops Councils and Fathers or rather translated hither and put here out of their Writings Hereupon they may and ought rightly and deservedly all except the two excepted to be taken for Authentick How perplexed his discourse is I suppose you see His courage fails in the midst and it becomes thereupon so rough and difficult that it is scarce intelligible The occasion of its Incoherence is that Parenthesis thrust into the middle For Binius foreseeing a strong Obiection to the Discourse he was going to make claps it Sophistically into the midst of his Argument hoping thereupon that it would never more be retorted upon him Which you may easily see both by the Nature of his Argument and by the resolution of his words For his Argument is this which if you lay aside the Answer to it runs smoothly Almost all these latter Canons besides the two forementioned are either by the Authority of Roman Bishops or the Decrees of other Councils or the Sentences of some Fathers confirmed and approved hereupon they may and ought rightly and deservedly all except the two excepted to be taken for Authentick Now the Answer is the Parenthesis in the midst Certain Sentences like to these Canons are in the Fathers writings but so contained there that it may not lightly or rashly be doubted whether they were taken hence by the Bishops Councils and Fathers or rather translated hither and put here out of their Writings To doubt a thing rashly is nonsense but it may justly be feared that these Canons are Sentences pickt out of other Books and packt into a Body bearing the name of the Apostles Canons His Conscience did convict him and he replieth not a word though it be an important consideration in the case But there is a worse fault in his Logick he argues from Particulars to Vniversals for having said Fere omnes praeter praedictos duos he comes to conclude Omnes praeter praedictos duos Almost all except two are approved therefore all except two are Authentick Such Tricks as these he hath often And sometimes affects an obscure kind of speaking on purpose to blind the Reader especially when he is intangled with some difficult Argument He then Clouds himself like the Cuttle in his own Ink that he might vomit up the Hook in the dark and scape away He might have produced a General Council if he pleased to confirm all the 84 Canons and that under the Name of the Apostles too which had been more to the purpose but then he must have confessed the last Canon of Clement to be true and consequently that his eight Books of Constitutions and his two Epistles are part of the Bible or else that the Decree of the Council confirming these was Spurious or else of necessity that the Pope and Council did err But he had more kindness for the Pope than so and therefore perhaps let the Council alone He would inure you by his words to believe that Popes are equal to Councils Because they are saith he either by the Authority of Roman Bishops or other Councils or some Fathers confirmed they may and ought to be taken for Authentick Some Fathers is a dwindling expression He very well knows that 217 were rejected together in the sixth Council of Carthage Roman Bishops and other Councils are words of some weight But what can other Councils do if the Roman Bishops please to reject them The Roman Bishops and other Councils are so put in contradistinction that the Authority of Roman Bishops is set before that of other Councils And perhaps the proportion being observed the Roman Bishops must be thought as far above other Councils as other Councils above some Fathers In other places they affirm a Pope with his Council to be Infallible Here that the Roman Bishop is a Council Otherwise it is nonsense to say The Roman Bishops or other Councils The Roman Bishop hath a Council in himself And indeed it is requisite that he of all other should be the greatest Council when standing alone he is to judge of a Council and to determine even whether an 〈◊〉 Council shall be approved or disapproved This is a Tast of Binius an Elephants Clee a Scrap of five large Volumes full of the same integrity and perverseness The swelling words which they talk of approved and disapproved Councils are all to be understood of Councils approved or disapproved by the Roman Bishop From his Canons we proceed to his Council for Binius hath a Council of Apostles too on a Prodigious Theme the setting up of Images It is but a short one and hath but one Canon and that is the eighth It is set forth in this form ANTIOCHENA SYNODUS 〈◊〉 Canon 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salvati ob Idola sed pingant 〈◊〉 Opposite Divinam Humanamque manufactam 〈◊〉 Effigiem Dei veri ac Salvatoris nosire Jesu Christi ipsiusque Servorum contra Idola 〈◊〉 Neque errent in Idolis neque similes siant Judaeis This is all and sure it is old for the Latine is very bare If you construe it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus but hath no Greek Copy A COUNCIL of the APOSTLES at ANTIOCH Canon 3. Let not the Saved be deceived for Idols but let them paint on the Opposite the Divine and Humane unmingled Image of the true God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ made with hands and of his Servants Neither let them err in Idols nor be made like the Jews The first Authority he hath to prove it is the 2 Nicene Council 800 years almost after the Apostles And he collecteth it thence by a blind conjecture not by any evident Assertion of theirs Besides this he citeth one Pamphilus who testifieth that he found it in Origen's Study as Turrian saith against the Writers of Magdenburg So that all this resteth upon Turrian an impudent Corrupter as the World hath any Where we first observe that Origen
Love but a pretext to patch up and cover Forgery Yet let us hear what Binius and Baronius say concerning these Matters For though the Epistle be never so formally set down and a Lie written in the Top both of the Epistle and the Page Cornelii Papae Epistola 1. And again The sirst Epistle of Pope Cornelius yea though Binius saith in his Notes on this Epistle that S. Jerom witnesseth Cornelius to have written many Epistles and that this therefore is undeservedly taxed for its faith and authority which has gotten so famous a Witness as Jerom. Yet after all this though among other Circumstances of Importance it hath been laid down as a Good Record by Binius his Ancestors he saith That it doth attribute to Cornelius the Translation of the H. Bodies of Peter and Paus from the Catatumbae which is if I mistake not from the meaner Graves of the Common people Id ex Libri Pontificalis Erroribus in Epistolam irrepsisse probabile c. That that crept in into this Epistle from among the Errours of the Pontifical seemeth probable For more truly that Translation happened in the first Age a little after their Passion As by the testimony of S. Gregory the Pope we demonstrated above Surely the feet upon which this Peacock stands are very Black The pride of Rome is founded like that of the great Whore on the waters at least if not in the mire If you examine What or Where this Testimony of S. Gregory is that overthroweth this Epistle of Cornelius a Person much more Ancient and Authentick than himself and with what Circumstances or with what form of words Binius maketh use of the same Let your patience turn to Binius his Notes on those Words in the Pontifical Hic Temporibus c. in the Life of Cornelius and there it shall be satisfied CAP. XIX The ridiculous Forgery of the Council of Sinuessa put into the Roman Martyrologies How the City and the name of it was consumed though when no man can tell by an Earthquake MARCELLINVS the Bishop of Rome entered on his See about the year 296 in the dayes of Dioclesian The Pontifical in the Life of Marcellinus telleth us that he offered incense to an Idol to escape the wrath of the Emperour Binius saith When Marcellinus the Roman Pontisex was therefore accused because in the Temple of Vesta and 〈◊〉 he burnt incense and offered Sacrifice to Heathen Images and Idols to wit that of Jupiter and Saturn 300 Bishops came together in the City Sinuessa to pass their Sentence on the Fall of Marcellinus The place of meeting was the Crypta Cleopatrensis which fifty one after another could enter it not being able to contain them all by reason of its straitness After the discussion of the Cause and condemnation of certain Priests Marcellinus the chief Bishop publickly confessing his Sin 〈◊〉 Sackcloath sprinckled with ashes prostrate on the ground acting Repentance said I have sinned before you and cannot be in the Order of Priests and so condemned himself by his own Sentence ¶ After those of Magdenburg the English Innovators reject this Convention of 300 Bishops as if it were feigned by the Donatists Because they think it improbable that in this 20. year of Dioclesian wherein the fiercest Flame of Persecution burned and the Anger of the Emperours did rage more bitterly against the Christians throughout all the Roman world 300 Bishops should be assembled together Bin. Not. in Vit. Marcellin By the way I must tell you that the English do upon several accounts besides that of the Persecution reject this Council of Sinuessa however it pleaseth Binius to ease himself of labour by mentioning only that Neither do they fasten it on the Donatists but the Papists For though Marcellinus be made a Donatist in opinion his Confession being founded on that Doctrine that no man guilty of mortal sin can though penitent continue in the Order of Priests Binius himself puts the Doctrine into his mouth while other Doctrines relating to the Popes Supremacy and other Persons defending this Council shew plainly enough whose it is notwithstanding the present Mist which Binius putteth before our eyes Hear him on But if no fear of the Persecution of Decius saith he could hinder them but that about sifty years before this as we said in our Notes of the Roman Council held in the Interregnum many Bishops of the Remoter Provinces and many others neighbouring on Italy and living in hanishment came together upon the Letters of the Roman Clergy at Rome and holding a Council there ordained those things which the present necessity of the Church did require Why should it seem more distant from the truth that by the most vigilant care of the Roman Clergy the Bishops of Forreign Churches should be called together by Circular Epistles and no fear or Danger of Life deterring them meet at the time and place appointed to transact and decide that cause of all other the most deplorable in which not only the Roman Church but the whole Christian Religion was brought into the greatest Hazard wherein the whole Foundation of the Church was shaken in the first Bishop of the Catholick Faith and almost utterly overthrown Binius you see consesseth the Truth that Mercellinus did offer Incense 〈◊〉 an Idol and that the Gates of Hell had well nigh prevailed against S. Peters Chair in the Idolatry of his Apostate Successor That therefore they might imitate God though the perverse way in bringing Good out of Evil the matter is so neatly ordered that the Ball reboundeth higher by its Fall the Weakness of Marcellinus increases the Popes power and his Disgrace is turned to his Greater Glory His slip is made the establishment of all his Successors For a Council of 300. Bishops is raised up by the Invention of the Papists which do all of them most humbly beseech the Cuilty Pope to condemn himself and Decree with one Consent that the Sovereign Bishop of the City of Rome can be condemned by no body For out of thine own mouth thou shalt be justified and out of thine own mouth thou shalt be condemned It is an important Point and no witness fit to be lost that giveth Testimony thereunto Concerning this Council therefore on the Words Act a Omnia The saith Though exceeding many among the most learned of men have endeavoured to prove those Acts to be Spurious and of no weight truly by Strong Arguments and would esteem it as no other than a Device of the Donatists cunningly contrived that the Name of Marcellinus well accepted of among all the Ancients and had in great Esteem should be defamed We nevertheless conceive the same Acts to be not only not Commentions or forged to be ascribed to the Donatists but rather to be had in great Veneration both because venerable Antiquity it self fighteth Sharply for them compelling a Reverence even from the unwilling by its majesty and because by the Common Assent of all being
the Imperial Seat which the Roman Princes had possest and granted it to the profit of the blessed Peter and his Bishops Which considering what follows is far more fit to be understood of the Emperours leaving Rome and granting it to the Bishop whence they pretend he did go on purpose So that the agreement between Optatus Milevitanus and the Epistle of Melchiades is very small or none at all But admit that Melchiades and Optatus Milevitanus had said both of them that the Lateran was given to Melchiades what is that to the Dominion and Temporal Kingdom A single House instead of an Empire Though that the House was given Optatus Milevitanus doth not affirm even by Binius his own confession How the things in this Epistle should be concerning the Donation of Constantine to Melchiades and Sylvester is difficult to conceive because Melchiades was dead before the Donation was made to Sylvesier It is very unlikely therefore that Melchiades should make mention of that Donation His Epistle talking of Constantine his being President in the H. Synod that was called at Nice is a manifest Imposture Melchiades being dead before the Nicene Council as is before observed Yet hence it is proved that Constantine 〈◊〉 a Donation to Melchiades and Sylvester Binius holdeth fast the Donation though he lets go the Epistle Like a Lo gician who lets go the premises but keeps the conclusion For it is most firmly proved by Optatus Milevitanus What is proved by him That Constantine the Great gave the Lateran to Melchiades How is it proved Why he testifieth that a Council of 19 Bishops met in Fausta's house in the Lateran Truly he doth not expresly write that the house was given to Melchiades But it seemeth probable to Binius his imagination And so it is most firmly proved by Optatus Milevitanus a most approved Writer Thus those things that are told concerning the Dominion and Temporal Kingdom given to the See of Rome are manifestly enough proved to be likely by what we said in our Notes upon the former Epistle But it is better proved by the continual possession of those houses by the space of thirteen Ages until now as he afterwards observeth Though the length of an unjust Tenure increaseth the Transgression Having first proved the Donation he proceedeth thus Hoc Edictum à Graecis persidâ Donatione quâ juxta illud Virg. 2. Aeneid Timeo Danaos Dona ferentes donare solent acceptum mutilum esse ac dolosè depravatum hae rationes evidenter demonstrant These following reasons evidently shew this Edict of Constantine by the persidious Donation of the Greeks to be maimed and treacherously depraved He enters upon the business gently pretending at first as if the Donation were true that it was depraved by the Greeks But afterwards when he is a little warm in the Argument and somewhat further off from his Sophistical Defences he falls foul upon it as a Counterfeit and rejects it altogether as in the close will appear to the considerate Reader But here let us see what Arguments he produceth to prove it maimed and treacherously depraved 1. Because it pretendeth the Primacy of the Church to be granted by a Lay-man which was immediately given to Peter by God himself and by our Lord Jesus Christ as is manifest by those words Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church 2. The Emperour by this Edict is made to give a Patriarchal Dignity to the Church of Constantinople Which if it be true how then could Anatolius the Bishop of Constantinople be said to take the Patriarchal Dignity to himself long after even after the Council of Chalcedon was ended Leo Gelasius and other Roman Bishops resisting him How could the Church of Constantinople be a Patriarchal See at this time wherein even the name of Constantinople was not yet given to Byzantium 3. This Edict was first published by Theodorus Balsamon out of the Acts of Sylvester the Pope falsly written in Greek under the name of Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea not that he might do any service to the Church of Rome but that he might shew the Patriarchate of Constantinople to be the eldest Which Acts of Sylvester were not known till a thousand years after Christ coming then forth in Eusebius his name out of a certain Book of Martyrs but were now increased by the Addition of this Edict of Constantine His design is if it be possible to clear the Church of Rome of this too palpable and notorious Counterfeit And for that end he would fain cast it on the Treacherous Greeks that he might thereby acquit the more Treacherous Romans Which he further pursues in the clause following The new found Hereticks that oppose this Edict of Constantine translated out of Greek into Latine with such great endeavour and impertinent study let them know that in this they rather further our Cause than fight against us Who do our selves with Irenaeus Cyprian and other Holy Fathers as well Greek as Latine profess the Priviledges of the Church of Rome not to be conferred and given of men but from Christ to Peter and from Peter to his Successors Where the 〈◊〉 are so great we need not make a Remark on the common Cheat his vain Brag of the Fathers But this we may observe that whereas the Popes Claim is somewhat blind to the Prerogative which is pretended to be given to S. Peter Binius hints at a proper Expedient to make it clear For suppose our Saviour made S. Peter the Rock on which he built his Church How comes the Pope to be that Rock Since S. Peter being an Apostle immediately inspired and able to pen Canonical Scripture some of his Prerogatives were Personal and died with him He tells you that the Priviledge was granted from Christ to Peter and from Peter to his Successors So that it was not Christ but Peter that gave it to the Bishops of Rome Now it would extremely puzzle him to shew where Peter gave that power to the Bishops of Rome in what place at what time by what Act before what Witnesses All he can produce is S. Clement's counterfeit Letter and that miscarries But in opposing the Edict of Constantine the Protestants further their Cause rather than fight against them Is not this a bold Aslertion Their Popes have laid Claim to the whole Empire of the Western World even by this very Edict or Donation of Constantine And yet the Protestants did nothing when they proved it to be a Forgery This Donation is an old Evidence proving the Divine Right of Peter's Primacy and the Popes Supremacy Did they promote their Cause that proved it to be a Cheat Certainly they that have Fingers so long as to grasp at an Empire and Foreheads so hard as to claim it by Frauds will stick at nothing they can conceive for their advantage Is it impertinent to discover Knavery in the Holy Roman Catholick Church or Imposture in the Infallible
