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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26737	The ancient liberty of the Britannick church, and the legitimate exemption thereof from the Roman patriarchate discoursed on four positions, and asserted / by Isaac Basier ... ; three chapters concerning the priviledges of the Britannick church, &c., selected out of a Latin manuscript, entituled, Catholico-romanus pacificus, written by F.I. Barnes ... ; translated, and published for vulgar instruction, by Ri. Watson.; De antiqua ecclesiae Britannicae libertate. English	Basier, Isaac, 1607-1676.; Barnes, John, d. 1661. Catholico-romanus pacificus. English. Selections.; Watson, Richard, 1612-1685.	1661 (1661)	Wing B1029; ESTC R9065	27,797	82

was Legate of Gregory the Roman Bishop The same also appears out of the constancy of the Britains in their rejection of the said Augustin whom although sent Express by the Roman Pontifie that hee might preside over the Britains yet saith Bede All the Britain Bishops refused to acknowledge him for their Arch-Bishop as who had an Arch-Bishop of their own whosoever hee then was whom it would not bee hard to know from the prerogatives of his Metropoly and priviledge of his seat in Councils As for the state of the Britannick Churches and their partition it will bee worth our pains to search it in the undoubted Records of the British Antiquity From the very time therefore of Constantine the Great and so of the Nicene Council all Britany was in times past canton'd into three onely Provinces over which were after the Romane manner in temporal affairs three Romane Proconsuls or Praesidents as likewise in spiritual there praesided as many Arch-Bishops commonly called Metropolitans from their Metropolies or principal Cities wherein were resident both the secular and sacred Provost or Metropolitane The first of these three Provinces was called Maxima Caesariensis the Greatest Caesarian or inverted if either way to be Englished the Metropolitan whereof was the Bishop of York The second was called Britannia primo the first Britain the Metropolitane of which was the Bishop of London The third was Britannia secunda the second Britain called the Legionary Metropoly and thereof the Is●ane Bishop or Bishop of Ca●ruske in the Tract or County of Monmouth That was the state of this Metropoly from Lucius unto King Arthur in whose time the Metropolitical dignity was transferred to the Bishop of St. Davids to whom were subject as Suffragans the Welch Bishops until in the time of Henry the first or as some will have it Henry the third the same Metropolitane was reduced under the obedience of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Now whatsoever either in the Provinces themselves or Churches was afterward irregularly parjeted from abroad that cannot prejudice the Imperial authority to which belongs as we have before shewed both to dispense the external Government of the Church and to establish the jurisdictions which it limits Much less can a Usurpation advanced by force or fraud derogate from the Oecumenick decrees of the Ancient Fathers or frustrate so many most grave Canons venerable for their age published thereupon such as is the premised 6th Canon of the Nicene Council for the Ancient Prerogatives and the second Canon of the Constantinopolitan by which is charged That no Bishop approach any Churches situate without his bounds which most grave Canon I wish the Bishop of Rome had religiously observed the Peace of the Church had been better assured the Council goes on commanding that all bee kept according to what was defined at Nice And that these may not seem too remote from our Britain the Canon concludes in a general Sanction That all things ought to be done according to that custome of the Fathers in force But that such had been the custome of the Britains as to have all weighty affairs Synodically disputed within themselves appears out of Bede Moreover to have been in use that the Bishops of that Nation were consecrated by one Bishop Baronius himself somewhere observes At that time truly so beautiful was the state of affairs in Britain until some ages after the Council of Nice Augustin the Monk was sent by Gregory who what hee could not by right first by fraud then by the armed assistance of Ethelbert and his new-converted Anglo-Saxons indeavoured to force the Catholick Bishops of Britain to acknowledge and receive him for their Arch-Bishop but they couragiously replied That they could not abandon their ancient Priviledges and subject themselves to the mandates of strangers That any other custome had been in the sacred Government of the British Church no man can ever evince out of genuine Antiquity And so much concerning the second Position The third Position bearing proportion to the second The Britannick Church was 1 with very good right 2 restored by her Soveraign to her Ancient Ecclesiastical Liberty 3 and that according to the Rule of the Ancient Catholick Canons by which was confirmed for the future the intire Liberty of the Churches TO