insolence of the Roman Church is here thrown out and he adds that the reasons in the case which were good in Africa are good every-where else But besides Synod Edit à Beveregio p. 675. it appears more evidently that those Fathers took this to be art and contrivance Because at the end of the Council they sent their new attested Copies to Pope Coclestine next Successour but one to Zosimus with a Letter in the name of the Council and therein they tell him roundly that they knew their right and that they would maintain it that they had received wrong by the intermedling of Faustinus in the name of Zosimus that the Council of Nice had committed Presbyters and Bishops to the regulation of the Metropolitans and according to wisedom and justice they had fixed that all Controversies and Pleas ought to be determined and adjusted in the Places and Countreys wherein they arose that the grace of the Spirit is not wanting to the Priests of Christ in every place whereby they may judge what is right and in case of errour or aggrievance there might be an appeal to the next Synod And as to judgments to be revoked by Foreigners and a new revision to be made in Places beyond the Seas they knew not how it could be well done For in these Revisions many necessary Witnesses could not be produced in such distant Places by reason of sickness weakness and many casual but yet reasonable impediments At last they conclude that all this action which gave them so much trouble tended to no good at all but would bring into the Church of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereupon they hope he will not follow the Example of his Predecessor Thus said these great Fathers and thereby sufficiently intimate what they thought of the Action of Zosimus And we at this distance may guess at some farther thoughts of theirs which they have concealed by taking a short review of the History of those times Because that will shew us something more than an oversight in this business The Council of Nice had done nothing for the aggrandizing of Rome Two and twenty years after another Council was convened at Sardica The number of Bishops who came thither as Athanasius tells us was an hundred and seventy At the first meeting there happens to be a breach amongst them Upon that the greatest part withdraw some it may be to their own Dioceses others gathered together to Philippopolis where they make Canons and publish them with authority from the Emperour and that in the name of the Canons of the Sardican Council These for a time were the onely Sardican Canons that were known in other Countries And because these favoured Arianism St. Augustin and St. Aug. Ep. 163. p 856. Hilary declared highly against the Sardican Council and the Canons of it For they knew of no other but these But whilst the Eastern Bishops were busie at Philippopolis there remained at Sardica about eighty Bishops as some guess Briet Annales in an 347. Brietius the Jesuite says not above seventy These that they might seem to doe something agree to make Canons about Discipline And because there were none left there but good confiding Friends of Pope Julius and Athanasius Hosius leads and they all without dispute or hesitancy follow He says Notae Beveregii in Concil Sardicense p. 199. Sardic Concil Canon 3. let us doe something to honour the memory of St. Peter and they all agree to doe what he would have them to doe Therefore he proposes and they conclude to give that to the Pope which he never had before and yet that was not a power of judging and determining in a cause upon an Appeal but of requiring of a review or second judgment to be made in the Countries by the same Judges with the addition of some few others As soon as these Canons were made Julius receives them and tacks them to the end of the Canons of the Nicene Council where they lay close for seventy years and were never heard to speak a word in the Western Church for all that time Nor yet dare they so much as shew their heads in the Eastern Church in any Judicatory to this day But when Apiarius made his complaints to Zosimus he was so hardy as to make trial of them and in the name of the Canons of the Nicene Council Du Pin de Antiqua Eccl. Discip p. 113. he sends them abroad to fight for him De Marca lib. 7. cap. 5. Du Pin pag. 113. Now in all this Narration from first to last I see no manner of oversight but great appearance of prudence design and craft It was no oversight for the Friends of Rome at Sardica to make Canons of Discipline when all the Eastern Bishops who might oppose were out of the way It was no oversight in Hosius to preface his Canons in that glozing way of doing honour to the memory of Saint Peter It was no oversight in Julius to tack these new Canons that were to give him and his Successours such new powers to those of the Council of Nice It was no oversight in his Successours to make no mention of these for seventy years It was no oversight in Pope Zosimus when he resolved to make advantage of them to bring them forth in the name and credit of