Zozimus and Boniface About 100 years after Eulabius sate in the Chair at Alexandria some call him Eulalius Between him and Boniface 2. there are two Epistles extant out of which it is gathered that after the sixth Council of Carthage the African Churches were Excommunicated by the Roman for 100 years and reconciled at last upon the Submission of Eulalius Archbishop of Carthage accursing S. Augustine and his own Predecessors Concerning these two Epistles Cardinal Bellarmine giveth his Opinion thus Valdè mihieas Epistolas esse suspectas c. I have a mighty suspition of these Epistles For first they seem to be repugnant to those things which we have spoken concerning the Union of S. Augustine Eugenius Fulgentius and other Africans with the Roman Church And again either there was no Eulabius of Alexandria to whom Boniface seemeth to write or at least there was none at that time as is evident out of the Chronology of Nicephorus of Constantinople Besides Boniface intimates in his Epistle that he wrote at the Commandment of Justinus the Emperour But Justinus was dead before Boniface began to sit as is manifest out of all Histories Moreover the Epistle which is ascribed to Boniface consists all of it almost of two fragments of which the one is taken out of the Epistle of Pope Hormisda to John the other out of the Epistle of S. Gregory to the Bishops of France even the 52 Epistle of his fourth Book Now S. Gregory was not born at that time nor is it credible that Gregory took those words out of Boniface since the Stile is altogether Gregorian In the Epistle also which is Fathered upon Eulabius the Carthaginian there is a Sentence of S. Gregories inserted out of the 36 Epistle of his fourth Book and the rest of that Epistle is nothing but a sragment of au Epistle of John the Bishop of Constantinople to Pope Hormisda Notwithstanding all these reasons Bellarmine is afraid to damn the Epistles but Cardinal Baronius is a little more bold He judges it inconvenient for the Church of Rome that any such Forgeries were ever made And upon the occasion of these two Epistles utterly disgraces Isidore Mercator for a meer Impostor Whether in so doing he salves the Sores of the Roman Church that hath been guilty of vending them the experience of Ages yet to come will hereafter evidence In the mean time let us fee what he saith In Not. Martyrol ad 16. Octobr. he layeth down these words Scias falsam adulterinam Epistolam illam quae fertur nomine Bonifacii 2. c. Know that the Epistle which is carried abroad in the name of Boniface 2. to Eulalius Bishop of Alexandria which is extant and published in the second 〈◊〉 of the Councils of the latter Edition is false and adulterate And speaking concerning the Schism Excommunication and Re-union of the African Churches he saith Sihaec vera sunt c. If these things are true certainly then all the Martyrs and Confessors which were at that very time crowned with Martyrdom in the African Church or otherwise waxed famous by the Merits of their Eminent Sanctity must be blotted out of the List of Saints which THE HOYL ROMAN CHURCH it self hath in its Martyrology numbred among the Martyrs or reckoned among the Confessors Since it is most manifest by a thousand Sentences of Cyprian Augustine and all the Fathers that out of the Church there can be no Martyrdom nor any kind of Sanctity If Lyes were always consistent Truth would be amazed God doth infatuate the Counsels of his Enemies and turn their Wisdom into Foolishness They run into inconveniences sometimes so great that they cannot be remedied Could a Lye shun all inconvenience and see to its Interest on every side it would be as wife and perfect as Truth itself Quin amplius ex Collegis Aurelii c. But yet further among other Companions of Aurelius the most holy Father S. Augustine the most glorious Beam of the Catholick Church was accused in that Epistle Who being clouded with the same 〈◊〉 of Schism must if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be true be blotted out of the Class of the Doctors of Holy Church out of the number of Saints nay out of the Martyrology nor only so but out of the Kalender of the HOLY ROMAN CHURCH For it is most certain that after the aforesaid Aurelius he departed this life within the space of the time before-mentioned What should I reckon the Fulgentiuses the Eugeniuses and others almost innumerable men most Famous for Holiness and Learning to be accounted in the same condition It is a common Artifice in the Church of Rome to propagate these Forgeries as far as they are able by them to possess the minds of men with great apprehensions of the Popes high and Infallible Power and if at at any time they are detected to cast the blame on private persons while the Church is free they pretend from such Abominations I desire you to note therefore that the HOLY ROMAN CHURCH it self is the Author of Her Martyrologies and Kalendars and that the HOLY ROMAN CHURCH her self hath Canonized her Saints and made Holy-days and put them into her Breviaries And it was this very HOLY ROMAN CHUCH that put the counterfeit Council of Sinuessa into her Martyrologies the Lying Legend of Sylvester into the Roman Breviary Authorized by three Popes and the Council of Trent and her counterfeit Decretals among her Laws in all her Consistories and Ecclesiastical Courts of Highest Judicature So that if Baronius do not 〈◊〉 the ROMAN CHURCH is liable to the Charge of these Bastard-Antiquities For which cause he might well break out into that angry 〈◊〉 Eccè in quod Diserimen Vnus isidorus Mercator illarum Epistolarum Collector res nostras adduxit ut ex 〈◊〉 parte periclitari videatur Ecclesia c. Behold into what peril one Isidore Mercator the Collector of those Epistles hath brought out Affairs So that the CHURCH seemeth on that side to be endangered if we shall say those things which he hath collected or rather 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 and certain If the Roman Church be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 in Baronius his judgment 〈◊〉 is utterly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Importance did he only 〈◊〉 the things to be feigned rather than 〈◊〉 which their great 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Isidore their first Author But his acknowledgment of the hazard which the Roman Church runneth is more For they have so many Subterfuges about the Roman Church that it is more difficult to find it than to vanquish it It was not the Pope in a formal Council that Excommunicated the Church of Africa or that put her Saints first into the Roman 〈◊〉 yet it was the 〈◊〉 Roman Church And indeed if the Holy Roman Church and her Authority be not to be found in her Mass books and Breviaries her Courts and Consistories her Laws and 〈◊〉 her Martyrologies and Kalenders her Popes and Doctors I know not where to meet
with Her And if nothing else be the Roman Church but a Pope and Council 〈◊〉 the Roman Church is but a blinking 〈◊〉 There is no Roman Church upon this account sometimes for two or three Ages together for she always vanishes upon the 〈◊〉 of the Council The Roman Church is in a great 〈◊〉 but she may thank herself She threw her self into this Peril by making her self a Schismatick an 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 She first breaks the Rule and if the Pope and his Doctors about him be the Roman Church as they certainly must needs 〈◊〉 for all that depart from 〈◊〉 shall be Schifmaticks if the Head of the Church and all the Members that cleave unto it be the Roman Church she first brake the Rule and then forged Ancient Canons in the Name of the Nicene Council to defend her Exorbitancy she cut her self off from the true Church in the sixth Council of Carthage by a perverse inveterate obstinacy and to acquit her self afterwards laid the Curse and Scandal upon others She pretends at least that the most Holy Churches were Excommunicated that 217 Bishops in a Sacred Council Alypius S. Augustine Aurelius and all his Collegues were puffed up with pride by the Instigation of the Devil and accursed by a Dreadful Excommunication for so it is in the Epistle of Bonifaee 2. to Eulalius And now she hath nothing left to support her Enormity but that Greatness alone which by these Forgeries she hath acquired and maintained These Thorns are never to be pulled out but the Veins and Sinews will follow after For in rejecting these Thorns in her sides all her Authority Infallibility Antiquity Tradition Vnity Succession Credit and Veracity is gone As for Baronius and the way he takes a man may safely throw away the Sword when he has killed the Enemy but the Church of Rome is not arrived to such an happiness Politicians pull down the Ladder by which they have gotten up to the Top of their desires But the case is altered here They are undone if the Ladder be removed To acknowledge these Helps to be Forgeries is their apparent Ruine Some Papists use these Counterfeits by vertue of which their Predecessors acquired and established their Empire as Vsurpers do Traytors by whose villanous help they are seated in the Throne But they can never wash off the Guilt they have contracted nor make the Act or the Crime committed once to be again undone After 700 years enjoyment of the Benefit they begin to slight the means of acquiring it But it is because they cannot help it The Cheat is detected and they would sain perswade the World they are Innocent of it All of them either hold these things to be Forgeries or if Forgeries to be none of their The Confession is not Genning like 〈◊〉 of S. Peter rather it is awkward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like that of Apiarius 〈◊〉 Confession the sixth Council of Carthage observes to be sorced For after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obstinately persisted as long as possible in an impudent denial reviled his Judges abused the Roman Chair disordered the Church and inflamed the World when God had brought him into so vast a strait that he could do no otherwise then the Fraudulent Dissembler as they call him fled to Confession but the Root of his Malevolence he retained in him Some Papists confess these Forgeries but deny them to be theirs They confess the things but justifie themselves The things they say are Forgeries but themselves no Forgers And whether of the two be the greater Impudence is hard to define They confess the Fraud but make no Restitution All their Drift is to save their Skin when one pretence is broken they fly to another nay they go on to quote these things even now they confess them where they are not detected they still do quote them and wish still they were as able to conceal and defend them as ever For for one that knows them they meet with a thousand that are ignorant of those devices There they dissemble their Conviction and hide their Confession with the Ignorant and before such make shew of these Frauds as of great and glorious Antiquities though like Proteus they transform themselves into other shapes before the more Learned They find it meet and necessary to fail with every Wind and to adapt themselves fitly in their discourses both to them that know them and to them that know them not with them that know them they seem to decry the Impostures These things I speak not to the poor simple seduced Papists who did they believe and know these things would abhor them to the Death but to the Seducers themselves who so delude the Ignorant and are by all Methods ever busie in carrying on the Cause of the Temporal Kingdom of the Church of Rome as by their obstinate practises is most apparent Baronius himself bewrayeth his Confession to be without any purpose of amendment even by the Defence he maketh for his good Old Friend the Bastard Isidore A Jerom of Frague or a John Huss a Latimer or a Ridley though never so holy and pure in other things were to be cursed with Bell Book and Candle if the least Errour appeared in them that reflected on the Popes Security Though never so Innocent they were with all violent fury pursued to the Fire But if a man have this one Vertue of maintaining the Popes Interest he may lye and cog and cheat and forge abuse Apostles Councils Fathers and be followed by an Army of Popes and Doctors becoming a Zealous and Venerable Saint notwithstanding Hincmarus of Rhemes could hardly escape for offering to mutter against Isidere But Isidore himself because he did the Pope Service though he be a Sacrilegious person and deserves all that can be called Bad for the incomparable height and depth of his Villany yet he is received to fair Quarters and well esteemed of by Cardinal Baronius Testimonium illi perhibeo utar verbis Apostoli saith he quod Zelum habuit sed non secundùm Scientiam c. I will give him this Testimony and here I will use the words of the Apostle He had a Zeal but not according to knowledge For because the contention of Aurelius Bishop of Carthage Augustine and other African Bishops seemed to him a little more hot than it should be with Boniface and Celestine the Roman Popes in the Cause of Apiarius the Priest he supposed it expedient in that Epistle which he feigned in the name of Boniface to patch up what was cut away But away with these things The Church of God is not founded nor does it lean upon Chaff it self being the Pillar and Ground of Truth Baron Martyrol Octob. 16. I will not note how he abuseth the Scriptures nor how he wresteth the words of the H. Apostle to cover a filthy piece of Knavery nor yet in what sense he maketh the last words which he uttereth to sound concerning the Roman Churches being her self the Pillar and Ground of Truth