the first whatsoever the Rebels at this day on either side falsely alledge to the contrary it appears out of very many Histories and the Authentick Chronicles that the Kingdome of England hath been an Empire and so accounted in the world which was governed by one supream Head or King both in Spirituals and Temporals and that wholly independent of any forein Prince or Supremacy whatsoever on earth This is the very marrow expressed from the formal words of a statute at large set out to this purpose by the Assembly of Parliament that is of the whole Kingdome in the 24th year of King Henry the eighth chap. 12. At which time the three Estates of England to wit the Clergy Nobility and Commons willing to recall the Ancient Rights of the Kingdome taken away rather by force and power than any Rule of the Canons decreed to have controversies ended within the bounds of the Kingdome without any appeal to foreiners which indeed is one principal prerogative of a Patriarchal Jurisdiction But upon this whole Britannick affair the thing most worthy our observation is That this decree for the liberty of the Britannick Churches was not introductive of a new Law as in spight to the Kings of Britain new upstarts calumniate who are either ignorant of or opposite to the Britannick priviledge but the said decree was onely declarative of an Ancient Custome which had constantly prevailed in England eight hundred years since and so many ages before yea and was intirely renewed as often as occasion required Concerning this most just assertion wee attest the ample Margin filled with a long train of the Ancient Britannick Statutes which the ingenuous Reader may be pleased at leisure to view and consider Whence by induction of parts will appear that this was no new enterprize nor a single irregular act of Henry the eighth alone but that long before the time of Henry the eighth this had been the ancient Supremacy of all the Kings of England over all persons and in all causes whatsoever so well Ecclesiastick as Temporal Wee proceed to the second and prove the Ancient state of the Church to have been such out of the undoubted Monuments of the Britannick Church where first wee may collect out of the fore-cited Venerable Bede as also Henry of Huntington no less than the rest That Augustine the Monk stirred up Ethelbert King of Kent against the Bishops of the Britains because they in behalf of the Ancient Britannick Liberty denied to subject themselves and their Churches unto the Roman Legate Yet further Huntington adds that neither the Britains nor Scots that is the Irish would therefore communicate with the English and

Augustine their Bishop more than with Pagans the reason was because Augustine did seem to deal uncanonically with them by constraining them to receive him for their Arch-Bishop and subject themselves to the mandates of strangers when as the Ancient manners of the Britannick Church required that all things should be synodically transacted within themselves Hence is it that the Britains did alwaies celebrate their Ordinations within themselves and this is also another honorary priviledge of the Patriarchal Jurisdiction and concerning this wee again appeal unto Bede in his history of Aidan the Bishop yea to Baronius himself where quoted before who relates out of Lanfranke the custome of the Kingdome to have been that the Bishops thereof were consecrated by one single Bishop but that these ancient Customes of Britain were abrogated by the force rather and power of the Anglo-Saxons than by any Synodical consent The said Bede testifieth the same where hee relates that Colman the Bishop Finanus's Successour in the Pontificate of the Northymbrians with his fellows chose rather to desert Episcopate and Monastery than their Ancient Manners Which fact of Bishop Colman is worth observation lest what some falsely pretend onely the Monks of Bangor may seem to have rejected Augustin against whom charged upon them this was the Legitimate defence of the ancient Britains these being their very words out of Beda before That they could not abandon their ancient manners without the consent and license of their own Bishops And truly this answer of the Britains was grounded on very irrefragable very Catholick reason and that because this unwonted subjection had contradicted the sixth Oecumenick Canon of the Council of Nice which expresly commands the Ancient Manners to bee kept This had also destroyed the eighth Canon of the first Ephesine Council by which first such usurpation to wit in the case of the Cyprian Church is called in Hypothesis a thing innovated beside Ecclesiastick Constitutions and Canons of the Holy Fathers which as common diseases therefore needs a greater remedy because the dammage is greater which it brings Secondly Therefore the Holy Synod in Thesi as they say or in general commands that that should be observed in all Dioceses and Provinces wheresoever Behold the Authentick Charter of the Britannick Liberty Thirdly That no Bishop the Roman not excepted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should