Nicene Canons Thus did Leo the First after him De Marca lib. 7. cap. 7. par 6. For had he called them Sardican Canons St. Augustin would have presently said that they were the Acts of Hereticks and in the next moment would have thundred against them as Falsarians and Counterfeits For those Men who made the Sardican Canons which he had seen did condemn both Athanasius and Julius August Epist 163. and then how is it possible to think that they would ever have given such new and extraordinary powers to Julius After that the whole Council would have declared that whether the Canons were counterfeit or not yet no Act of any Sardican Council had any more authority in it after the division of the Fathers than an Act of one of their Provincial Synods Upon the whole therefore whatever men talk of an oversight in Zosimus it is certain he did what was fit and necessary to be donein the case If he would use those Canons to enlarge his power he must call them Nicene Canons For those onely could be presumed to have authority sufficient to doe his business Thus his own next Predecessour Innocentius the First says in his Epistle ad Clerum Constantinopolitanum of the Nicene Canons that they and they onely were the Canons which the Roman Church stood to Alios quippe Canones Romana non admittit Ecclesia Du Pin 113. Sozomen lib. 8.26 De Marca lib. 7. cap. 12. par 1 2. But good Sir pardon this digression It has been too long Our Authour forced me to it by his consident alledging the Council of Chalcedon and the Council of Nice for the
Pope's Supremacy In charity I was bound to pity him and tell him something which he did not know and thereby if possible to move him to take more care if ever he writes again I pitied the World too to see it in danger to be abused by such impertinencies at this time of day Onely allow me the favour to acquaint you that Petrus de Marca speaking of those Sardican Canons lib. 7. Petrus de Marca de concord Imper. Sacerdot cap. 15. par 4 5. expresly asserts that they were unknown in Africa and other Provinces till Zosimus his days and withall he shews how the Africans at last came to submit to them and that was upon many and those not commendable reasons the first of which is this Cessere tandem ob pertinaciam sedis Apostolicae Pontificum qui nihil remittere voluerunt ex jure sibi legitimè quaesito in Concilio Generali Occidentis Sardicensi nimirum praesertim cùm possessioni eorum consensissent Africani Episcopi qui ad certum tempus morem gesserant defideriis Summorum Pontificum And the last is from the difficulties which the incursions of the Vandals brought upon them who being Arians made it necessary for the Churches of Africa at any rate to purchase the savour and assistence of the Romans incursio Vandalorum Ariani erant in Africa dominabantur Africanos necessitate adigebat ad arctissimam unionem cum Ecclesia Romanâ It seems then that the Popes after long contests prevailed not by the merits of their Cause but by their stiffness or pertinacious insisting upon demands right or wrong And by making advantages of the necessities of others when Vandals and those too Arian Hereticks had master'd them and lay hard upon them for then those Orthodox Christians were forced to yield up their rights to the Popes before they could obtain necessary reliefs from them Thus said that wise and learned Roman Catholick And he himself in the writing of this gives us cause to believe the truth of this remark for he then found in his own experience the same stiffness and pertinacity and therefore puts in words to please them quite contrary to the design of his Discourse For he shews plainly that they had no right and yet was forced to say they had ex jure legitimè quaesito He shews that the Sardican Fathers who made this Canon after the secessionof the others could not make up any shew of a general Council yet says that right was obtained in Concilio generali Sardicensi nimirum Now Sir if you can think that the Roman Bishops have proceeded in these methods I hope you will hereafter less puzzle your self and your Friends with your Queries concerning the prodigious Power of the Papacy how it could get up at first by such slender pretences and how it could hand with such weak props how men could be so bold as to challenge in behalf of the Roman Bishops so illustrious a Supremacy so unlimited Authority so glorious a Vicegerency as the Vicariatship of Christ himself must speak All these will be much easier to you when you have considered these two things first the mighty effects of a pertinacious stiffness in demands right or wrong and secondly what it is to take all advantages upon the necessities of others especially at such a time when those barbarous People Goths and Vandals and Huns and Saxons had overrun so many parts of the World 2. A second point of Controversie between the Church of Rome and the Church of England which according to our Authour was determined by ancient Councils is that about the Apocryphal Books P. 20. which he says were taken into the Canon