Elaborate manner That the Bishop of Rome had a secret hand in the contrivance and publication of them is probable if not clear from divers Reasons 1. Before they were published Hadrian 1. maketh use of the Tale of Constantines Leprosie Vision and Baptism by Pope Sylvester things till then never heard of in the world but afterwards contained in the Donation of Constantine a Forgery which in all probability lay by this Hadrian but of his own preparing when he wrote his Letter to Constantine and Irene which Letter was read and is recorded in the 2. Nicene Council on the behalf of Images being sent abroad like a Scout as it were to try what success it would find in the world before he would adventure the whole Body of his Players to publick view For if that were swallowed down without being detected the rest might hope for the same good Fortune if not the first might pass for a mistake and its Companions be safely suppressed without any mischief following 2. The Emperour and the Council having digested the first Legend exposed by the Pope so crastily to publick view the other Forgeries were a little after boldly published in this Book of Isidore together with the Legend and Donation of Constantine which when Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes upon its first publication set himself to write against he was taken up so roundly for the same by the Authority of Rome that he was fain gladly to acquit the Attempt for ever And their tenderness over it is I think a sufficient Indication of their Relation to it every Creature being naturally affectionate to its own Brood and prone to study its preservation The Church of Rome was so tender of Isidores Edition that as some say Hinemarus was forced to recant his Opinion and to declare that he believed and received the Book with Veneration 3. It is recorded by Justellus that the forementioned Hadrian was careful to give Charles the Great a Copy of the Councils and Decretal Epistles drawn up as he affirmed by Dionysius Exiguus Daillè accuses the Book of many faults but whether Hadrian or Dionysius were guilty of them is little material only 't was done as a Pledge of Reconciliation after several Bickerings between the Giver and Receiver Charles the Great having several times invaded Rome and now departing thence with Friendship which makes me a little the more prone to suspect Dionysius too for one of those Danaum Dona which are given like Nessus his Shirt when wounded by Hercules to his Enemies Wife for the destruction of her Husband Be it how it will it shews that Hadrian I. was a busie man that he understood the influence and power of Records what force they would have upon the minds of Lay-men and that his eyes and hands were sometimes busied in such Affairs But that which above all other Arguments discovers the Popes to have a hand if not in the Publication yet in the Reception of the Forgeries is this that the Roman Canonists Ivo Gratian c. have digested them into the Popes Laws and they are so far countenanced by the Popes themselves that almost from the time of their publication throughout all Ages since they have been received for Authentick in the apal Jurisdiction and are used as such in all the Ecclesiastical Courts under the Popes Dominion as the chief of their Rules for the deciding of Causes So that they are not only fostered but exalted by the Authority of Rome The Glory which they acquired in the Throne of Judgment advancing them for a long time above the reach of Suspition The Veneration which is due to the Chair of Holiness was their best security By the influence of the Popes Authority they were received into the Codes of Princes being as we shall shew out of Baronius in the next Chapter introduced into the Capitular Books of the Kings of the Franks by Benedictus Levita and at his instant request confirmed and approved by the 〈◊〉 Chair The Forgeries in Isidore being scattered abroad it is difficult to conceive to what a vast Height the Roman See by degrees 〈◊〉 The Splendour of so many Ancient Martyrs 〈◊〉 together with so many Canons and Decrees in her behalf so far wrought that her Bishop came at last to Claim all Power over all persons Spiritual and Temporal to have the sole power of forgiving sins to be alone Infallible to be Cods Vicar upon Earth the only Oracle in the world nay the sole Supreme and Absolute Monarch disposing of Empires and Kingdoms according to the Tenour of the Doctrines contained in those Forgeries wherein he is made the sole Independent Lord without Controul able to do what ever he lifted Some few Ages after this first Publication of Isidore there were other Records put forth though lately seen yet bearing the countenance of 〈◊〉 Antiquitie which so ordered the matter that according to them the Evangelists brought their Gospels to S. Peter to confirm them and several books of S. Clement S. Peter's Successor were put into the Canon of the Holy Bible the whole number of Canonical books being setled and defined by his sole Authority In token doubtless of the Power Inherent in all S. Peter's Successors at Rome to dispose of the Apostles and their Writings as they please S. 〈◊〉 own Canon for that purpose being numbered among those of the Aposiles That the Pope was uncapable of being judged by any that no Clergy-man was to be Subject to Kings but all to depend immediately upon the Bishop of Rome that he was the Rock and Head of the Church was the constant Doctrine of all those Forgeries when put together with many other Popish Points of less concernment sprinkled up and down in them at every turning Cui bono Among the Civilians 't is a notable mark of Detection in a blind Cause whose Good whose Exaltation whose Benefit is the drift and scope of things and 't is very considerable for the sure finding out of the first Authors That they are Forgeries is manifest Now whose they are is the Question in hand and if Agents naturally intend themselves in their own Operations it is easily solved How excessively the World was addicted to Fables about the time of Isidore's Appearance we may see by the Contents of the 2. Nicene Council Dreams Visions and Miracles being very rife in their best demonstrations and among other Legends a counterfeit Basil a counterfeit Athanasius a counterfeit Emperour maintaining and promoting the Adoration of Images As may perhaps in another Volume be more fully discovered when we descend from these first to succeeding Ages The Counterfeits in Isidore being mingled with the Records of the Church like Tares among Wheat or false Coyns among heaps of Cold lay undistinguished from true Antiquities and after Hincmarus his ill success were little examined by the space of 500 or 600 years Some small opposition there was made in particular by the Bishops in France and
Bellarmine and Baronius though they still carry on the Design of the first Inventers by some other Methods which they hope will succeed better Nor is it any wonder that a Secular Kingdom should make men more active than the love of Heaven since we daily see how the Kings of the world expend vast Treasures of Gold and Silver and run through all dangers of Death and Battel for their own preservation and the Conquest of their Neighbours The same care which they take in building Forts and Cittadels being taken by the Bishop of Rome in maintaining Seminaries Universities Printing-Houses c. which depend absolutely on him for the securing of all that Wealth and Empire which he hath by his Wit and Policy acquired It standeth him upon for if his Religion falls his Glory vanisheth and his Kingdom is abolished What men will do for Secular Ends beyond all the belief and expectation of the Vulgar we see in Hamor and Shechem the first and most Ancient Myrrour of that kind in the world who for the accomplishment of their desires introduced a new Religion troubling themselves and their Citizens unto Blood meerly to get possession of Dinah Jacob's Daughter 〈◊〉 's Policy is about 2500 years old though much more late When the ten Tribes revolted from the House of David for fear lest they should return to their Allegiance if they went up yearly to Jerusalem according to the Law he set up two Calves for the people to worship and underwent a great expence besides the Gold in the Calves in erecting a new Order of Friests that the people might be kept at home in their perverse Obedience He very well knew those Calves were no Deities yet for secular ends he promoted their worship and was followed therein by all the Line of the Kings of Israel several hundred of years together What Demetrius the Silver-Smith did for Diana of the Ephesians and what an uproar he made purely for Gain in making her Shrines all the Christian World understandeth But the High-Priests Scribes and Elders of the Jews in acting against all the Miracles of Christ and against their Conscience especially in giving Money to the Souldiers to hold their peace when they brought the news of his Resurrection their resisting of the Holy Ghost at his Miraculous Descent these are a sufficient instance of the incredible obdurateness of mans heart and his obstinate 〈◊〉 allures his hopes as the immediate Crown of his Labours The Diana of the Romans is much more prosicuous than the Diana of the Ephesians The fattest places of the Provinces and the greatest Empire in the World are the Game they Play This Dinah animateth all their Strength to impose on the people And for the easing of their own Charge it is a usual thing with Popes to permit their Priests and Fryers for their better support to deceive the people which Dr. Stillingfleet in his Book of Popish Counterfeit Miracles does excellently open in which and in all other Arts and Tricks they have a special connivance provided they keep the poor simple Sheep within the bounds of their Jurisdiction and contribute to the continuance of their Secular Kingdom This is the truth of the Story and these are the circumstances of the whole procedure which remains now to be proved CAP. IV. James Merlin's Editions of the Councils who lately published Isidore Hispalensis for a good Record which is now detected and proved to be a Forgery JAmes Merlin's pains was to publish Isidore with some Collections and Additions of his own He positively affirmeth him to be that Famous Isidore of Hispalis a Saint a Bishop and a Father of the Church though as Blondel and Dr. Reynolds accurately observe S. Isidore of Hispalis was dead 40 50 60 years before some things came to pass that are mentioned in that Book of the Councils Blondel in a Book of his called Pseudo-Isidorus or Turrianus Vapulans Cap 2. observes how the lowest that write of Isidores death fix it on the year 647. as Vasaeus in his Chronicle Others on the year 643. as Rodericus Toletanus Hist. lib. 2. cap. 18. Or on the year 635. as the proper Office of the Saints of Spain or on the year 636. when Sinthalus entered his Kingdom as Redemptus Diaconus an eye-witness De Obitu Isidori Brauleo Bishop of Caesar-Augustana Lucas Tudensts Baronius the great Annalist Mariana Grialus and others agree with the last which is eleven years sooner than Vasaeus So that the general prevailing Opinion is that Isidore of Hispalis died in the year 636. However that we may deal most fairly with them we will allow them all they can desire and calculate our affair by the last Account which is most for their advantage Admit Vasaeus in the right that Isidore lived till the year 647. yet the Book which is Fathered upon him can be none of his for it mentions things which came to pass long after It is observed by Blondel that Honoratus who succeeded Isidore in the See of Hispalis is found in the sixth Council of Toledo whereas this pretended Isidore makes mention of the eleventh Council in the same place He talks of the sixth Oecumenical Council in the year 681. no less than 46 years after his own death by the lowest account He writes of Boniface of Mentz slain as Baronius observes in the year 755. which was threescore and sixteen years after Isidores death Yet Possevin upon the word Isidorus Hisp. and Hart in his Conference with Reynolds contend the Author of this Book to be the true Isidore Bishop of Hispalis as Merlin who first published Isidore in print and others did before them Among his Witnesses produced against this Counterfeit the first which Blondel useth is the Code of the Roman Church in which onely the Epistles of 13 Roman Bishops are contained beginning with Siricius Whereas there are in Isidore above 60. whereof five or six and thirty lived before Siricius and were all unknown until the time of Isidore His next Testimony is that of the Bishops of France about the year 865. who concluded that Isidore's Wares then newly beginning to be sold could not have the force of Canons because they were not contained in the Authentick Code or Book of Canons formerly known He next citeth the Council of Aquisgranum An. 816. the Bishops of Paris An. 829. Henricus Caltheisensis Erasmus Greg. Cassander Anton. Contius the famous Lawyer Bellarmine and Baronius the Learned Cardinals The Testimony of Baronius being more largely cited than the residue I thought it meet to search the Author and there I found these following passages Writing upon the Contest between Pope Nicholas and the French Bishops concerning Appeals he beginneth to shew how they complained that the Causes of Bishops which ought to be tryed in Councils by their Fellow Bishops were removed to the Apostolick Chair And they questioned in their Letters whether those Epistles of the more Ancient Bishops which were not inserted into the Body
of the Canons but were written in the Collection of Isidore Mercator were of equal Authority with the residue For the making of which Controversie the more plain and to shew what they mean by the Body of the Canons he tells us It is certain that the more Ancient Collection of the Decretal Epistles of the Roman Bishops and the Canons of divers Councils acquired such a name that the Volum was called The Book or Code or BODY of CANONS increased by the addition of other Councils which were afterwards celebrated But the more ancient and full collection of the Epistles of Roman Bishops and Canons of Councils was that of Cresconius of which I have spoken before saith he Which being increased by the addition of many Canons and Epistles went under the name of the Book or BODY of CANONS and whereas there were many other Collections of Canons compiled that which is the richest of all made by Isidore sirnamed Mercator containing the Epistles of the Ancient Roman Bishops beginning from Clement was Longè recentior far younger than they all as Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes does testifie Forasmuch as it was not brought out of Spain into France before the times of Charles the Great by Riculphus Archbishop of Mentz For so he testifies in a Letter of his to Hincmarus Laudunensis beginning Sicut de Libro c. But he who first collected Canons out of the foresaid Epistles published at first by Isidore and inserted them into the books of the Kings of the Franks was Benedictus Levita as he testifieth of himself in his preface before the fifth book of those Canons who writ in the times of the Sons of Ludovicus Pins the Emperour Ludovicus Lotharius and Charles as me shewed where he saith I have inserted these Canons c. to wit those WARES of Isidore Mercator which were brought as thou hast heard of Hincmarus into France out of Spain by Riculphus Nè quis calumniari possit ab Ecclesiâ Romanâ aliquid hujusmodi commentum esse Lest any one should slander us and say the Church of Rome invented such a business as this I think here is enough He looks upon it as a Commenium a meer Fiction and is 〈◊〉 left any one should have the advantage of Fathering such a dreadful Bastard on the Church of Rome He calls them Isidore the Merchants Wares he does not refel the Bishops of France he dares not affirm they were in the Ancient Code of Epistles and Councils he acknowledgeth them far younger than the BODY of CANONS and subscribes to Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes citing him who writ against Isidore as a good and Authentick Author He confesseth that they were never known in France till the times of Charles the Great that is 700 years after they first began to be written and that they were introduced into the books of the Kings of the Franks by Benedictus Levita in the times of Ludovicus Lotharius which was about the year 850. So that the Church was governed well enough without them and about 800 years after our Saviours Birth they were first hateht as meer Innovations This is too large a Chink for an Enemy to open but he proceedeth further That the same Riculphus Bishop of Mentz did live in the times of Charles the Great many Monuments of that Age do make it certain especially the Testament of the same Charles the Great to which this Riculphus is found to have subscribed among divers others We find that he was President also in a Council at Mentz held in the year of our Redemption 813. c. Since therefore the French Regions which are nearest to Spain knew not the Collection of Isidore before the times of Riculphus much less Italy it is a conjecture that this Isidore did live and write not long before and so it was first published by Riculphus who brought it thither then by Benedictus who put it into the Capitular books and lastly by Hincmarus Junior Bishop of Laon the last Collector unto this our Age which Hincmarus of Rhemes a man of a keener smell reprehendeth in many things defaming that collection of Isidore which the other used for which cause he was accused For Frodoardus in his History of Rhemes Cap. 16. near the end saith of him that being accused because he had condemned the Decretal Epistles of the Roman Bishops he professed and protested otherwise that he admitted held and approved them with the greatest honour Vpon this occasion to wit it appears he was branded with a mark because he had signified himself not to have approved that Collection of Isidore in all things Baronius you see who is one of the greatest Friends to the See of Rome endeavours to remove the matter of Isidore as far as he can from the Roman Chair being sore afraid lest the guilt of so many Forgeries should too apparently be charged upon 〈◊〉 For which cause he will not have the book so much as known in Italy nay not in France which is nearer unto Spain for 800 years time but that it came out of Spain first being brought by Riculphus Perhaps Riculphus was never there He doth not tell us that he went into Spain for ought I can find nor upon what occasion nor in what City nor of whom he received Isidore which putteth me in mind of Cacus his device who being a strong Thief and robbing Hercules of his Oxen drew them all backward by the Tail into his Den that the print of their heels being found backwards they might not be tracked but seem to be gone another way But he fails in his design for as it is strange that Italy should not know the Decretal Epistles of its own Popes for 800 years till Riculphus brought them out of Spain so is it more strange that being such Forgeries as he would have them Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes should be accused for condemning them and ratled up and Branded in such a manner and compelled to recant by so powerful an Enemy for it seems he had no way to save himself but by renouncing his Opinion The jealousie of the Roman Church and its tenderness over Isidore appeareth most exceeding great in the hard dealing which Hincmarus met with who though he did recant was still noted with infamy as if to speak against Isidore were a Crime not to be washed off by the Tears of Repentance in the Church of Rome Perhaps the poor Bishop was an Hypocrite in that forced Confession and for this was branded because he confessed a lye as men upon the Rack are wont to do for his own deliverance for that he knew still that Isidore was a Counterfeit and must therefore be reputed a rotten Member of the Church of Rome This Baronius observes while he ascribeth Hincmarus his reprehending Isidore's Collection to his keener scent whereby he was able more readily than others to smell a Rat and discover the Cheat. Baronius proceedeth further in condemning the collection of Isidore thus But