invade any other Province which from the beginning hath not been under his or his predecessours jurisdiction as for instance did Augustin the Monk Fourthly The Oecumenick Canon goes on and a hundred and fifty years more or less before Augustins invasion of the Britannick Church as it were fore-seeing it by provision declares it to be void in these most weighty words That if any one shall invade it and make it his own by force hee shall restore it Fifthly Yet further for the following words are most emphatical and which as by and by shall appear seem chiefly to regard the Roman Bishop himself The Holy Synod warneth that the Canons of the Holy Fathers be not passed by nor that the pride of secular power creep in under the specious pretence of administring sacred Affairs and by little and little unawares wee lose that Liberty which our Lord Iesus Christ the deliverer of all men hath purchased for us by his blood Yea the Holy Oecumenical Synod for the greater enforcement yet again repeats the decree It hath therefore pleased the Holy and Universal Synod to decree that to every Province be preserved pure and inviolate the rights which it had from the very beginning according to ancient Custome every Metropolitane and so the Britannick having liberty to take Copies of the Act for his Security Yet the Holy Synod concludes according to its Oecumenical Authority If any one shall bring any Sanction every word is most general repugnant to those which now are defined it hath pleased intirely the Holy and Universal Synod that it bee void Hitherto for the Liberty of the Churches extends the most express Canon of the Catholick Church which after the matter of fact first declared completes the matter of right in favour as well of the Britannick as Cyprian Church For since as out of the praemises appears the Britannick Church in the West enjoyed the same priviledge wherewith the Cyprian Church was honoured in the East why may not shee lawfully resume what is her own in time of peace which was taken from her by tumult and force in a turbulent time of the wars The sum of the whole most Inculent Canon is this The ancient and truly Catholick Church would have the rights of every Church preserved not taken away and if they be taken away by force or fraud what Patriarch soever doth it his fact is declared void and moreover hee is commanded to restore that Province which he hath made his own Now that this Canon was establisht in a tacite opposition to the Roman Bishop himself is not obscurely to bee collected out of the Acts of that Council for it is evident from them that the Canon prevailed notwithstanding the Epistle of Innocent the first to Alexander wherein the Roman Bishop declared that the Cyprians were not wise according to Faith if they subjected not themselves to the Patriarch of Antioch when as notwithstanding wee see the decree of the Universal Synod plainly contrary to the Papal sentence wherein namely it was judged that this was attempted by the Antiochian beside the Canons and that therefore all the letters brought by him against the Cyprians were of no effect Hitherto the third Position The last followeth The Fourth and last Position The Britannick Church persevering in its Primitive Exemption from the Roman Patriarchate so far is it from that it ought or can be therefore called Schismatical that rather in the very same respect before truly Catholick Iudges that Church appears both to have been and yet really to bee by so much the more every way Catholick by how much that Church more than others is an Assertour of the whole Ancient Catholick Liberty which by so many sacred Canons of four General Councils the Nicene Constantinopolitan Ephesine and Chalcedonian the Catholick Fathers have decreed and antecedently declared to remain ratified for ever against all future usurpations SInce the time that the ancient Liberty of the Britannick Church was by right resumed as before with the solemn consent of the whole Kingdome the Britannick Church now truly Catholick in the rest can by a like right retain the same without the loss of her Catholicism without any brand of Schism much less of Heresie We do willingly owe the proof of this assertion to Barns a most learned and peaceable man at the same time when hee writ it a Roman Priest a Monk in the order of the Benedictins a Britain and therefore no unfit Arbiter of this Britannick Cause First Therefore whether the causes of our withdrawing were sufficient is no way a matter of Faith but wholly