of the Old Testament in the Third Council of Carthage signed by St. Augustine Baruch onely not named Canon 47. Now to this it is sufficient to say that the Subject is exhausted and there is nothing left for another Writer to add to it The Learned Dr. Cosens in his Discourse of the Canon of the Scripture parag 82. has said more than enough for the satisfaction of any learned Roman Catholick as well as Protestant and if our Authour would presume to reply it will cost him more pains than the writing of a dozen such Books as these But some small return may be expected He shall therefore have this That the Canon he quotes out of the Council of Carthage Canon 47. apud Binnum Canon 27. in Synodico Bevereg does not provide for the taking of Books into the Canon of Scripture but for throwing of Books out of the Church It says at first that no Books should be read in Churches but these and then it says in the close that they had received from the Fathers that these were there to be read Now our Authour knows that though we call these Books Apocryphal yet we reade them in our Churches and that as much and more than they do in the Church of Rome and that all of them except the two Books of the Maccabees Now as to these Dr. Cosin 's Scholast Hist p. 112 113. they are nt mentioned in any of the Greek Copies of this Canon nor yet in Cresconius his Collection of the African Canons and how they came to be inserted we must remit him to Dionysius Exiguus for his satisfaction But if our Authour had any material doubt concerning the Church of England's Doctrine about Canonical and Apocryphal Books he would have done well to have considered the sentiments of the Doctours of the Roman Church before he had concluded against us Now I believe that Cardinal Cajetan where he endeavours to reconcile the Council of Carthage with Saint Augustine would have given him reason enough never to have used this objection against the Church of England He says indeed against Protestants but not those of the English Communion in fine Commentariorum ad Hist V. N. T. Ne turberis Novitie si alicubi reperias libros istos inter Canonicos supputatos vel in sacris Conciliis vel in sacris Doctoribus libri isti non sunt Canonici ad confirmanda ea quae sunt fidei possunt tamen dici Canonici ad aedificationem fidelium ut pote in Canone Biblii ad hoc recepti autorati Cum hâc distinctione discernere poteris scripta Augustini scripta in provinciali Synodo Carthaginensi Now this agrees well enough with the Doctrine in the Articles and practice prescribed in the Rubrick of the Church of England And besides Can. Apostol 85. this distinction has its foundation in a very venerable Authority for the Apostolick Canons make a great deal of difference and that upon the same ground between some and other Books calling some of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 venerable and holy but then of the Book called the Wisedom of Solomon or the Son of Sirach and that most certainly is the best of the Apocrypha say it is to be learnt by the Young Men or the Catechumens for
the good rules and instructions that are in it and for this end it is read in the Church of England It is something more and to be hinted here Concil Laod. Can. 60. that the Laodicaean Council expresly requires that no Books be read in the Church but those that we accompt in strict sense Canonical Can. 60. And in the Canon 59. of that Council it is absolutely forbidden that any private Hymns or Psalms that is such as have been made by private Persons since the consignation of the Canon of Scripture should be used in Churches Now if our Authour knows his Breviary and allows any Authority to these Councils He may have more reason to object against the Church of Rome for having so many private Hymns in their Service than against the Church of England for having so few Books in that which is properly called the Canonical Scriptures This bye-consideration might have given some stop to a man that was not resolved to run too fast from his Church 3. But he mentions a third Doctrine determined in ancient Councils against us P. 20. and that is concerning the unbloudy Sacrifice now this is for want of matter to give words it is certain that the Church of England at the end of the Communion-service in the last Collect teaches us to pray to God that he would accept this our Sacrifice and our Authour knows that it never owned any Sacrifice but an unbloudy Sacrifice to be offered there I wish our Authour had told us whether the Sacrifice which the Church of Rome pretends to offer be bloudy or unbloudy They tell us ordinarily that there is bloud on the Patten and bloud in the Cup bloud with the Body concomitanter for the benefit of the Laity and bloud in the Cup to the satisfaction of the Priest I think both these are offered up according to their Doctrine as a Sacrifice propitiatory for the dead and the living They that believe Transubstantiation must believe that one part of the Sacrifice is really bloud and nothing else but bloud and they may be concern'd