Nicholas the Pope seemed to abstain from it on purpose for though he was often ingaged in these Controversies concerning Appeals to the Apostolick Chair and there were in it many and those most powerful Testimonies of most holy Popes and they Martyrs too whose Authority might be of highest force in the Church yet he wholly abstained from them which that he knew to be doubtful at least is not to be doubted using only those concerning which there was never any doubt in the Church of God because the Church did not want those adventitious and late invented Evidences because it might receive them abundantly from other places but Benedictus Levita himself also though as you have heard from Hincmarus and as he himself testifies in the Preface before his books he took many things out of that same Collection of Isidore yet being conscious in himself that the Authority of those Epistles was not so sure but that it nodded exceedingly he never cited any Author of them as he did in the other Epistles of the Roman Bishops Innocent Leo Gelasius Symmachus and Gregory naming the Authors of those whose Faith was clear and certain But further yet with great caution because he knew the Evidences taken from them not to be so firm he took care as he testifies in the end to have them confirmed by the Apostolick Authority Is not here a merry passage Benedictus Levita knew the Decretal Epistles to be false and therefore he got them to be made true by the Popes Authority at least to be confirmed as true whereas they were doubtful before It is the manner of sometimes to get others to propose the matters which they themselves design to be done that the business springing from the request of others might appear more graceful in the eye of the people We may justly enquire whether Benedictus Levita were not ordered what to Petition by private instructions from his Holiness before he made his motion to the Chair for it had otherwise been an extravagant impudence to have assaulted the Chair with such a request as that is of craving a Confirmation of new-found Records so feeble and suspected Whatever the Intrigue was the event is clear Benedictus Levita got them confirmed and so they were adopted for his Holiness Children though Pope Nicholas was shy a little out of shame and modesty and blushed to acknowledge his poor Kindred It is further observable that these counterfeit Epistles were first brought in into the Records of the Franks without naming their Authors and that a little after their quiet publication some Favourite of the Chair grew more bold and added their names unto them this of Clement that of Anacletus c. And that the work was thus perfected by degrees Baronius shews us in the following passage But he who first published the Decrees extracted out of those Epistles with the Title of the Roman Bishops in whose names they are recorded was that Hincmarus we mentioned the Bishop of Laon as appears by an Epistle or book written against him by Hincmarus of Rhemes who receiving that work of the Bishop of Laon read it not without indignation and in very many things reprovedit But others have followed the Bishop of Laon as Burchardus who writ in the following Age and others after him who prefixed the names of the very Roman Bishops before all the Chapters which Gratian also did the last of all But that those Epistles are rendered suspitious by many things which we have said in the second Tome of our Annals while we mentioned each in particular is sufficiently demonstrated Where we shewed withal that the holy Roman Church did not need them so as if they should be detected of falsity to be bereaved of its Rights and Priviledges since though she wanteth them she is abundantly strengthened and confirmed by the Legitimate and Genuine Decretal Epistles of other Popes But that the Chapters taken out of them by Benedictus Levita were at first approved as agreeable to the Canons as himself testifies by the Authority of the Roman Bishops which was done also by the latter Collectors it happened rather by long use than for any strength or firmness in themselves Thus Baronius in his Annals An. 865. nu 5 6 7 8. all together In Notis Martyrol ad 4. April he saith Vasaeus is convicted to have erred who thought this Isidore Pacensis that Isidore who collected the Epistles of the Roman Bishops and the Councils c. Hincmarus Laudunensis also and Trithemius and others err who ascribe that collection to Isidore of Hispalis That Opinion is refelled first because Brauleus and Ildephonsus who lived in those times drawing up a Catalogue of his Writings make not the least mention of that work But further all doubt is taken away concerning this matter while the Author of that work speaking there concerning the manner of holding a Council recites the words of the first Canon of the eleventh Council of Toledo and mentions Agatho the Pope in his Preface since Isidore of Hispalis departed this life long before the times of that Council and Pope Agatho Had we time we might make many curious reflexions upon these passages of Baronius He afterwards talks of another Isidore called sometimes Mercator and sometimes Peccator but of what Parents what Calling what City or what Country he was he mentioneth nothing So that this Child among all those Isidores and Fathers that are found out for it must rest at last in one that is unknown All that can be gathered from this whole discourse of Baronius is this That a new Book of Councils richly fraught with Evidences for the Roman Church and Religion came abroad under the name of Isidore containing Decrees and Decretal Epistles that were never before heard of in the world that this Book was falsly Fathered upon Isidore of Hispalis and that all those ancient Epistles of the Roman Bishops from S. Peter down to Siricius are justly suspected Nay he confesses them to be insirm adventitions and lately invented or newly found and to nod exceedingly He opposeth them to those Records which are Legitimate and Genuine though they are of late magnified and followed by all the Collectors of the Decrees and Councils being though waved by some cited and approved by other Popes as well as Doctors Jesuites Cardinals c. This is the last and best Story that can be made on the behalf of that Book the Counterfeits in which as we observed before were because they extol and magnifie the Popes Chair received for good and Authentick Laws in the Church of Rome For Baronius died not long since about the year 1607. in this last Century and when he had seen the truth of those Arguments that are urged against the Forgeries endeavours so to handle this matter in his History as to clear the Church of Rome from the imputation Bellarmine that saw not into this Mystery so clearly takes another course which when we have intimated one or
two Marginal Notes in Baronius we shall declare Baronius deals more fairly with us than Binius for the one in his Marginal Notes contradicteth his Text sometimes to delude the Reader but Baronius fairly notes in the Margin Isidori collectio vulgata in Galliis Isidori collectio ab Antiquis non adeo probata Isidori collectio ut minùs sincera notata c. Soft words for a Treatise rejected but strong Indications of a Desperate Cause The Ancients approved not the collection of Isidore It was not so sincere as it ought c. Cardinal Bellarmine to prove the Popes Supremacy draweth one Argument from the Popes themselves whose Testimonies he casteth into three Classes The first saith he contains the Epistles of Popes that sate from S. Peter to the year 300. in which Calvin and the Magdenburgenses confess the Primacy to be plainly asserted and that those Bishops were holy men and true Bishops but they say the Epistles are forged and new and falsly Fathered on those Bishops In this Class he affirmeth These Holy Fathers do clearly assert the Primacy Clemens in his first Epistle Anacletus in his third Evaristus Epist. 1. Pius Epist. 1 and 2. Anicetus Epist. 1. Victor Epist. 1. Zephirinus Epist. 1. Calixtus Epist. 1. Lucius Epist. 1. Marcellus in Epist. 1. Eusebius Epist. 3. Melchiades Epist. 〈◊〉 Marcus Epist. 1. After this he saith Quamvis aliquos Errores c. Though I cannot deny but that some Errours are crept into them and dare not affirm that they are indubitable yet I doubt not at all but that they are very Ancient As if an old Deed being called into question and the matter of Fact made certain that it was a real Forgery he that holds his possession by it should say It has been interlined indeed and corrupted in many places but 't is very old Let us see however what his reason is for the Antiquity of it He is rough with his Opponents and telleth us The Magdeburgenses do lye when they say Cent. 2. Cap. 7. near the end that no Author worthy of credit ever cited these Epistles before Charles the Great For Isidore who is 200 years older than Charles the Great in the Proem of his collection of the Holy Canons saith that by the advice of 80 Bishops he collected Canons out of the Epistles of Clement Anacletus c. Isidore did indeed begin to flourish near to the year 610. So that Bellarmine takes him right for the same Isidore Bishop of Hispalis But had he well examined the matter he would have forborn to give the Lye to men more in the right than himself confiding in the rotten Antiquity of this Counterfeit Isidore For Isidores Preface is a Counterfeit too made on purpose to countenance the Forgeries not 200 years older than Charles the Great things after the Death of Isidore its pretended Author being mentioned in the same Dr Reynolds in his Conference with Hart having smartly checked him for his fourscore Bishops out of one Isidore asked him About what year of Christ Isidore did die How doth Genebrard write because Genebrard was Hart's most admired Author He answereth About the year 637. as he proveth out of Vasaeus Asking him When the General Council of Constantinople under Agatho was kept He answereth In the year 681. or 682. or thereabout Then Isidore was dead above 〈◊〉 years saith Reynolds before that General Council He was saith Hart but what of that Of that it doth follow that the preface written in Isidores name and set before the Councils to purchase credit to those Epistles is a counterfeit and not Isidore's For in that Preface there is mention made of the General Council of Constantinople held against Bishop Macarius and Stephanus in the time of Pope Agatho and the Emperour Constantine which 〈◊〉 it was held above 40 years after Isidore 〈◊〉 dead by Genebrard's own confession by his own confession Isidore could not tell the fourscore Bishops of it And so the 80 Bishops which Turrian hath found out in one Isidore are dissolved all into one Counterfeit abusing both the name of Isidore and fourscore Bishops Hart was unable to answer him and 〈◊〉 from the Point Harding in his Book against Bishop Jewel citeth these Forgeries frequently and briskly Upon the failure of which though Baronius pretends an abundant number of other Evidences yet in the loss of 30 or 40 Primitive Bishops and Martyrs that were so long time for the first 300 years after Christ together thought to speak for the Supremacy of the Church of Rome one of the fairest Feathers in the Popes Crown is placked away and the younger Evidences in which Baronius trusts being none but the Malepert and Arrogant Testimonies of Junior Popes in their own Causes will make but a slight impression in the minds of men that have found themselves deluded with more ancient 〈◊〉 of the grave and unspotted Authorities of Holy Men that Sacrificed themselves for the Glory of God and the good of the World and sealed their Testimony 〈◊〉 their latest blood which the latter Bishops of Rome have been more Secular and Pompous than to be doing like their Predecessors CAP. V. Divers Forgeries contained in Isidore's Collection mentioned in particular Isidore as he now standeth set forth by Merlin has 50 Canons of the Apostles for pure and good Records many Decretal Epistles made as he pretends by the first Martyrs and Bishops of Rome very long and full of Popery He has two Epistles of S. Clement written to S. James Bishop of Jerusalem that was dead before S. Clement came to the Chair one to the Brethren dwelling with S. James and two others in his name He has four Epistles in the name of Anacletus who lived in the time of Trajan and sate in the Roman Chair An. 〈◊〉 In the last of which the Counterfeit Anacletus feigneth That all the Primacies and Archbithopricks in the World were divided and fetled by S. Peter and S. Clement that the Church of Rome is the Head and Hinge of all the Churches and that all the Patriarchal Sees were made such by vertue of S. Peter Antioch because he sate there before he came to Rome Alexandria because S. Mark came to sit there from S. Peter but Rome especially the first See because it is sanctified by the death of S. Peter and S. Paul As if our Saviours Death were nothing able to sanctifie Jerusalem as S. Peter's death was to sanctifie Rome though besides the Death of Christ Jerusalem hath this advantage that it is the first Church and the Mother of us all That you may a little discein the dealings of the Papists note here that Anacletus his first and second Epistles are cited by Bellarmine for good Records in the very same book where he confesseth them to be Counterfeits For though in one little passage they be confessed for the present satisfaction of a stiff Oppanent yet where men are minded to be corrupt they may serve
the turn in an hundred other places by a Pious Fraud and the Confession being over-skipped they may still seem Authentick especially if the place happen to be unseen where the Confession was made as it often cometh to pass in voluminous writings 〈◊〉 has besides these 2 counterfeit Epistles of 〈◊〉 3 of Alexander 2 of Sixtus 1 of Telesphorus 2 of Higinus 2 of Pius 1 of Anitius 2 of Soter 1 of 〈◊〉 2 of Victor 2 of Zephirinus 2 of 〈◊〉 1 of 〈◊〉 2 of Pontianus 1 of 〈◊〉 3 of Fabian 2 of Cornelius 1 of 〈◊〉 2 of Stephen 2 of Sixtus 2 of Dionysius 3 of 〈◊〉 2 of 〈◊〉 1 of 〈◊〉 2 of Marcellinus 2 of Marcellus 3 of Eusebius 1 of 〈◊〉 All laid down without the least 〈◊〉 of any Fraud though the later 〈◊〉 of the Councils having their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Century-Writers of 〈◊〉 the care of other I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to acknowledge several of them to be Forgeries These Episiles have one common blast upon them they were first seen in a counterfeit book and never known to the World 〈◊〉 hundred years after their pretended Authors were set in their Craves They cannot all be 〈◊〉 at once the Reader therefore must have patience till we meet with them in their places In the mean time see what Bishop Jewel saith concerning them a 〈◊〉 ever answered by any especially as to these points wherein he 〈◊〉 them with Forgery Gratian sheweth that the Decretal Epistles have been doubted of among the Learned Dr. Smith declared openly at Paul's Cross that they cannot possibly be theirs whose names they bear And to utter some reasons shortly for proof thereof these Decretal Epistles manifestly 〈◊〉 and abuse the Scriptures as it may soon appear to the Godly Reader upon sight They maintain nothing so much as the State and Kingdom of the Pope and yet there was no such State erected in many hundred years after the Apostles time They publish a multitude of vain and Superstitious 〈◊〉 and other like fantasies far unlike the Apostles Doctrine They proclaim such things as Mr. Harding knoweth to be open and known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that was next after Peter willeth and 〈◊〉 commandeth that all Bishops once in the year do visit the 〈◊〉 of S. Peter's Church in Rome which they call Limina 〈◊〉 yet was there then 〈◊〉 Church as yet built there in the name of Peter Pope Antherus maketh mention of Eusebius Alexandrinus and Felix which lived a long time after him Fabianus writeth of the coming of Novatus into Italy yet 't is clear by S. Cyprian and 〈◊〉 that Novatus came first into Italy in the time of Cornelius who was next after Fabianus One Petrus Crab the Compiler of the Councils complaineth much that the examples from whence he took them were wonderfu ly corrupted and not one of them agreeing with another Gratian himself upon good advice is driven to say that al such Epistles ought to have place rather in debating matter of Justice in the Consistory than in determining and weighing the truth of the Scriptures Besides this neither S. Hierom nor Gennadius nor Damasus nor any other Old Father ever alledged these Epistles or made any account of them nor the Bishops of Rome themselves at the first no not when such Evidences might have stood them in best stead in their ambitious contention for Superiority over the Bishops of Africa The Contents of them are such as a very Child of any judgment may soon be able to 〈◊〉 them Here he nameth St. Clement's writing to St. James when he was dead Marcellus charging the Emperour Maxentius an Infidel and a Tyrant with the Authority of Clement with several things of this kind In his Reply to Harding's Answer Artic. 