all these add what in conclusion is principally necessary to wit that the Britannick Church after the very sacred Canon of the Scriptures such as is defined in the † Conc. Laodic Can. ult ancient Councils adheres closely unto tradition truly universal as well Ecclesiastick as Apostolical both which lean on the testimony or authority of the truly Catholick Church according to that in Vincentius of Lirinum his fam'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or essay of ancient Catholicism Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus c. That which every where which alwaies which by all c. It appeareth that the Britannick Church bears upon these two Catholick principles to wit Holy Scripture before and above all and then Universal Tradition not onely because the general Council of Nice wherein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ancient Customes are underset and established but also the Britannick Church in a * The first Synod after her Articles of Religion were fixed An. 13. Regin Elizab. Provincial Council of her own hath most expresly ordained by a special Canon Wee conclude therefore That the Britannick Church such as shee was lately under Episcopacy rightly constituted was no way Schismatical neither materially nor formally since that she neither erected unto her self Chair against Chair which is the foul brand of Schismaticks in St. Cyprian Nor did that Church cut her self off from Episcopacy or made a Congregation at any time unto her self against her Canonical Bishops which ever is the formal character of Schismaticks by the definition of the o Concil Constantinop 1. Can. 6. vel 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Woe call them Hereticks which rend themselves from and set up Synagogues or Conventicles against our Canonical Bishops c. Constantinopolitan Council much less did she shake off her Bishops and with the continued succession of Bishops by consequence the succession of her Priests not interrupted as I may say from the very cradle of her Christianism And as for lawful ordination as well in the material part the imposition of hands as in the formal wherein signally by a set form of words both praerogative of Ordination and also jurisdiction is conferred on the Bishops this her ordination I say rightly and canonically performed by the Catholick Bishops shee proves out of the very Records or Monuments of Consecrations So that no man can by deserved right charge upon the Britannick Churches that ancient reproach of Schismaticks in p Matthew Parler a godly and learned man c. who was Chaplain to Henry the eighth c. being duly elected to the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury after a Sermon preached the Holy Spirit invoked and the Eucharist celebrated by the imposition of hands of three Bishops in former times William Barloe of Bathe Iohn Scory of Chichester Miles Coverdale of Exceter and Iohn Suffragan of Bedford was consecrated at Lambeth Hee afterward consecrated Edmund Grindal an excellent Divine to bee Bishop of London c. See Camdens Annals of the Affairs of England part 1. ad an 1559. Tertullian Vos ex vobis nati est is You are new Upstarts born yesterday of your selves Nay so tenacious are the genuine Britains of the ancient Religion and by consequence of her Catholick Discipline that for the intire restitution of their Bishops their most Gracious King himself Charls Emperour of Great Britain chuseth rather to suffer so many and so most undeserved injuries even which is horrid to be spoken to death it self which in dishonour and contempt of all q In good earnest this hainous fact so strikes at all Monarchs through the side of one King of Great Britain that unless it incense all Kings and Princes whatsoever as to a most just indignation so to a serious revenge it may be feared that the contagion of such a damnable example will diffuse its infection into Neighbour-Kingdomes it so threatneth and menaceth the destruction and ruine of Monarchy it self since that in the most seditious Epilogue of the perfidious Covenant in most express words they exhort and animate other Christian Churches as they love to speak which either groan under the yoak of Antichristian Tyranny or that onely are in danger of it that they would joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant with them forsooth to the enlargement of the Kingdome of Iesus Christ c. You hear the words yee Christian Princes yea and you see their deeds It is the affair of you all that is acted but of such among you especially whom particularly they will seem to have marked out with that black character of Antichristianism which in the sense of these Traitours is not so common to every meridian but that it seems to threaten some Region before other with its malignity God avert all of that nature portended by it Christian Monarchs those most desperate Rebels threaten to their King and not long since potent Monarch then abolish Episcopacy as mindful of that r At the Coronation of the King of England the Arch-Bishop consecrating in the name of the whole Clergy twice adjures the King in these words ss 1. † This is translated out of the Latin Copy My Liege Will you grant conserve and by your oath confirm the Laws Customes and Liberties given unto your Clergy by the Glorious King St. Edward your Predecessor The King answers I do grant and take upon mee to keep them Also ss 5. The Arch-Bishop advertiseth the King in these words My Lord the King Wee beseech you that you will conserve to us and the Churches committed to our trust all Canonical Priviledges and that you will protect and defend us so as every good