to call it a bloudy Sacrifice but not at all to call it unbloudy Pope Vrban the Fourth seems to have been of this mind when he instituted the great Feast of the Body of Christ commonly called Festum Corporis Christi For he did it upon this occasion that a certain Host being broken by the Priest either bled or shed drops of bloud they say miraculously but how or whether true or no we know not Now this I presume may be call'd a bloudy Host or Sacrifice Brietius Ann. 1264. in these words tells us the story Vrbanus quartus ex occasione miraculi de Eucharistia Briet Annal. in An. 1264. Hostiâ à Sacerdote fractâ reddente sanguinem Festum Corporis Christi instituit The institution of this Feast was to give honour to the Host and that not as unbloudy but as bloudy and it was to insinuate this Doctrine that all the other Hosts have bloud with them as well as this though the bloud does not always appear But as they say then it did and if so it came in seasonably to confirm the Doctrine of the Lateran Council about Transubstantiation and that which soon follow'd after it the communicating of the Laity in one Species So happy was the Church of Rome then to have a Miracle or the story of a Miracle to come in at the nick of time to patronage that which old Councils and old Fathers and sense and reason and all that is in man must have disclaim'd and oppos'd But now after all this our Authour is most unlucky to put us in mind of the true ancient Catholick Doctrine and to summon up old Councils in the defence of a word which we accept and use with submission and that most properly we believe the holy Eucharist to be a Sacrifice and that in plain and strict sense an unbloudy Sacrifice and so as the ancient Councils and Fathers did we call it And though the Doctours of the Church of Rome use the same word yet when they reflect upon the Doctrine of their own Church they must explain themselves by a much harder figure than we use when we interpret the words of our Saviour's Institution But yet our Authour will have the Councils against us and he tells us of a Council at Constantinople which he says was a thousand years agoe and that it seems used these words and so do we those old Councils are better Friends to the Protestant Doctrines than he is aware of for the Protestants studied them and learnt of them and took their rules and measures in the Reformation as near as they could after the holy Scriptures from them Then he cites the ninth Council of the Apostles now I wish he had told us whether this was a thousand or fifteen hundred or two thousand years agoe I thought at first he meant the 15th Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles But our Authour has declar'd so much against the Scriptures that we can never hope to find his sense there it is possible he means the ninth of the Apostolick Canons And that is as little to his purpose as the ninth Council of the Apostles to be sure it speaks nothing against the interest of the Church of England and nothing to the advantage of the Church of Rome Thus it is and will be as often as men adventure to write Books without skill 4. P. 20. The fourth point our Authour gives us as determined in Councils is that of the veneration and worship of Saints Relicks as also of Martyrs and holy Images which he says was according to Apostolical Tradition established in the second Council of Nice with the general concurrences of ancient Fathers This Council indeed speaks to the point for which it is alledged but because our Authour is pleas'd to fortify it with concurrences I 'll give him account of some other Councils that as to time do almost concur with this they treat upon the same subject and determine as resolutely and when he has ballanced all the concurrences together perhaps he may find as little pleasure in this allegation as in all the rest The first Council that ever determined any thing about the worship of Images was at Constantinople Anno 754. * See the Acts of the second Nicene Council in Binnius p. 621. Col. Edit Ann. 1618. This called it self the seventh general Council and so it was esteemed for thirty years after This condemned the worship of Images and declared that it was abominable that Images were Idols and the Worshippers of them Idolaters and that all and every Image was to be thrown out of Christian Churches and they spake as high in this way as any have done since the Reformation †See Binnius his Collection as before and Balsamus and Zonaras on the 7th and 9th Canons of the second Nicene Council This appears by the Acts and Canons of the second