1. and 4. But I proceed with Isidore or rather Merlin that first printed him He has besides all these Epistles certain counterfeit Decrees of Sylvester Bishop of Rome in the time of Constantine the Great and the Epilogus brevis Romani 〈◊〉 post 〈◊〉 celebrati which Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes is reported particularly to have excepted against as absurd because it ordaineth 1. That no Lay-man ought to accuse a Clergy-man 2. That no Inferiour Priest may accuse his Superiour 3. That a 〈◊〉 may not be condemned without 72 Witnesses a Cardinal Priest not without 43 a Cardinal Deacon of the City of Rome not without 27 a Sub-Deacon an 〈◊〉 a Reader a Door-keeper not without 7 〈◊〉 It is further provided that every one of these 〈◊〉 must be without any spot of infamy no Lay-man at all nor any inferiour Clergy man So that upon the matter a safe Indemnity is prepared for all kind of Priests especially the great ones to swim in any Excess as himself listeth provided he be not guilty of the Protestants faults that is to say that he doth not touch the Popes Crown or the Monks Belly This Decree is most solemnly put among the Councils by Isidore and Merlin by Peter Crabbe Surius Binius Labbe and Cossartius and the Collectio Regia and as solemnly put among the Popes Laws by Ivo an ancient Bishop a great Civilian and one of the Eldest Digesters of the Canon Law before Gratian This brief Epilogue set before the Council giveth you to wit that there were Cardinals in Rome in the time of Constantine the first Christian Emperour But if you please to examine Antiquities you will hardly sind Cardinals so ancient Isidore in his Preface directed to one whom he calls his Fellow-servant and Father of the Faith mentioneth 70 Canons of the Nicene Council somewhat too affectedly You 80 Bishops saith he who have compelled me to begin and perfect this work ought to know and so ought all other Priests of the Lord that we have found more than those 20 Canons of the Nicene Council that are with us And we read in the Decrees of Julius the 〈◊〉 that there ought to be 〈◊〉 Chapters of that Synod Yet when he cometh to the Council it self he forgets himself so far as to lay down but 20 the 50 forged 〈◊〉 receiving a fair Countenance only by that Preface or Epistle set for shew before the work He has an Epistle of Athanasius and the Bishops of Egypt to Pope Mark wherein they tell him that there were 70 Canons of the Nicene Council and desire him to send them into Egypt from Rome since all their own were burnt at Alexandria by the Arrians Mark was dead 9 years before the Burning happened howbeit he sent them a Gracious Answer with the 70 Canons The 〈◊〉 of these was seriously cited to 〈◊〉 by a Learned Son of that Church to prove the Bishop of Rome was called Pope to wit by Athanasius and all the Bishops of Egypt within the first 〈◊〉 years But some of their latest Authors begin to blush at it as Binius and Baronius do in particular Next to these he has three Epistles of Julius the Pope as very Counterfeits as the former yet generally
cited by the Pseudo-Catholicks as good Records After these an Epistle of Athanasius and the Bishops of Egypt to Liberius the oppression of the Church by the Arrians being the pretended Theme but its real design is to magnifie the Popes Chair Liberius his Answer Ejusdem 〈◊〉 A lofty Brag like the residue An Epistle of the Bishops of Egypt to Pope Felix concerning the cruel Persecutions of the Arrians An humble Address and very Supplicatory Though Felix was an Arrian himself and an Usurper of the Chair thrust in by an Arrian Emperour while Liberius the true owner of it was banished for the Faith yet the stile of the Epistle runneth thus Domino beatissimo c. To our most blessed and most honourable Lord the Holy Father Faelix Pope of the Apostolical City Athanasius and all the Bishops of Egypt Thebais and Lybia by the Grace of God assembled in the Holy Council of Alexandria A stile too too lofty for those purer times of humble simplicity The usual Compellations of those days as may be seen by S. Cyprian's Letters to the Bishops of Rome and some other good Records being far more short and samiliar such as Julio Vrbis Romae Episcopo or Stephano fratri or Cornelio Collegae Coepiscopo that is to Julius Bishop of the City of Rome or to Stephen my Brother or to Cornelius my Associate and Fellow bishop Nor can we find any other in undoubted instruments for the first 300 or 400 years But for an Vsurper to be called Most blessed and honourable Lord an Heretick Holy Father and Pope of the Apostolical City and that by a man who had rather die than be guilty of such a Flattery was little suitable to the Spirit of Athanasius that Great and Couragious Champion of the Church being as God would have it one that of all others was the most mortal hater of the Arrians Isidore and Merlin dote so exceedingly as to make this Usurper a Pope and to record his Decrees as lawful Canons After a little time Liberius was restored but on very base and dishonourable terms as Bellarmine himself testifieth out of S. Hierom and Athanasius He fainted in his Persecution and was restored by an Arrian Emperour upon his Subscription to the Heretical Pravity After this he writeth more Decretals and the Title of his Epistle is in Isidore thus Epistola Liberii Papae ut nullus pro Persecutionibus dum dur are potestatem suam relinquat Ecclesiam It is Nonsense and false Latine but Binius about a thousand and three hundred years after Liberius his death mendeth it thus Epistola XII Liberii Papae ad omnes generaliter Episcopos ut nullus pro persecutionibus dum durare potest suam relinquat Ecclesiam That no man should forsake his Church for persecution sake while he was able to bear it By the Title it should be a compassionate Letter For if any one be wearied with persecution as Liberius was by a tacit intimation it seemeth to permit him to renounce the Faith as Liberius did for Bellarmine and Platina consent to this that he subscribed to the Arrian Creed only the one saith he did it in the external act through fear and the other Sentiens that he thought or consented with them in all Platin. in vit Liberii Damasus his Epistle to Paulinus Bishop of Antioch follows I fear an Imposture Isidore and Merlin were not aware there was no such man Their Followers are fain to mend it thus Paulinus Bishop of Thessalonida As Binius Labbe c. In vitâ Damasi Next the Epistle of Damasus to Hierom and Hierom's Answer both confessed to be a Forgery there is an Epistle of Stephen the Archbishop and of three Councils in Africa to Damasus the Pope concerning the priviledge of the Roman Chair Doubtless the Bishops in Africa were very zealous for the priviledge of the Roman Chair ever since the Oppression and Cheat of Zozimus The Title is somewhat suspitious Beatissimo Damino Apostolico Culmini sublato c. Stephanus Archiepiscopus Concilii Mauritanii c. In English thus To our most blessed Lord and the Apostolical Top highly lifted up the Holy Father of Fathers and the Supreme Bishop over all Prelates Stephen Archbishop of the Council of Mauritania and all the Bishops of the three Councils in the Province of Africa Many men have stiled themselves Archbishops of Provinces but no man as I remember Archbishop of a Council There may be Archbishops in a Council but not an Archbishop of the Council Three Councils at once in the same Province were never heard of One and the same Letter sent from three Councils is a strange thing So is a Letter sent in the name of one Archbishop as President of three Councils at a time After this we have 6 Epistles of Siricius 2 of Anastasius 19 of Innocent 2 of Zozimus 3 of Boniface with feveral Answers Among which there is inserted a Constitution of Honorius the Emperour sent to Boniface That if there were two Bishops of Rome made any more they should be both driven out of the City Which shews how subject the Roman Chair is to Schismes and the Power that did of old belong to the Emperour There are other Epistles of Celestine Sixtus Leo Hilarius Simplicius Felix Gelasius Anastasias Symmachus Hormisda c. the most of which do much exceed our compass of the first 400 years and are too late for our Cognizance For since the Forgery of Zozimus much credit is not to be given to the Roman Bishops Not as if one mans fault had blasted them all but he leads up the Van of Forgets and they have all persisted in his Guilt no one of them making acknowledgment or restitution and almost all of them guilty of the like either by doing or suffering Among the rest there is an Instrument which the Collector calleth Sacra Justini Imperatoris ad Hormisdam Papam The Sacred Writing of the Emperour Justinus to Hormisda Pope But the word POPE is not in the superscription The Letter it self is To the most Holy and blessed Archbishop and Patriarch of the Venerable City of Rome Hormisda Archbishop and Fatriarch we allow him but not that Typhus wherewith the Fathers in the sixth Council of Carthage charge Zozimus that blasphemous Title which John assumed at Constantinople and S. Gregory so declaimed against at Rome This Letter of Justin the Emperour was written more than 500 years after our Saviours Birth yet I never saw true Record in all that time give a Title so high to the Bishop of Rome But Justin was a man of low Descent a Swineherd at first a Carpenter afterwards then a Souldier of Fortune and at last an Emperour He was the more solicitous therefore to complement so Mighty a Bishop with accurate expression Note well Isidore has suppressed all the Canons of the sixth Council of Carthage as too bitter and sharp for the Popes Constitution And so has Merlin though very
hateful Forgeries But who could suspect that so much Fraud could be Ushered in with so fair a Frontispiece or so much Sordid Basene s varnished over with so much Magnificence I have heard of a Thief that robbed in his Coach and a Bishops Pontificalibus of the German Princess and of Mahomet's Dove But I never heard of any thing like this that a 〈◊〉 should trade with Apostles Fathers Emperours Golden Bulls Kings and Councils under the fair pretext of all these to Cheat the World of its Religion and Glory His Grandeur is rendered the more remarkable and his Artifice redoubted by the Greatness of his Retinue Riculphus Archbishop of Mentz Hincmarus Laudunensis Benedictus Levita the Famous 〈◊〉 and his fourscore Bishops Ivo Cartonensis Gratian Merlin Peter Crab Laurentius Surius Carranza Nicolinus Binius Labbè Cossartius the COLLECTIO REGIA Stanistaus Hosius Cardinal Bellarmine Franciscus Turrianus c. Men that bring along with them Emperours and Kings for Authority as will appear in the Sequel Men who think it lawful to Cheat in an Holy Cause and to lye for the Churches Glory These augment the Splendour of his Train Their Doctrine of Pious Frauds is not unknown And if we may do evil that good may come certainly no good like the Exaltation of the Roman Church can possibly be found wherewith to justifie a little evil The Jesuites Morals are well understood Upon their Principles to do evil is no evil if good may ensue Perjury it self may be dispenced with by the Authority of their Superiour An illimited Blind Obedience is the sum of their Profession To equivocate and lye for the Church that is for the advancement of their Order and the Popes benefit is so far from sin that to murder Heretical Kings is not more Meritorious It is a sufficient Warrant upon such grounds to James Merlin our present Author that he was commanded to do what he did by great and eminent Bishops in the Church of Rome as he sheweth in his Epistle Dedicatory To the most Reverend Fathers in Christ and his most excellent Lords Stephen and Francis c. the one of which was Bishop of Paris and the other an Eminent Prelate who ordered all his work by their care and made it publick by their own Authority Conceiving nothing saith he more profitable for the Commonwealth I have not dissembled to bring the Decrees of the Sacred Councils and Orthodox Bishops which partly the blessed Isidore sometime since digested into one partly you most Reverend Fathers having confirmed them with your Leaden Seal gave me to be published in one Volume For every particular appeareth so copiously and Catholickly handled here which is necessary for the convicting of the Errours of mortal men or for the restoring of the now almost ruined World that every man may readily find wherewith to kill Hereticks and Heresies The Protestants being grown so dangerous that they had almost ruined the Popish World by reforming the Church nothing but this Medusa's Head of Snakes and Forgeries was able to affray them The nakedness of the Pontisicians being discovered they had no Retreat from the Light of the Gospel but to this Refuge of Lies Where every one may readily find saith Merlin wherewith to kill Hereticks and Heresies to depress the proud to weary the voluptuous to bring down the ambitious to take the little Foxes that spoil the Vineyard of the Church By the proud and ambitious he meaneth Kings and Patriarchs that will not submit to the Authority and Supremacy of the Roman Church and by the little Foxes such men as the Martyrs in the Reformed Churches the driving away of which was the design of the publication That he meaneth Kings and Patriarchs in the former you will see in the Conclusion And if any one shall hereafter endeavour to fray and drive away these Monsters from the Commonwealth what can be more excellent saith he than the stones of David which this Jordan shall most copiously afford If any one would satisfie the desires of the Hungry what is more sweet and abundant than the Treasures which this Ship bringeth from the remotest Regions but if he desires the path and splendour of Truth by which the clouds of Errour with their Authors may best be dispelled and driven far away what is more apparent than the Sentences of the Fathers which they by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost have brought together into this Heap For here as out of a Meadow full of all kind of Flowers all things may be gathered with ease that conduce to the profit of the Church or the suppressing of Vices or the extinguishing of Lusts. Here the most precious Pearl if you dig a little will strait be found c. Here the Tyranny of Kings and Emperours as it were with a Bit and Bridle is restrained Here the Luxury of 〈◊〉 and Bishops is repressed If Princes differ here peace sincere is hid If Prelates contend about the Primacy here THE ANGEL OF THE GREAT COUNCIL discovers who is to be preferred above the residue c. Are not the Roman Wares set off with advantage here How exceedingly are these Medicines for the Maladies of the Church boasted by these Holy Mountebanks The stones of David that kill Goliah the River that refresheth the City of God the Food of Souls the Ship the very Argonaut of the Church that comes home laden with Treasures from unknown Regions are but mean expressions the Inspirations of the Holy Ghost the Pearl of Price Angelus ille Magni Concilii the Angel of the Covenant are hid here and all if we believe this dreadful Blasphemer declare for the Pope against all the World Here is a Bit and Bridle for Kings and Emperours a Rule for Patriarchs and what not The Councils and true Records we Reverence with all Honour due to Antiquity And for that very cause we so much the more abhor that admixture of Dross and Clay wherewith their Beauty is corrupted Had we received the Councils sincerely from her we should have blest the Tradition of the Church of Rome for her assistance therein But now she loveth her self more than her Children and the Pope which is the Church Virtual is so hard a Father that he soweth Tares instead of Wheat and giveth Stones instead of Bread and for Eggs feedeth us with Scorpions We abhor her practices and think it needful warily to examine and consider her Traditions What provisions are made in Merlin's Isidore for repressing the Luxuries of Popes and Bishops you may please to see in Constantines Donation and the Epilogus Brevis In the one of which so many Witnesses are required before a Bishop be condemned and in the other care is taken for the Pomp. of the Clergy even to the Magnificence of their Shooes and the Caparisons of their Horses As Merlin who was a Doctor of Divinity of Great Account so likewise all the following Collectors among the Papists derive their Streams from this Isidore