King ought to be a Protector and Defender of Bishops and Churches put under his Government The King almost in the same words promiseth That hee to the uttermost of his power God helping him will keep the Canonical priviledges of the Churches and that hee will defend the Bishops themselves Afterward the King being lead to the Altar there touching with his hand the Holy Bible solemnly swears That hee will perform all these things adding moreover this Imprecation to be trembled at So help mee God and the contents of this holy Book I thought fit to insert here this form of the Kings Oath taken out of the Royal Records themselves that it may bee made manifest to the whole Christian world That His Majesties magnanimity and constancy hitherto is to be imputed not to pertinacy but Religion whatsoever otherwise is said by such as blaspheme or reproach him with their 〈◊〉 language Oath to be trembled at whereby hee religiously bound himself to God and the Church at his Coronation The Clergy and likewise better part of the Nobility as also the Britannick people dispersed here and there Rivals with their King in this part of his Religion refuse not to undergo the loss of all their estates persecutions banishments yea are ready to indure all kindes of extremity to their very last

allusion to that which issued from the Ark to Obed Edoms house I have a very particular obligation to suffrage in though so long after the date of his It was testimonium Dei faventis saith Grotius and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Philo of the Propitiatory or cover to it a testimony or symbole of Gods favourable and powerfull Mercy to the good man not so restrained to the presence but even after its removal to the City of David no doubt he and his family were blessed by it Sir the publick exercise of our Liturgy is the Antitype we reflect upon which by Gods singular indulgence to you hath when chased out of the Temple took refuge in your House so that we have been forced many times to argue from your Oratory for a visibility of our Church Your easie admission of mee to officiate in it for some months and your endeavours to have such an establishment made for mee as whereby in the most difficult of times I might have had a comfortable subsistence and a safe protection under your sacred roof beside the other graces and civilities I had from you exact this open retribution of my thanks as the character of my holy Order impressed on mee in your Chapel may have consigned mee somewhat peculiarly to be your Priest when any emergent may require the Canonical performance of my Ministery within your walls However Sir I shall not offer the holy Sacrifice at any of Gods Altars which are now again erecting by a most miraculous mercy to his King and People but I shall commemorate in your behalf the little emblem you preserved of them when they lay in their dust and ruines nor shall the cloud of sacred incense ascend in the Sanctuary without the mixture of my breath while I have it to ask a return from Heaven in showers of blessings to you and your posterity whose name memory must be ever venerable to the English Clergy as your person hath been most obliging to many of us among whom though the unworthiest of them I pray assist and honour with the continuance of your patronage Noble Sir Your most grateful and very humble servant RI. WATSON Caen Aug. 12. 1660. POSITIONS I Position THe rights of Patriarchates Custome introduced Councils confirmed Emperours established II Position The Britannick Church as being alwaies placed without the Suburbicaries of the Italick Diaecese in the time of the Nicene Council was in no case subject to the Roman Patriarchate but enjoyed a Patriarchate of its own as to the substance of the thing so as did the other Churches placed in the rest of the free Diaeceses III Position The Britannick Church was with very good right restored by her Soveraign to her ancient Ecclesiastical liberty and that according to the Rule of the ancient Catholick Canons by which the word The Metropolitick Rights Custome hath introduced appears from the very words in the sixth Canon of the first great Nicen Council wherein the confines of the three chief Patriarchs are determined and the Origin of the Roman Metropolitan as also the Alexandrian Antiochian and those of other Provinces which at that time did alike enjoy each its own I say the Origin of every one of these is referred by the Council ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Custome And moreover the Synod doth decree a Religious Observation of that Custome in these solemn words which the Church truly Catholick did perpetually reverence as an Oracle viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let Ancient Customes be in force commanding likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Churches should have their priviledges preserved The same is clearly evident from the words in the second Canon of the first Constantinopolitan Council which most expresly commands each Church in every Diocess to be governed according to that