and bordering parts of Wales at the same time the Church of Rome was no less afflicted by the Heathen Emperours This is gross ignorance to talk of Saxons persecuting the Britains and Religion flying into Wales in the time of the Heathen Emperours Did the Man never hear of the name of Constantine and of the names of those glorious Christian Emperours that succeeded him in the East and West for more than two hundred years before the flying into Wales I hope he will not call them persecuting Heathen Emperours who brought the Empire into the Church The famous Council at Nice was celebrated in the Year 325. and the coming of the Saxons under Hengist into Britain was not till the Year 450 and it was near a hundred years after that before the Britains were dispossessed of the rest of their Countrey and forc'd to secure themselves amongst the Mountains of Wales This our Authour might easily have known if he had read Bede but he knew it not therefore he adds No wonder if in these days and circumstances there was but little correspondence between Rome and Wales This now is worse and worse what a little correspondence between Rome and Britain when Constantius was in Britain and Constantine and Theodosius and Maximus and the most of the chief Roman Commanders in their distinct times What! little correspondence between them though three of the British Bishops were at the Council of Arles and as many very probably at Nice and as many certainly at the Council of Ariminum and of Sardica Did this Man never hear of the names of Pelagius and Coelestius or of Palladius and Patricius and hundreds of others who came from Rome to Britain or went from Britain to Rome in all this long tract of time I would be willing to think that I mistake a little rather than judge that he mistakes so grosly But he will not allow it for he will have all the World to see how ignorant he is He adds to this these words But when the Church brought from her subterraneous refuges and set upon a Hill began to enlarge her self P. 31. and propagate the Gospel Gregory the Great sent Augustine the Monk into England to see how matters went there in this long interval of silence Certainly he does think that Gregory the Great was the first Roman Bishop that ever saw good days and that all his Predecessours were under the persecuting Heathen Emperours for now he says that the Church was brought from her subterraneous refuges and now she was set upon the Hill and now began to enlarge her self I wonder where he learnt this I hope it was from his Friend the famous Napper What is become of two and thirty Bishops of Rome so many there were between Sylvester who is said to have baptized the Emperour Constantine and this Gregory the Great did they all sleep did they doe nothing for the Church that she must be said now to inlarge her self There was near three hundred years past from Constantine's possession of the Empire to this mission of Augustine the Monk and was the Church all that time in subterraneous refuges Where were these subterraneous refuges from whence the Church came and where was the Hill upon which the Church was set in this Gregory's days I know that John of Constantinople was then most ambitious and indeavoured to mount up his Seat to higher power and dignity than that of Rome it self He challenged all the proud Titles that the Popes afterwards usurpt and designed to set his Church upon the Hill But Gregory the First wrote against him and charged him with pride and arrogancy and said plainly that whatever Bishop whether Roman or Constantinopolitan should assume those Titles he would be Antichristian or at least the Forerunner of Antichrist It is certain that Gregory the Great was content to keep things as he found them he did not set the Church upon a Hill or inlarge its power The Romanists can scarce pardon him for the great submission and deference which he yielded to the Emperour and the large expressions which he used in his Contest against John of Constantinople for the Protestants strongly argue from them against the pretences of the Popes themselves But our Authour adds that Gregory sent Augustine the Monk into England to see how matters went here in this long interval of silence He seems to think that Augustine came as a Spy or to make a discovery of an unknown Land but in this he is like himself still mistaken For Gregory knew how matters went here He knew that Bertha Queen to King Ethelbert was a Christian and that Luidhardus Bishop of Senlis was her Chaplain and that he performed to her and her Attendants all Christian Offices in the Church of St. Martin's Bede lib. 1. cap. 26. near Canterbury which was formerly built by the Romans And Gregory himself says in a Letter which he sent by this Augustine to the King of France and was delivered by him in his passage hither That the English Nation were desirous to become Christians His words are these Pervenit ad nos Greg. Epist lib. 5. Ep. 58. Anglorum gentem ad fidem Christianam desideranter velle converti sed Sacerdotes vestros è vicino negligere desideria eorum cessare suâ adhortatione succendere Ob hoc igitur Augustinum Servum Dei praesentium portitorem cujus zelus studium benè nobis est cognitum cum aliis servis Dei praevidimus illuc dirigendum Quibus etiam injunximus ut aliquos secum è vicino debeant Presbyteros ducere cum quibus eorum possint mentes agnoscere voluntatem admonitione suâ quantum Deus donaverit adjuvare and to the same purpose he writes in the next Epistle If our Authour