the first Collectors of the Councils among the Papists I have taken the more liberty to be somewhat copious in them that I may conveniently be more brief in perusing the residue CAP. VII Of Francis Turrian the Jesuite With what Art and Boldness he defendeth the Forgeries NOtwithstanding all the weakness and uncertainty of Isidore Francis Turrian the Famous Jesuite appears in its defence about 40 years after the first publication of it by Merlin The Centuriators of Magdenburg having met with it to his great displeasure he is so Valiant as not only to maintain all the Forgeries therein contained but the whole Body of Forgeries vented abroad by all the Collectors and Compilers following till himself appeared His Book is expresly formed against the Writers of the Centuries and is a sufficient Evidence that as soon as Isidore came abroad by Dr. Merlin's Labour and the Bishop of Paris Command it was sifted by the Protestants It is dedicated to the most Illustrious and most Reverend D. D. Stanissaus Hosius Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and Bishop of Collein Printed by the Heirs of John Quintel and approved by Authority An. Dom. 1573. He defends all the Canons of the Apostles which are recounted by other Collectors That you may know the Mettal of the Man I will produce but two Instances The last of those Canons which he maintaineth to be the Apostles is this which followeth Qui Libri sunt Canonici c. Let these Books be Venerable and Holy to you all Of the Old Testament five Books of Moses Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy one of Joshua the Son of Nun one of Judges one of Ruth four of Kings two of Chronicles Hester one three of the Macchabees one of Job one Book of Psalmes three of Solomon Proverbs Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs one of the 12 Prophets one of Isaiah one of Jeremiah one of Ezekiel one of Daniel And without let your young men learn the Wisdom of the Learned Syrach But of ours that is of the New Testament there are four Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John fourteen Epistles of Paul two Epistles of Peter three of John one of James one of Jude two Epistles of Clement and the Ordinations of Me Clement set forth in Eight Books to you Bishops which are not to be published to all because of the Mysteries contained in them and the Acts of our Apostles This is the eighty fourth Canon and in some Accounts the eighty fifth where you see the Episiles of Clement and Eight Books of his Ordinations put into the Body of the Bible As for the difference of the Accounts he sheweth you the way how to reconcile them If this be one of the Apostles Canons then Clement was an Apostle or had 〈◊〉 Power But if it be a Forgery then not only the Apostles Canons but the very Text of the Holy Scriptures is interlined and forged by the same He maintains all the Decretal Epistles and among the rest S. Clement's Whose genuine Epistle to the Corinthians they leave cut as making nothing to their purpose but five Spurious ones they record the two first of them being written to S. James and the last to the Brethren dwelling with him at Jerusalem It is good sport to see how like the shot of a great Gun the Discovery of the Protestants comes in among them Their keenness in detecting the time of S James his Death shatter the 〈◊〉 and whereas before they were all united they now fly several ways every man 〈◊〉 for himself as he is best able Baronius dislikes suen Arts of upholding the Church not as impious and unlawful but as inconvenient and pernicious Bellarmine 〈◊〉 the Epistles to be Old but dares not attest them Isidore Merlin Peter Crabbe Nicolinus Carranza and Surius own them freely without any scruple For saying nothing of the Quarrel they lay them down simply as good Records Binius Labbè and the Collectio Regia confess some of them to be false and in particular that S James was dead seven years before S. Clement could write his first Epistle to him And to salve the sore they say that it was not written to James but to Simeon who was also Bishop of Jerusalem and Brother to our Lord and that the Name of James crept into the Title Mendosè by Errour and Mistake for that of Simeon But honest Turrian maintains plainly that S. Peter and S. Clement knew very well that S. James was dead before they wrote unto him yet nevertheless they did very wisely both S. Peter in ordering the Epistle and S. Clement in writing it And his Reasons as he bringeth the matter about are pretty specious For my part I protest that such a High Piece of Impudence was to me incredible But that you may see the rare Abilities of a Jesuite to argue well for the absurdest Cause turn to his Book and read his Comment on S. Clement's first Epistle and there you shall see Wit and Folly equal in their height Wit in managing but Folly in attempting so mad a business For the sake of those who are not able to read or get the Book I will give you a Glympse of his Demonstrations First he observeth how Reason it self compelleth us especially being confirmed by so many and so great Testimonies of the Ancients to confess the Epistle to be S. Clement's whose it is reported to be He sophistically pretendeth here that there were great Authorities of the Ancient Fathers extant to prove it Whence saith he it began to be had in every mans hand to be read by the Catholicks to be put among the Decretal Epistles and produced and cited in Ecclesiastical Causes and Judgments The latter part of which Clause is true For as we before observed Gratian Ivo and the rest of the Popes Ministers have brought the Decretals into the Body of the Canon-Law which maketh the matter more fatal and abominable for being really cited in their Ecclesiastical Courts and used both in matters of Controversie and in cases of Conscience they are forced either to defend them or to pluck up their Customs by the very Roots and so further expose the Church of Rome to the shame of Levity or Fraud yet for this very cause it is far more impious and wicked to retain them So that not knowing which way is best some of them retain them and some of them renounce them But you must wink at all this and believe what Turrian says for the Authority of the Roman Church which hath seated the Forgeries in the Chair of Judgment is a greater Argument to them that believe her Infallible than any one Doctor can bring against them Neither was blessed Peter ignorant when he commanded to write to the Dead nor Clement saith he when he wrote by the Commandment but that the Readers would presently see the Epistle to be written to him whom all men knew to be dead before S. Peter they being about
into the Book and that Hadrian had a finger in it which reached perhaps farther than the beginning If the Book was as new as the Acrostick Dionysius was far enough from being its Author What Faith we are to have in the Papists when they tell us who were the Ancient Compilers of the Councils you may see by Baronius who giving us an Account of their Order reckons Isidore a known Counterfeit for one Dionysius Exiguus for the first Ferdinandus Diaconus for the second Martinus Bracarensis for the third Cresconius for the fourth and after all these Isidore for the fift As certain as Isidore was a Collector of the Councils so certain is it that Dionysius was one but further certainty yet I can see none Charles the Great perhaps having never seen the like before was pleased with the Acrostick and the putting of his Name in Capital Letters before the Councils was delightful to him Syrens sing sweetly while they deceive bloodily Hadrian I. knew well what was a Gift fit for a Scholar and a Pope of Rome If I should produce but one passage which I found in it the matter would be more effectual For after he has done with the Councils he lays down the Decretal Epistles of 13 Roman Bishops beginning with Syricius who lived in the year 385. In his Epistle to Himerius there is this passage Such is our Office saith he that it is not lawful for us to be silent for us to dissemble upon whom a Zeal greater than that of all others of the Christian Religion is incumbent We bear the burdens of all that are oppressed nay rather the blessed Apostle Peter beareth them in us who as we trust protecteth and defendeth us his Heirs in all the things of his Administration Of GOD he saith nothing here but his confidence is all in Peter There is not a word like it in all Antiquity and those words protecteth and defendeth us seem to relate to those Jars that had been before between Hadrian and Charles the King or Emperour These observations carry me to believe what I met with in Daille since Dionysius is gone from under my hands and having searched into the Book since I am further confirmed About 74 years after the Council of Chalcedon Dionysius Exiguus whom we before-mentioned made his collection at Rome which is since Printed at Paris cum Privilegio Regis out of very Ancient Manuscripts Whosoever shall but look diligently into his collection shall find divers alterations in it one whereof I shall instance in only to shew how Ancient this Artifice hath been among Christians The last Canon of the Council of Laodicea which is the 163 of the Greek Code of the Church Universal forbidding to read in Churches any other Books than those which are Canonical gives us withal a long Catalogue of them Dionysius Exiguus although he hath indeed inserted in his collection Num. 162. the beginning of the said Canon which forbiddeth to read any other Books in the Churches besides the sacred Volumes of the Old and New Testament yet hath he wholly omitted the Catalogue or List of the said Books fearing as I conceive lest the Tail of this Catalogue might scandalize the Church of Rome c. A little after he saith the Greek Code represents unto us VII Canons of the first Council of Constantinople which are in like manner found both in Balsamon and in Zonoras and also in the Greek and Latine Edition of the General Councils Printed at Rome The three last of these do not appear at all in the Latine Code of Dionysius though they are very considerable ones as to the business they relate to which is the order of proceeding in passing judgment upon Bishops accused and in receiving such persons who forsaking their communion with Hereticks desire to be admitted into the Church It is very hard to say what should move the Collector to Gueld this Council thus But this I am very well assured of that in the sixth Canon which is one of those he hath omitted and which treateth of judging of Bishops accused there is not the least mention made of Appealing to Rome nor of any Reserved Cases wherein it is not permitted to any save only to the Pope to judge a Bishop The power of hearing and determining all such matters being here wholly and absolutely referred to the Provincial Synods and to their Dio cesans Another instance which he hath is this After the Canons of Constantinople there follow in the Greek Code VIII Canons of the General Council of Ephesus set down also both by Balsamon and Zonoras and Printed with the Acts of the said Council of Ephesus in the first Tome of the Roman Edition but Dionysius Exiguus hath discarded them all c. Daille in his Treatise of the Right 〈◊〉 of the Fathers Cap. 4. pag. 45 46 47. This being true the Authority of Dionysius is very small relating to the matter of the Council of Sardica If any man hath any thing to say against it let him when he answereth this Charge of ours produce what he is able in Defence of Dionysius as to the points whereof he stands accused by Daille but we proceed to Nicolinus CAP. XII Nicolinus his Epistle to Pope Sixtus His contempt of the Fathers He beginneth to confess the Epistle of Melchiades to be dubious if not altogether Spurious He overthrows the Legend about Constantines Donation THat you may know the Genius of the Man a little better how much he was devoted to the service of the Pope and how little he valued the Authority of Councils and Fathers I have thought it meet to give you his Epistle and his Admonition to the Reader recorded by him in the words following To our Most Soveraign Lord Sixtus V. High-Priest It fell out conveniently for me Most Blessed Father in the Universal Joy of the Christian World for your Elevation to the Sublimity of the Apostleship that in so great a multitude flowing from every place to honour you I also among the Oldest Servants of your Holiness had something near at hand which is unworthy neither of the Masty of your Name or Authority and yet very fit for my Occasions to offer at your feet as suitable to the Office of my Gratitude and Veneration It is a new Edition of the Councils for the remarkable addition of two Councils especially the Nicene and the Ephesine never published so entire and full as now For to whom may the Councils of the Church aided by the Inspiration of the H. Ghost according to the seasonableness of various times for the repairing of her Ship more fitly be Dedicated than to her Chief Master to whom it is given from Heaven to call and confirm them especially him who is so well versed in all Scholastical Disciplines and Ecclesiastical History I have used all diligence according to my weak ability sparing no cost omitting no labour the most Catholick and Learned Divines of our Age being
any thing perversly or presume to speak against the same Holy Canons or consent to them that will for such a presumption is manifestly one kind of blaspheming the H. Ghost Because as was even now promised it acteth against him by whose grace and impulse the same Holy Canons were set forth But the wickedness of the Devil is wont to deceive many and so doth very oftentinies delude the imprudence of some by a similitude of Piety that he perswadeth them to take hurtful things for healthful Therefore the Rule of H. Canons which are made by the Spirit of God and consecrated by the Reverence of the whole World is faithfully to be known and diligently to be handled by us lest by any means the Decrees of the H. Fathers should without inevitable necessity which God forbid be transgressed but that we walking most faithfully in them may by their Merits God assisting deserve the glory of a reward and the heap of our labour These therefore being rightly considered and upon our deliberation brought to the knowledge of your Churches it most highly becometh you to obey the Rules of the same H. Canons lest the sloth of some should make them in any thing to walk contrary to them But let your wise and wholesome Doctrine which desires you in all things to please God shew them these faithful Fellow-workmen in their Thrones the coheirs and partakers of the Coelestial Kingdom Dated XVI Kal. Jun. Gratian and Cyricius being Consuls The close of the Epistle is not clear nonsense is very obscure The meaning of it is that Aurelius should shew men the Decretal Epistles of Clement Anacletus c. those faithful Fellow-workmen in their Thrones the coheirs and partakers of the Coelestial Kingdom that are now in Heaven to the intent they may obey them and come to the same Eternal Glory A goodly design doubtless But we have a cross proverb 〈◊〉 be to the Sheep while the Fox Preacheth This piety in the Close is but the Sheep-skin to cover the Fox who needs not more cunning in Preaching than concealing himself We have a more sacred saying In the Pit which he made for others is himself fallen And it is not impertinent for while he chargeth others with the unpardonable sin himself blasphemes the Holy 〈◊〉 For to make the Holy Ghost the Father of Lies is I think to blaspheme him Damasus we confess never made the Epistle but that makes the matter worse Some other in Damasus his Coat is guilty of this accursed business that while he Fathers the Frauds which himself invented on the H. Ghost has not ignorance to excuse but malice to condemn him And whether the Forgeries are not so Fathered still on the Holy Ghost may be a proper Question Binius I think was afraid of these Epistles Nicolinus in his Printer to the Reader pretendeth an exact observation of the time under what Pope things were done but for once he varies the method and sets this in the Front of the Forgeries to countenance all He knows them perhaps to be what they are yet clearly owns them There is some Errour in the date of these Epistles an usual Symptom of the Disease in such Instruments Instead of the XVI Kal. Jun. Nicolinus putteth it the XI Some hidden reason compels him or he would never be so nice for Cyricius Siricius a small mistake But the next is greater for Gratian Equitius As if Damasus the Pope could not tell who was Consul at Rome when he wrote his Letter I wonder at Damasus for one thing much he tells us of the wickedness of the Devil who deludes men with a shew of Piety and forces in that expression of the Devils perswading men to take hurtful things for healthful so affectedly that it would make one to think his Guilt put him in memory of such a saying But his design in charging all that impugn them with the dreadful and unpardonable sin of blaspheming the Holy Ghost was more clearly to deter men from writing or speaking against these pretended Canons And perhaps he declaims against the wickedness of others that delude the imprudence of some with a similitude of Piety and so loudly inveigheth against the Guilt of perswading men to take hurtful things for healthful to remove the suspition from himself Whatever t is no man is more guilty of the Fraud in the World You may note a contradiction in the Letter The Canons of the H. Fathers and Bishops of Rome were consecrated by the Reverence of the whole World and yet upon Aurelius his desire were newly brought to the knowledge of the Churches and now first ordered to be published and preached They past the deliberation of our present Damasus before they came abroad being rightly considered and upon due deliberation brought to the knowledge of the Churches Doubtless they were well weighed and what was most agreeable to the Roman Chair was pickt out and chosen for the purpose CAP. XIV Counterfeit Canons of the Apostles defended by Binius A Glympse of his Pretences Sophistries and Contradictions A Forged Council of Apostles concerning Images defended by Binius and Turrian SEverinus Binius a late Collector of the Councils is grown so famous that his Voluminous Tomes have been Printed thrice he is approved by an Epistle of Pope Paul V. inserted among other Instruments before his Work and so highly esteemed that he is exactly followed by Labbe and Cossartius in 17 Volumes and taken in word for word by the COLLECTIO REGIA lately published by the care of a King in 37 Tomes The reason why they follow Binius so exactly the Collectio Regia giveth in 〈◊〉 words set next to the Title-page of the Book for our better information We thought fit to follow the last collection of the councils put forth by Binius and illustrated with his Notes and to Print it 〈◊〉 as that which of all others is most richly stored Wherein they have done Binius as great Honour as one can well imagine for it shews his Notes to be the best and most convenient that can be gotten in the Church of Rome and that all the Collectors since which were very many have not been able to devise better Hereupon it followeth that in one Work we may the more concisely treat of Binius Labbe Cossartius and the Collectio Regia together I once intended to give you a Copy of the Popes approbation with the other Authorities by which Binius is approved but as the case 〈◊〉 it is superfluous He pretendeth in Preface and 〈◊〉 to justifie all the Canons Councils and Decretal Epistles and maketh a glorious shew setting them down afterwards with great Titles of Splendour and Majesty in such sort that a man would take them all for Authentick Records But when he cometh to his Notes he many times deserteth his design and confesseth the Imposture But his Notes are 〈◊〉 in more 〈◊〉 and inconsiderable Letters and those his acknowledgments hidden from a 〈◊〉 Eye in little