Custome of the Fathers which had prevailed the priviledges being preserved which by the Nicen Canons have been granted to the Churches The second part of the Position viz. That Councils have confirmed the Rights of Patriarchates is manifest both by the former Paragraph and principally by that Illustrious Canon which is the last save one of the Oecumenick Council at Chalcedon that is the 206 Canon of the Universal Church neither the truth nor validity whereof hath any one questioned unlesse carried away violently with an affection to the Roman partie The words of the said Canon are most emphatical Behold the very marrow and vigour of it express'd First The Catholick Ancients do assert that they in this decree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and every where follow the definitions of the Holy Fathers Secondly That the Priviledges of the Elder Rome they say not are founded by Christ or by Peter or by Paul but are indulged by the Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thirdly They adjust the reason of this Prerogative and that not divine nor indeed so much as Ecclesiastical but meerly secular to wit as wee shall demonstrate in the third Paragraph the Imperial Authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because that City was Emperesse of the rest Fourthly The Fathers moved by the same consideration declare That they as much as lyes in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will communicate equal Priviledges to the most holy Throne of New Rome Rightly judging they are the words of the very Canon that Constantinople which they call New Rome being honoured both with Empire and Senate may enjoy equal Priviledges with the Elder Rome and in Ecclesiastical affairs no less than she be extolled and magnified as her second or next unto her hitherto the Canon second to wit in order but no way obnoxious in jurisdiction to Rome as is plain by her equality with Rome every way asserted in the Canon and will afterward more clearly appear both out of the 8th Canon of the first Ephesine Council as also the ninth Canon of the Council of Chalcedon both which Canons are cited and illustrated in the following Position The third part of the Position viz. The Rights of Patriarchates Emperours have established is confirmed both by reason and by practice and that first general then special likewise The general Reason being as it were the foundation of this whole discourse deeper laid is farther to be reached First Therefore wee say That Fathers of Families were at first both Princes and Priests Moreover as the supplicate of the whole Gallick people to King Philip the Faire almost four hundred years since very rightly observeth against Pope Boniface Melchisedec is expresly said to be King before Priest and consequently the King taketh not from the Priest nor ought to acknowledge that hee owes unto the Priest his Crown or the rights thereof such as the external Regiment of the Church is proved to be afterward Secondly Wee say That by propagation of Families and their amplification into Cities and Communities the Oeconomick Authority in process of time became politick Thirdly Wee assert That in the first institution of the Priesthood Moses took away no part

of the supream jurisdiction from the Politick Authority Therefore the Royal Power remained the same it was before both Legislative and Iudiciary as well in Sacred as Civil Affairs For Moses as King in Iesurun was constituted by God himself the keeper as well of both Trumpets as Tables now what pertained to Moses as King is every Kings due This very comparative Argument as rightly consequent from Moses to Constantine the Great after the revolutions of so many ages Eusebius five or six times applies to establish the Imperial Authority about the Convocation and confirmation of the first Nicene Council Fourthly As Moses not Aaron delivered the Ceremonial Law so long after Moses King David instituted the courses of the Priest and Solomon thrust out Abiathar the High Priest Fifthly When Christ inaugurated his Apostles hee furnished them with great powers of his own such as are the Administration of Sacraments and power of the Keyes but all that Christ bestowed on his Apostles cumulatively nought at all privatively for indeed our Lord Christ would neither by the Evangelical Priesthood nor his whole first Advent have any thing detracted from the Jurisdiction or Authority of the Civil Powers nor that Kings because Christians should have their Prerogative abated Sixthly Wee say That Kings as Kings ought to be the Liturgick Officers of Christ and so far Kings in their degree may yea ought to be Ministers of the Church and as it were External Bishops of the Ecclesiastick Government as Constantine the Great said wisely of himself That same the magnificent Title of Christ himself Prince of the Kings of the earth seems to erect for all Kings of right although in fact most of Kings are not yet by vertue of this title they are obliged all to bee Christians Seventhly We say That there are very many things pertaining to the external