had seen this Greg. Ep. 59. he would not have said that Gregory sent Augustine to see how matters went here in this long interval of silence But he goes on and tells us that the Britains knew him not that is Augustine untill he had confirmed his Commission by Miracles Now what had he to doe with them or they with him his Commission was to convert the Saxons or the English from their Paganism to Christianity as Gregory says in the forementioned Epistle Bede lib. 1. cap. 23. and Bede in these words Misit Servum Dei Augustinum alios complures praedicare Verbum Dei genti Anglorum Bede calls him Anglorum Apostolus to them he was sent to them he came and he had more work to doe amongst them than he was able to perform The Britains were not in the least concerned in his Commission for they were Christians and very good Christians according to our Authour's accompt For he tells us that the great Errours which Augustine found among them were chiefly two Their Asiatick Errour concerning the keeping of Easter and dissent from the Roman Church in the administring of Baptism As to the first of these their Asiatick
pag. 32. he discourses After all this can we believe that the Britains who earnestly contradicted Augustine in these smaller matters and were so tenacious of their own Customs would have silently received so many and incomparably greater points of Faith had they in like manner disagreed from him therein credat Judaeus Apella Here our Authour is much to be blamed because he will not permit us to give him civil Language he does not onely betray his ignorance but what is much worse in this Paragraph he challenges to have skill in Bede and Bede is the man that contradicts him in every thing he says For Bede tells us that the Britains neither received greater points of Faith nor lesser from Augustine the Monk nor his Companions But for more than one hundred years after Augustine's arrival they esteemed all his teachings to be vain and trifling and little better than Paganism He concluded his History in the Year 725. as appears lib. 5. cap. 24. and he himself tells us in his Epitome that Augustine came into England in the Year 597. Yet he says Lib. 2. cap. 20. Cum usque hodiè moris sit Britonum Fidem Religionémque Anglorum pro nihilo habere neque in aliquo eis magis communicare quà m Paganis That the Britains according to their usual way had no esteem at all for the Faith and Religion of the English and that they would no more communicate with them than with the Pagans And Bede does not onely say that the Britains had so mean an opinion of the Romans Lib. 2. cap. 4. and their Disciples but likewise that the Scots or Irish had the same For where he gives us part of the Letter that Laurentius Mellitus and Justus sent to the Scots He says that when they had tried the Britains they thought the Scots might be better Cognoscentes Brittones Scottos meliores putavimus but yet they found both alike For Dagamus their Bishop would neither eat at the same Table nor in the same House with them Dagamus Episcopus ad nos veniens non solùm cibum nobiscum sed nec in eodem Hospitio quo vescebamur sumere voluit In the same page he says that Laurentius and the rest wrote to the Britains too Sed quantum haec agendo profecerit adhuc praesentia tempora declarant That is that the present opposition which the Britains made against the Romanists in Bede's days sufficiently sheweth that Laurentius his Letter had no effect upon them and that is the same thing which we had before usque hodie that from Augustine the Monk down to Bede's days the Britains had no regard for the Romans teaching of Faith or Religion so far as it differ'd from their own From these two Passages Henry of Huntingdon made the remark which he has lib. 3. Hist Nec Britannos Henr. Huntingd Hist lib. 3. nec Scotos velle communicare cum Anglis eorum Episcopo sancto Augustino magis quam Paganis This is sufficient to shew our Authour's presumption in alledging Bede to patronize his vain Opinations concerning the Britains if we give credit to him the Britains did not receive either so many or so great points of Faith from Augustine the Monk for they received none at all And therefore his Consequence which he draws from thence is like his Premisses good for nought That is this That the Doctrines these two Points excepted their Asiatick Errour and the difference about Baptism which Augustine taught the Saxons had been delivered to the Britains from the Apostles For seeing we have an acknowledged difference in these two Points in Augustin's days and other differences as I shall shew brake out afterwards and we find no manner of agreement between Augustine and the Britains and no communication between his Followers and them for an hundred years after but an extreme aversion and abhorrence of them and their ways he can no more argue for the truth of Augustine's Doctrines from the consent of the Britains than he may for the truth of all the Doctrines which the present Church of Rome teaches from the consent of the present Church of England we oppose them and so did they we and they too reject their Novelties their unjust Usurpations their unreasonable Impositions And though the terms of Communion which they would lay upon us are much harder than those which Augustine offered to the Britains yet we thank God our charity continues towards them we call them Christians and treat them as Christians which the old Britains would not do and with meekness and humility we endeavour to shew them their Errours This is enough to the Case of Augustine and of Bede's Relation of it And enough to the First Part of this Authour July 26. 