Records excepting some perhaps that were since invented And if the last two Ages brought so many to light an Age or two more may through Gods blessing accomplish Wonders The Secular state and security of the Pope with his Adherents which Binius in his Epistle to Pope Paul V. calls Honor Augmentum 〈◊〉 was the end of all And if men excogitate Titles to Crowns and patch up 〈◊〉 with some Flaws yet serviceable enough with the help of a Long Sword then a Chair so Politick is able to do it more neatly having had the strong Holds of the Church so long in their hands Now we shall note some few of those many Errours that are in the Pontifical which though it be a duty circumstance to have such a Text to gloss on is the Basis of their Discourses and the Rule of their Method both in the Popes and Councils It beginneth thus Peter the blessed Apostle and Prince of the Apostles the Son of John of the Province of Galilee of the City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Brother of Andrew sate in the Chair of Antioch seven years In the end it 〈◊〉 us how long S. Peter Reigned just twenty five years two moneths and three days Binius tells us with the consent of Baronius it was rather twenty four years five moneths and eleven days The Pontifical saith Peter was Martyred with Paul on the same day Though Prudentius and S. Angustine say It was not the same year Binius reconcileth them They were slain the same day indeed but not the same year Therefore say we Peter was not Martyred with S. Paul The Pontifical says It was 38 years after the Passion of our Lord. More truly the 35. saith Binius in the 13 year of Nero and the 69 after the Birth of Christ. S Peter's Name is the Patron and 〈◊〉 of the Roman Church and therefore inserted like a Shield in the Front Next his Notes on S. Peter's Life Binius inserts the Treatise of the Roman Churches Primary Ex antiquo Codice out of an Old Book without any name at all Which puts me in mind of the Gibeonites old Bottles clouted Shooes and mouldy Bread and the notable Cheat which thereby they put on the Israelites All is Old and Ancient in the Church of Rome and this Old Book of the Primacy set before the Councils according to the Rules of Art because the End is to be proposed before the Means After this old Treatise of the Primacy he cometh to S. Linus Pope and Martyr He is pleased to call him Pope as well as Pope Peter not as if his Contemporaries called him so but because the Modern Title will not sit well on the present Popes unless it be given to S. Peter and the first Bishops of that See And ever and anon he begins with a known Lye in the top of the Chapter formally set by it self the more pleasingly to take the eye after the manner of a Title Ex Libro Pontificali Damasi Papae OUT OF THE PONTIFICAL OF POPE DAMASVS This course he continues from Life to Life throughout all the Popes so far as the Pontifical lasteth intermixing the Decretal Epistles first and then the Councils in the Lives of the several Popes or to use his form under the pope in whose Life they happened And all his Tomes being moulded into that form it makes every Pope seem to him that is not aware of the fetch the Supreme over all Councils from the beginning And with this Method he always goes on Ex libro Pontificali Damasi Papae hoping perhaps that in long tract of time he should be at last believed In all the Book there is scarce a Life wherein there are not as many Errours as in S. Peter's As in example Linus sate eleven years three moneths and twelve days 〈◊〉 the Pontifical Binius saith It was eleven years two moneths and twenty three days A days difference where the exactness is pretended to be so great shews all to be Counterfeit He saith 〈◊〉 sate twelve years one moneth and eleven days Binius tails on him for the mistake though he agrees with him in the 〈◊〉 that Linus and Cletus sate some twenty three years between Peter and Clement So that on this account S. James was dead above 27 years before S. Clement who wrote a 〈◊〉 Epistle to him came to the Chair For before he was Pope he might write an Epistle but not a Decretal Epistle Cletus saith Binius was by S. Irenaeus Ignatius and 〈◊〉 called 〈◊〉 which Baronius thinks was a mistake among the Greeks 〈◊〉 by the Errour of Writers and Libraries What shifts will a man be driven to by a desperate Cause Three of the best and most Ancient Fathers were cheated with the Errour of Writers and Libraries concerning a mans Name that was alive either not long before or together with themselves S. Irenaeus and Ignatius are extremely Ancient Ignatius lived before Anacletus was Bishop of Rome much more before his Name was put into Libraries and much more yet before it could be corrupted there by the mistake of Scribes and Writers But such Errours of Writers and Libraries are a good hint how capable they are of them and how much the Church of Rome is acquainted with them Binius is at last terribly provoked with the nonsense of the Pontifical for whereas it saith Cletus was in the Church from the seventh Consulship of 〈◊〉 and fifth of Domitian to the ninth of Domitian and the Consulship of Rufus that is from the 78 year of Christ to the 85. Binius speaking as if he were present takes him up 〈◊〉 Errorem igitur Errori addis quisquis 〈◊〉 Pontificalis Authores c. Whoever thou be that art the Author of this Pontifical thou addest Errour to Errour For if Cletus began to sit in the forementioned Consulship in the 78 year of Christ how did he immediately succeed Linus dying as thou saidst in the 69 year of Christ Capito and Rufus being Consuls How wilt thou excuse a 9 years Interregnum in the Chair made only by thy Authority contradicting it self How sayest thou that Cletus sate twelve years whose continuance thou doest circumscribe by two Consulships in the space of 7 years distant from themselves How which is more intollerable and absurd doest thou say that Clement sate from the Consulship of Trachilus and Italicus even to the third year of Trajan which is from the 70 year of Christ to the 102. and so to have administred the See 33 years whom in his Life thou affirmest to have continued only 9 years Thus far Binius When Cato saw the Southsayers saluting one another in the Roman Market-place he said I wonder they can forbear laughing to think how delicately they cheat the people Hence therefore saith Binius O Reader thou mayest perceive on what Rocks he shall 〈◊〉 whosoever shall suppose the writings of this Book to be taken up upon Trust without any Inquisition Yet when the fit is over in the
very next line he is at it again THE LIFE EPISTLES AND DECREES OF CLEMENT EX LIBRO PONTIFICALI DAMASI P. The Pontifical is afresh ascribed to Damasus For Friends may quarrel without falling out eternally But if they are so angry what make they together What have Scholars to do in so scandalous a Fellows Company Why of all Books in the World do they take this to follow All of them from Peter Crab to the Collectio Regia Why not the Grave Sincere and Learned Why not a true Record Why do they chuse a Counterfeit so full of lyes and contradictions It is the highest Symptom of a deadly cause that they take such a Fellow to be their Copy to write after their Text to gloss on their Guide to follow For all these gross mistakes are committed within the compass of some 30 or 40 lines in four Lives of one hundred and six And in every Life almost throughout they are exercised in the same manner If this be the best Record they can find for the purpose and all their Antiquities be like this they are as mouldy and rotten as can well be desired CAP. XVI Of the Decretal Epistles forged in the Names of the first holy Martyrs and Bishops of Rome The first was sent as they pretend from S Clement by S. Peter's order to S. James the Bishop of Jerusalem seven years after he was dead and by the best Account 27. S. Clement's Recognitions a corsessed Forgery TO stumble in the Threshold is Ominous If the first of all the Decretals be a Forgery it is a leading Card to the residue Binius his Title and the Text of the Pontifical is represented thus THE LIFE EPISTLES AND DECREES OF POPE CLEMENT I. Out of the Pontifical of Pope DAMASVS He made two Epistles that are called Canonical This man by the Precept of S. Peter undertook the Government of the Church as by Jesus Christ our Lord the Chair was committed to him In the Epistle which he wrote to S. James you shall find after what manner the Church was committed from S. Peter Linus and Cletus are therefore recorded to be before him because they were made Bishops by the Prince of the Apostles himself and ordained to the 〈◊〉 Office before him NOTES After the Method of Binius He made two Epistles called Canonical These words are adapted to the 84th Canon of the Apostles where two Epistles of Clement and his eight Books of Ordinations are made parts of the Canonical Scripture In the Epistle which he wrote to S. James Here the Pontifical openly voucheth his Epistle to S. James which Binius afterwards tells you was written to Simeon If the Pontifical be right Binius was overseen in saying the name of S. James crept by corruption into the Title of the Epistle for that of Simeon The Tales do not hang together They were made Bishops by the Prince of the Apostles c. You understand here that S. Peter out of his superabundant care for the Church made three Bishops of Rome in his own life time So that Rome had four Popes at once S. Peter S. Clement S. Linus and S. Cletus Some think that Linus and Cletus were S. Clement's Adjutants in External Affairs Some that they succeeded each other in order Some that they presided over the Church together Some say that Clement out of modesty refused the Chair till he was grown older belike It is a world to see what a variety and puzzle they are at in this matter The confusion springeth from two causes The first is the obscurity of the State of Rome in the beginning The second is the ignorance of the Forger that made S. Clement's Letter to S. James For happening so heedlesly to Father it on S. Clement he has made all the Story inconvenient S. Clement saith not one word of refusing the Chair in his Epistle nor of Linus and 〈◊〉 coming between him and it but 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 fair Hypocritical shew 〈◊〉 in his 〈◊〉 to S. James that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by S. Peter and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereupon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will have this Epistle to be a good and true Record are forced of necessity to say that S. Peter did himself ordain Clement though they very well know that Linus and Cletus or Anacletus were both in their Order Bishops before him For a sure Token either that the Church of Rome was little considered in the dawning of the Gospel or that their ignorance marred her Officious Impostors nothing is more obscure and doubtful than the order and manner of her first Bishops The Pontifical undertakes to reconcile all and does it luckily were it not that it contradicts it self For he saith of Clement that he undertook the Government of the Church by the precept of Peter And yet of Linus and Cletus it saith they are recorded to be before him because by the Prince of the Apostles they were made Bishops before him Be that a contradiction or no it was neither Linus nor Cletus it seems but Clement who writ the Epistle to S. James about the death of Peter He made many books Binius upon those words observes that before his Epistles he wrote the Constitutions of the Apostles c. He did not make but write the Apostles Canous in Greek c. It is much he did not make them for the Coronis of them as Nicolinus calleth it hath by me Clement in it and for ought I know a Pope that hath the fulness of power Apostolical may make Apostles Canons at any time It is an odd observation He did not make but write the Apostles Canons Among his other Monuments saith Binius there are ten books of the circuits of Peter which by some are called The Itinerary of Clement by others his Recognitions Which since they are stuffed with Loathsome Fables and the Fathers abstained from the use of them as Gelasius also in a Roman Council rejected them for Apocryphal all wise men will advisedly abstain from reading them It is a Tradition that Clement left the Rite of offering Sacrifice to the Church of Rome in writing It is reported also that many pieces are falsly published under the Name of Clement Forgeries are you see thick and threefold in the Church of Rome but this of Clement's Itinerary which Binius disswadeth all men from reading even ten Books Cum insulsis fabulis reserti 〈◊〉 since they are stust with loathsome Fables I desire you to take special notice of because this Confession of his will discover him to be either a false man or a Fool. It is a delicate Snare and will detect S. Clement and S. Binius together As for Binius who defendeth the first Epistle of Clement to S. James for a good Record if he did read the Epistle and note what he read he was a false man for defending it against his Judgment and Conscience He that so mortally hated the Itinerary of Clement could not but know the Epistle to be Forged if he read it with