Polity of the Church which although they belong properly and primarily to the King alone yet in case of necessity as they say and secondarily are out of course devolved upon the Clergy For instance To call Synods ordain Fasts or Festivals distinguish Parishes into Diocesses or Provinces to fix and ratifie the Hierarchical degrees of Bishops so as this man is a Bishop that a Primate the third a Metropolitane that this Bishop should be under the jurisdiction of that Metropolitane and contrarily upon some weighty or lawful either occasion necessity or publick commodity of the Church that this should be exempt from the other under whom hee was before These and very many of like sort according to the various state of the Church pertain both to the King and Priest For those two most different times of the Church's condition ought not to be confounded I mean of persecution and peace Because in time of persecution under Infidel Kings so long as Princes are altogether and every way dis-joyned from the Church and the Church from Princes the divine order ceaseth and the Royal Succession suffer's necessarily interruption I say interruption not abolition For so long the case is plainly extraordinary and while so the Woman is in the Desart and the Church supplies this defect of Princes as she can As when the Husband is absent or sick the Matron governs the Family But the divine Positive Order re-entring the ordinary state of the Church returneth also so soon as Kings resume the Christian Religion the partition-wall presently falls down and then by due right Kings take again their exteriour power over the Christian Church Otherwise we should say that in order to the Government of the Church there ought to be no difference between Pharaoh and Moses between Nero and Constantine nor as to dominion in sacred Affairs and the right use thereof that this Emperour communicates any more with the Church than the other which would be dissonant not onely from right Reason but also from holy Scripture Therefore the Emperour so soon as hee becomes Christian ought to obtain his restitution intire And this in this Argument is the matter of right or general Reason which wee lay down as the Base of that right which belongs to the Emperour in establishing the external limits of the Ecclesiastical Government As to the matter of fact or practice that is both general or Catholick and also special The general practice beside the assumption of the second Argument which was proved before consists in an induction of Councils as well General as Provincial all which as they supplicate from the Emperour himself the very convocation of councils so do they submit to the same Emperour every one of their decrees even those in matters of Faith which although as to their intrinsec Authority they depend onely on the Word of God and Truth it self yet as to their extrinsec Authority they depend on the Imperial Sentence but if those of Faith how much more those which are onely of the bare Regiment of the Church such as is the establishment of Patriarchates lye all under the Imperial decrees to wit in this sense That the Canon of the Church may have the force of a Law that wholly proceeds from the Authority of the Prince Thence is it that every one of the Ancient Councils all the Ancient Catholick Bishops even the Bishop of Rome himself present them alwaies to the Emperour to be supplied amended perfected and so humbly petition from the Emperour not a naked protection or late execution but an intire ratification and confirmation of every Council without which as to the external effect they are to become unattired void and plainly of no force Concerning this Truth I appeal not onely to the Councils of Cavalion Mentz and Toures with the rest of the less sort but I produce the very four general Councils concerning the first of which viz. that of Nice Eusebius expresly relates that the Emperour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confirming the decrees of the Synod did fortifie them as it were with his seal I appeal also to the first Council of Constantinople and the very Epistle of the Council to the Emperour Theodosius wherein all the holy Fathers petition the Emperour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. to have the Suffrage of the Synod confirmed Yea I appeal to Leo himself Pope of Rome whom I beleeve not to have been of the most abject spirit among those in that Pontificate who in every one of his Letters to three Emperours humbly petitions not commands much less decrees but beseecheth supplicates that the Emperour would command c. But it may suffice to have declared these things though somewhat at large yet but by the way to the evincing by a general rule from the whole to the part That the rights of Patriarchates introduced by Custome confirmed by Councils were established by Emperours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was the last lemme of our Position The same will appear more evidently in the special practice of the Catholick Emperours For by what Authority Iustinian the Emperour