1687. Sir I am Yours A brief Account of Augustine and the Conversion of the English taken out of Bede 's Ecclesiastical History AVgustine after he had been received gratiously by King Ethelbert knew not what he had to doe He was sent to preach plain Christianity to those that were willing to learn it But he had a mind to doe something else Bede lib. 1. cap. 27. and therefore soon sent to Pope Gregory for his resolution of certain Questions most of which our modern Historians censure as Legal and Levitical and think them all excepting three to be of little use Two of these are remarkable the first concerning his own power which he would have extended not onely over Britain but to France in this latter he was repressed and told that the Pope could not nor ought to grant it because his Predecessours had before setled it on the Bishop of Arles yet over the Bishops of Britain he gives him all the power which he could wish Omnes Episcopos Britanniarum tuae fraternitati committimus Bede lib. 1. cap 27. Resp 9. ut indocti doceantur infirmi persuasione roborentur perversi autoritate corrigantur Now it was unreasonable in Augustine to ask this and injustice in Gregory to grant it For both must needs know that this was an invasion of the Rights of Bishops against the Canons of the Church against the Sixth of the Nicene Council and the Eighth of the Ephesine which says expresly that if the Rites of Churches are taken away and that by any Patriarch whatsoever that Fact should be null and invalid Barnesius Cath-Rom Pacif. p. 60. This Father Barne says gave just cause and reason to the British Bishops to withstand Austin quia videbatur Augustinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agere cum iis cogendo eos ut reciperent eum pro Archiepiscopo mandatis exterorum se subderent Cum antiqui mores Ecclesiae suae postularent ut omnia inter se Synodicè agerent tum pro Episcoporum ordinationibus tum pro aliis negotiis Ecclesiasticis The second considerable Query of Augustine was concerning Rituals Bede lib. 1. cap. 27. Inter. 3. Forms of Worship Missals or Liturgies in this he propos'd how it
he pleased he might have given us the Bread without the Cup or the Cup without the Bread and if he had pleased he might have omitted both But since he has given the same order for both Christians are under the same obligation and have the same right to both as to one and that all Christians as well Laity as Priests for there is but one order given and a Council may as well debar the Priests from the Cup as the Laity and they may as well null the whole Sacrament as halve it But since our Authour has mentioned the Council of Constance I will presume to recommend unto him a late ingenious and discreet Discourse published by a Person of quality of the Authority of Councils and Rule of Faith He may there find some remarks concerning this Council of Constance that may doe him more good than all the Councils that ever he read 6. The next thing our Authour mentions is Purgatory P. 21. and the Council of Florence establishing the truth of the Doctrine concerning it Now as to this enough has been written already I 'll be kind to our Authour and for his sake say nothing against it And that because I know not what profit or advantage to himself a New Convert may expect from it For it is the trade of Indulgences and Masses that keeps up the talk of it as it is a point of speculation Rome is no more concerned to defend it than we The Doctrine derives from Heathens especially the Poets and it may give fine entertain to Wits and idle Persons He that has nothing to doe may transcribe half a score Legends which may possibly make our Authour blush and be wiser than to alledge Councils in defence of Purgatory 7. P. 21. The last Point which our Authour gives us is the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which he says was confirmed in the great Council of Lateran in which near thirteen hundred Fathers assisted and in seven or eight other Councils before that of Trent and all the controverted Points particularly and by name declared by some of your selves to have been brought into England by Augustine the Monk above a thousand years since Here our Authour is unhappy in every thing he says First He calls the Lateran Council Great He means General for that is the name which must guide its Authority and make it considerable and so some have called it but with the meanest appearance of