partial Heads are bended easily to any Cause they fancy for their advantage Otherwise the Cross in the Heavens the Trophies upon Earth the prevailing glory of Christianity the victories of Constantine the joy and exultation of the people and the general applause with which he was received throughout the whole World would have taught Binius another Lesson than Constantines necessity to counterfeit himself an Heathen which is the meer Chymera of a lying Brain for which he is not able to produce any one Author in the World worth the naming He produces the Testimony of Eusebius concerning the necessity of Maxentius his counterfeiting himself to be a Christian but Eusebius speaketh not one word of any necessity lying upon Constantine to counterfeit himself an Heathen but the contrary so far that Binius who had quoted Eusebius so gravely before brandeth him with the Reproach of an Arrian because he crosseth his design now about Constantines Donation For the Donation is founded on Constantines Cure his Cure on his Leprosie his Leprosie on his Apostacy his Apostacy upon a Necessity to comply with the perverseness of the Heathen people whose Power was of too great a sway for his Design in the Empire All which is contradicted by the continual decaying of Heathenism that then was day by day and the growth of Christianity which had taken such root and possession in the People that there needed nothing but the change of the Emperour to turn the Empire into Christendom But this Necessity must be invented for else it would seem impossible that he should turn Pagan after our Saviour had appeared to him in his sleep after he had seen the Cross in the Air after he had set it up in his Standard aster all his Victories gotten under that glorious Banner after he had erected its Trophy in the City and made the World Glorious by his Munificence to the Churches For this Cause a far off and so long before the end could be discovered to which it should be applied does Binius take his Rise from the Fable in the Donation and shape his Discourse to the 〈◊〉 of the See by rooting the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Minds of men For all 〈◊〉 is to no other purpose than to 〈◊〉 the Donation of the Emperour thereby to settle the Empire in the Chair for the sake of which he tramples upon the Emperour wryeth Antiquity wresteth Authority citeth Forgeries and Heathen Authors defaceth the History of the Church and rewards the greatest of all Benefactors with the basest ingratitude All these Wars are commenced afar off for the strength of Rome is alwaies at a distance near at hand she is weak and feeble when he comes up close to the matter though he makes a great semblance of its evident certainty writing over head in Capital Letters EDICTUM CONSTANTINI And putting down the Donation under it at large commenting on it also very formally nay and writing in the Margin of his Notes Constantini Donatio defenditur and near the close of them Constantini Donatio consirmatur yet after all this he confesses the Donation to be Spurious His Design being no more than to make a Shew and cover that onfession which meer necessity at greatest pinch wrested from him His Confession lies in little roome and his Notes are made for the assistance of Confederates Such mighty Tomes for the Help of a sworn Party As for the rest of men that are allured perhaps by the Magnificence of the Books to admire them and to grace their Studies with them such as Lords and Princes he very well knows they may feed their Eyes with Great Titles and Glorious Shews afar off but they will never penetrate 〈◊〉 Stupendious Volumes by reason of other Diversions Labors cares and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 other secular Objects So that they may easily be deceived with the outward Appearance and splendor of such great and learned Collections which 〈◊〉 Design is the Mystery of the Popish Councils For in the Body of those Notes Binius himself by many well studied Arguments sets himself strenuously to overthrow the Donation and Fathers it on the Knavery of Balsamon a Greek who produced it as he pretends with an intent to dis race the Roman Chair by making the World believe that the Popes Supremacy came not by Divine Institutions but the Grant of the Emperour Which he abhors as sickle weak and humane chusing rather that the Popes Right should rest on the Scriptures Labbe Cossartins and the COLLECTIO REGIA follow Binius exactly even to those Cheats in the Margin But now it is high time to see the Contents of this wonderful Donation CAP. XXI The EDICT of our Lord CONSTANTINE the Emperour IN the Name of the Holy and Individual Trinity the Father and the Son and the H. Ghost Flavius Constantinus Caesar and Emperour in Jesus Christ one of the same H. Trinity c. To the most Holy and Blessed Father of Fathers Sylvester Bishop and Pope of the City of Rome and to all his Successors about to sit in the Seat of blessed Peter to the end of the World And to all our most Reverend and Catholick Bishops amiable in God made Subject throughout the World to the H. Church of Rome by this our Imperial Constitution c. It is too long to put it down formally and at large We shall therefore take only the chief Contents as they lie in the Donation It first contains a large account of the Articles of his Faith Secondly the story of his Leprosie Cure and Baptism wherein the Font is remarkably called Piseina the Popes Fish-pond as it were then he cometh to the Gift it self While I learned these things by the Preaching of the blessed Sylvester and by the benefit of the blessed Peter found my self perfectly restored to my health we judged it profitable together with all our Nobles and the whole Senate my Princes also and the whole People Subject to the Empire of the Roman Glory that as S. Peter upon Farth seemeth to be made the Vicar of the Son of God the Bishops also that are the Successors of him the Prince of the Apostles may obtain the Power of Principality given from us and our Empire more than the Earthly Clemency of our Imperial Majesty is seen to have had chusing the Prince of the Apostles and his Successors for our stedfast Patrons with God And we have decreed that this H. Roman Church shall be honoured with Veneration even as our Terrene Imperial Power is And that the most Holy Seat of B. Peter be more gloriously exalted than our Earthly Throne giving it Power and Dignity of Glory and Vigour and Honour Imperial And we decree and ordain that he shall hold the Principality as well over the four Principal Sees of Antioch Alexandria Jerusalem and Constantinople as over all the Churches of God in the whole World And by his Judgment let all things whatsoever pertaining to the Worship of God
and the Establishment of the Christian Faith be ordained When Binius pleases to give Efficacy to a Miracle all the World shall be converted in a moment Notwithstanding all the Miracles and Victories before Constantine was fain to counterfeit himself an Heathen for fear of the people Now all his Nobles and the Senate are changed in an instant and his Leprosie upon Earth has done more than his Cross in the Heavens So easie it is to blow mens minds with a Breath when they are dead and gone His Princes also and the whole people subject to the Empire of the Roman Glory judged it prositable together with him and his Nobles to do that which they abhorred before to give to Banished Sylvester and his Heirs the Glory of the Roman Empire As it that one Miracle had in a trice for Virtue out-gone all our Saviours The last Clause contains something more than the Emperour had power to bestow That a Lay-man should by Deed of Gift devise and give away the power of determining all Controversies in Religion to whom he fancieth may be put among the Popes Extravagants as some of their Decrees are called yet with Constantinople a City yet unmade this also is given to the Pope in the present Donation But upon good reason For it is just that the Holy Law should retain the Head of Principality there where our Saviour the Instituter of Holy Laws commanded the B. Peter to undertake the Chair of his Apostleship A merrier accident follows he bequeaths his Goods to the Dead It is true indeed he was allied to them for he was dead when the Deed was made as well as they S Peter's Trustees having the management of his Pen knew very well that whatever he gave to his most blessed Lords Peter and Paul since dead men never want Heirs would fall to their share and like our late Long Parliament conspired to give large Boons to themselves in form following WE Exhort and admonish all that with us they would pay abundant thanks to our God and Saviour Jesus Christ because being God in Heaven above and in Earth beneath he hath visited us by his H. Apostles and made us worthy to receive the H. Sacrament of Baptisme and the health of our Body FOR WHICH we grant to the H. Apostles themselves my most Blessed Lords Peter and Paul and by them also to B. Sylvester our Father the chief Bishop and Pope of our Universal City of Rome and to all Bishops his Successors that shall ever sit in the Chair of B. Peter to the end of the World Our Diadem to wit the Crown of our 〈◊〉 together with our Mitre as also 〈◊〉 Cloak on our Shoulders viz 〈◊〉 Breast-plate which is wont to compass our Imperial Neck as also our Purple Clamys and Violet Cloak and all the Imperial Attires The Dignity moreover of our Imperial Horsemen Giving him also the Imperial Scepters with all other Signs Badges Banners and other Imperial Ornaments with the whole manner of the Procession of our Imperial Highness and the Glory of our Power WE Decree also and Ordain to the most Reverend Clergy-men serving that H. Roman Church in their divers Orders the Height in Singularity Power and Excellency with the Glory whereof our most ample Senate 〈◊〉 to be adored that is that they shall be made Patricii and Consuls As also we promulgate it for a Law that they be beautified with the other Imperial Dignities AND as the Imperial Army is adorned so do we Decree the Clergy of the Roman Church to be adorned And as the Imperial Power is adorned with divers Offices as that of Chamberlains Porters and all Guards so we will have the Roman Church to be adorned AND that the Pontifical Glory may shine most amply we Decree this also That the Horses of the Clergy of the said Roman Church be beautified with Caparisons and Linnen Vestures of the whitest colour and so to ride And as our Senate useth Shoes cum Vdonibus made bright and illustrious with fine white Linnen so let the Clergy also do And let the Heavenly as the Earthly things are be made comely to the praise of God BUT above all we give License to our most H. Father Sylvester Bishop and Pope of the City of Rome himself and to all that shall succeed him for ever for the Honour and Glory of Christ our God in the same Great Catholick and Apostolick Church of God by our Edict Vt quem placatus proprio Consilio clericali voluerit in numero 〈◊〉 Clericorum connumerare nullum ex omnibus praesumentum superbè agere Binius for Clericali will have it Clericare which he puts over against it in the Margin Here are more Barbarismes than one but I think the drift is that no man but he whom the Bishop of Rome pleaseth shall be made a Priest and that no man so made shall behave himself proudly against the Bishop of Rome WE have Decreed this also That the same Venerable Sylvester our Father the High-Priest and all his Successors ought to use the Diadem to wit the Crown which we gave him from off our Head of pure Gold and Precious Stones and to wear it on his Head to the praise of God and honour of S. Peter * BVT because the most Holy Pope himself will not endure a Crown altogether of Gold on the Crown of his Priesthood which he bears to the Glory of the B. Peter we have with our own hands put the Mitre of Resplendent White signifying the most Glorious Resurrection of our Lord on his Head * And holding the Bridle of his Horse for the Reverence we owe to S. Peter we served him in the Office of a Stirrup-holder Ordaining that all his Successors shall in single and peculiar manner use the same Mitre in their Processons in imitation of our Empire The Popes Modesty comes off purely Because he would not have his Shaven Crown profaned with a Crown of Gold therefore the Emperour must give him the Mitre too because it was unlawful for him to wear the one without the other that is his Conscience made a seruple at the one unless he might have both being so made exactly like the Heatheu Monarchs at Rome Pontifex Maximus and Emperour together The Regalities were affected not for themselves Alas Ornaments are but shadows the Body and Substance is the thing desired WHEREFORE that the Pontifical Crown may never wax vile but he more exalted also than the Dignity of the Terrene Empire and the Glory of Power Behold we give and leave as well our Palace as was before said as the City of Rome all Italy and all the Provinces places and Cities of the Western Empire to our 〈◊〉 most B. High Priest and Universal Pope and to the Power and Tenure of the Popes his Suc cessors by firm Imperial Censure Per haue Divalem Pragmaticum Constitutum By this our Divine and
Chair And together with the Credit of Rome to take away an Empire Besides the Spiritual Right of being the Rock there are ample Territories and Cities claimed with a Temporal Kingdom Let him therefore pretend what he will the Authority of such Instruments is very convenient And because he knows it well enough he produces the Diplomata or the Patents of other Kings and Emperours to confirm the Churches Secular Right extant as he saith in the Original with their Imperial Seals as particularly those of the Most Christian Princes of France restoring those things which the Longobards took away But he does not tell you by what Arts they got possession of those Territories at first nor by what Ancient Evidences Seals or Patents they held them before the Longobards touched them And because a Kingdom is of much Moment in the Church of Rome he further saith As for the Dominion of things temporal given to the Church herself proves them by the Broad Seals of the very Emperours giving them yet extant in the Originals and she quietly enjoyeth them How quiet her injoyment is you may see by that stir and opposition she meeteth and by all the clamour throughout the Christian World that followeth her Usurpations Which she defendeth here by the Seals of Emperours in general Terms but what Seals they are she scorneth as it were to mention in particular Which argueth her cause to be as Bad as her pretence is Bold But as for the Rights granted to the same Roman Church S. Leo Faelix Romanus Gelasius Hormisda Gregorius and other their Successors that flourished famously from the times of Constantine have defended them saith he not by the Authority of this Constantinian Edict but rather by Divine and Evangelical Authority against all the Impugners of them The man is warily to be understood for some of these whom he pronounceth as Defenders violently oppose their claim as Gregory in particular who for himself and all his Predecessors renounceth that Blasphemons Title which John of Constantinople first arrogated but the Bishops of Rome acquired afterwards by the Gift of Phocas the bloody Emperour So that all these are Mummers brought in as it were in a Masque to shew their vizars and say nothing For of all these Roman Bishops mentioned by Binius Gregory was the last who testifieth that none of his Predecessors ever claimed such a Title We may further note that he speak here with much Confusion because he speaks of the Rights granted to the Roman Church but does not distinguish between the Divine and Humane Rights of which he is treating For the Business he is now upon is the Temporal Klngdom in desending of which these Popes down to Gregory did forbear to use the Authority of this Constantinian Edict as he calleth it by way of scorn not because they had it not but rather as he pretends because they had no need of it having enough to shew by Divine and Evangelical Authority for the same Which is another pretence as bold and impudent as the former For I think none of his own Party will aver that the Bishop of Rome can claim a Temporal Kingdom by the Holy Scripture As for any other Claim by this Constantinian Edict or any Donation else of Emperours before the Longobards he slighteth all especially the Authority of this Constantinian Edict conceruing which he saith None of all those who sate over the Church before the year 1000. many of which saw the genuine Acts of Sylvester recited concerning which we spake above is read to have made any mention of this Edict For as much as the Counterfeit Edict was not yet added to the Acts by the Greek Impostors He does not tell us how he came to know that many of the Roman Bishops saw the genuine Acts of Sylvester before the year 1000. that being an Artifice or Color only as if there were two divers Books of Sylvesters Acts and the one a true one He tells us not a word of the Contents that were in them but he before told us plainly that the Acts of Sylvester the Pope were falsly written in Greek under the name of Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea that they were not known till 1000. years after Christ coming then forth in Eusebius his Name And now he telleth us as plainly that the Counterfeit Edict was not yet added to the Acts by the Greek 〈◊〉 The poor Greeks on whom he layes all the Load of Imposture never injoyed the benefit of these Acts nor ever pleaded the Imposture as the Latines did And in all likelyhood they made it that laid Claim and Title to the Supremacy by it Since therefore the Question is come to this Who were the Impostors we must define against him that the Counterfeit Edict was added to the forged Acts not by the Greek but Latine Impostors For how Counterfeit to ever he will have it Pope Adrian in his Epistle to Constantine and Irene which remains inserted in the Nicene Council recites this whole History almost in the same manner and so confirmes it by the Truth of this Edict As Binius himself telleth us on the words Ipse enim So that the Edict was pleaded long before the Greeks added it to the Acts of Sylvester For Pope Adrian died in the year 795 and the Acts of Sylvester were unknown till the year 1000. Yet this Adrian founded his Epistle to the Emperour and Empress in the second 〈◊〉 Council upon the truth of this 〈◊〉 And in very truth the Story he telleth is the same of Constantine's Leprosie c. contained in the Donation Which if 〈◊〉 had been pleased to remember was published by the Latines in Isidore Mercator's Collection of the Councils about the year 800. Where the Greeks in all probability first found it and were cheated as many Wiser men have since been with the appearance of it there So that searching it up to the Fountain Head it rests still among the Romans By the way to shew you that Binius is his Crafts-Master over against these words concerning Adrian before mentioned he putteth down that Famous Marginal Note Donatio Constantini confirmatur The Donation of Constantine is confirmed not by Binius as the simple Reader would suppose but by Adrian's Epistle recorded in the 2 Nicene Council and expresly containing the whole Fable of Constantine's Leprosie Vision and Baptism So that the first that ever knew it in the World for ought I can yet perceive was this Adrian of whom we have spoken somewhat before Now he comes to shew how greedily the Popes received this Cheat of the Greeks Among those who received the Acts of Sylvcster in good seoth corrupted thus with the addition of this counterfeit Edict by an evil Art and by the sorry faith of the Grecians carried out of the East into the West and that earnestly defended them as Legitimate and Genuine and pure from all fraud and Imposture the first is found saith he to be Pope Leo