we had been agreed before that of these Hermes at least was a Forgerie It seems by Pope Pius his Letter that Hermes was a Doctor and not a Shepherd for in these Days he saith Hermes a Doctor of the faith and of the H. scriptures shined among us Not of old but in these Days Yet it is pretended that the Book of old was by some order from on high to be delivered to Clement the Pope by whom it was to be sent to forreign Cities Notwithstanding all their Contrivance there Wit failes them sometimes that are so accustomed to Lying They have so many Irons in the fire that some of them miscarry whether they will or no. Nevertheless that Hermes received this Commandment from the Angel Tertullian witnesseth in his third Book of verses against Mareion saith Binius I have not heard much of Tertullian's Poetrie I have his Works put forth with the Notes of Beatus Rhenanus and cannot find any such verses among them If he hath all that Binius pretendeth out of them is that Hermes spake Angelical Words Therefore he saw the Angel Pius in his Decretal Epistle applieth this Scripture Not holding the Head from which all the body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God to the Pope of Rome Whereupon he saith We instruct you all by our Apostolical authority that you ought to observe the same Commandments because we also observe the same And ye ought not by any means to divide from the Head The Commandment was given to Hermes by an Angel Whereupon Pope Pius after the first complement beginneth very unluckily with forbidding the Religion or worshipping of Angels Whereas upon this occasion some eminent matter ought to have been spoken concerning Angels But because of the words following he puts them together Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility of worshipping Angels c. Not holding the Head from which all the body by joynts and bands c. Where he taketh off the Eternal Head and puts a New one on the Churches shoulders For in these dayes Hermes a Doctor of the Faith and of the Holy Scriptures shined among us And though we observed Easter on the foresaid day yet because some doubted for the confirming of their Souls an Angel of the Lord appeared to the same Hermes in the shape of a Shepheard and commanded him that the Passeover should be celebrated by all on the Lords day Whereupon we also instruct you all by our Apostolical authority that you ought to observe the same Commandments Not because an Angel brought them or GOD sent him but Because we also observe the same and ye ought not by any means to divide from the Head And because the business is to promote the Apostolical Authority above all the Angels instead of extolling and magnifying them which had been the natural method on such a Topick as if he would enervate the evidence of the Angel he biddeth them take heed and that diligently least any one seduce you by any Astrology or Philosophy or vain Fallacy according to the tradition of men after the Rudiments of this World and not after Christ's and true Tradition As if no more heed were to be given to an Angel than to an Asse unless the Pope first approved the Vision Nor is Philosophy nor the Tradition of men nor any thing else to be valued in opposition to him and his true Tradition for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily that ye may be repleat in him who is the Head of all Principality and Power and who bath commanded this Apostolical See to be the Head of all Churches saying to the Prince of the Apostles Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church What it is to walk after Christ and true Tradition you may see Cleerly by this Glos upon our Saviours Text. They that do not hold the Head from which all the Body by Joynts and Bands having nourishment ministered and knit together increaseth with the increase of God are in extream peril of damnation And our Saviour who is the Head of all Principality and Power hath commanded this Apostolical See to be the Head of all Churches Therefore Whosoever holdeth not to this Head is in extream peril of damnation For the Pope is not the Head of all Principality and Power in himself but only by Derivation he is made the Head c. And consequently 't is as necessary to cleave unto him as to Christ himself Since he in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth Bodily dwelleth in his Vicar even as S. Peter does in like manner So that all Angels and 〈◊〉 of men Reason Philosophy c. 〈◊〉 but feeble Threeds for him that hath 〈◊〉 Potestatis the fulness of Power and may open the Kingdom of Heaven to whom he will It is a Cross Observation to note the little Authority of the Popes Custome For though it it was the Practice of all the Roman Church to Keep Easter in such a manner before yet some doubted that is all the Eastern Churches were of another Opinion till an Angel came to teach them otherwise Yet when he came he must not be believed for his own sake but the Popes nor be obeyed for himself so jealous was the Pope of his Apostolical Authority How weak both the Popes Authority and the Angels were which thus mutually needed each others assistance appeareth by the Event for notwithstanding the Testimony of Pius and the Angel this Controversy was left undetermined till the Nicene Council It continued above 150 years after Pope Pius his days Yet through all that considerable Tract of time this Testimony of the Angel was cited by no Body Only as Ovid makes use of the 〈◊〉 and his Crowing in the Morning to introduce the fable of Alector this wicked Pius maketh use of this Controversy for the fable of the Angel But it was a little Suspicious that the Angel should appear to no body but the Popes Brother and the matter be published by no body but the Pope himself It smelleth of the Forge out of which it came being proved by the Pontifical of Pope Damasus CAP. XVIII A Letter fathered on Cornelius Bishop of Rome in the year 254. concerning the Removal of the Apostles Bones giving Evidence to the Antiquity of many Popish Doctrines but is it self a Forgery THe forgery made in the Name of Pius is fitted to the year 158. You shall now see one made in the Name of Cornelius Bishop of Rome in the year 〈◊〉 54. 100. years after the former excepting four Not as if there were no forgeries between this and that there is scarce a year upon which they have not fastned something but should we trace them all through the weary Length of so many Ages our Travail would be Endless We have chosen one or two as Exemplars of the residue THE FIRST EPISTLE Of Cornelius
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
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
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