reason that ever was offered For the Saracens then gave too much business to the Eastern Bishops for them to leave their Houses and their Flocks to come to Rome to make Speeches in Councils there And then secondly He says there were near thirteen hundred Fathers assisting in this Council now if he had looked upon Binnius or Labbè he would have found not above four hundred Bishops there and they are the onely Persons that were ever reckoned for Fathers in a Council Thirdly To the end of this he tacks a Story of Augustine the Monk as if he thought or would perswade others that he brought into England the Doctrine of Transubstantiation and the Decree of the Lateran Council for it Now Transubstantiation name and thing can derive no higher than this Lateran Council and this Council was not in being for more than six hundred years after the Death of Augustine Bede tells us Lib. 2. cap. 5. that he was dead before the year 613. and this Council met not till the year 1215. Thus miserably unhappy is our Authour in his impertinent Sallies But he must hear more of Augustine hereafter At present our Authour's business is to gain credit and belief to the Doctrine of Transubstantiation from the Authority of the fourth Lateran Council under Innocent the Third Now to this I answer First That no Lateran Council can be presumed to have any considerable Authority in it especially not that which is challenged in the behalf of Great or General Councils which is a submission of Judgment and an intire resignation of Faith to the Decrees of it Secondly This particular fourth Lateran Council is liable to more Objections than all the rest and some of them such as are so sharp and pungent to the sense of an English-man that he can scarce hear them without disgust and hatred and therefore it may be presumed that whatever credit and authority that Council can give to Transubstantiation abroad yet it can give little or none to it in England I. No Lateran Council can be presumed to have any considerable Authority in it and that for these reasons 1. Because these Lateran Councils come too near to the indoctum seculum that is to an Age wherein good Learning was hushed asleep and Ignorance and Darkness had overspread the World This Romanists Bellarm. in Chronologia in An. 970. as well as Protestants complain of and tell us that neither Learned Man nor Writer was known to have lived in it Now before Learning was got up and dressed Ambition and Interest had done a great deal of business in the World and when it is known that they have been acting all Men usually are so suspicious as not to be over ready to give any great credit 2. Those Lateran Councils came too thick for we have five of them in less than one hundred years Since that under Paschal the Second generally omitted is certainly a Lateran Council as Baluzius in the Edition of Petrus de Marca has evidently shown Tom. 2. pag. 431. To these might be added at least three more and all alike Oecumenical for all the distinction that Labbè makes without any reason is but to salve the credit of the former Collectours 3. The matter of some of them was of no great concern this may be presumed because the best Copies of their Acts and Canons lay by the walls so long For they were not well understood till the curiosity and industry of Baluzius and some others lately brought them to light Petrus de Marca de concordia Sacerdotii imperii Tom. 2. p. 431 435 437. this appears by Baluzius in the Book of Petrus de Marca and by comparing of Binnius his Councils with those of Labbè 4. Most of them were convened for ill purposes to advance the Papal Power and to lessen the rights of Princes To this end convened or at least aimed the Councils under Paschal II. Callistus II. Alexander III. and that under Innocent III. But the last is our business where the Second thing is to be spoken to I say therefore II. This Lateran Council under Innocent III. is liable to so many objections that no man especially an Englishman can have any great regard for the Doctrine of Transubstantiation upon the Authority of it This will appear if we consider 1. That the 70 Acts or Canons of this Council were never heard of for full three hundred years after the Council and they were first brought to light by Cochlaeus Luther's Adversary who about 20 years
after Luther's opposition against the Church of Rome either found them or pretended to find them in some German Library and sent them to Peter Crabb who printed them in the Year 1537. and annexed them to the rest of the Councils as if they had been the true Acts of that Lateran Council for which he had no Authority but what he received from Cochlaeus 2. They are so ill put together that every man who reads them must misdoubt them For some of them are in the style of Conciliary Acts and others speak after the manner of a Narrator who tells what was done in a Council Thus speaks the 11th 33d 39th 51st 61st In the 11th we find these words In Lateranensi Concilio piâ fuit institutione provisum 33. Evectionum personarum mediocritatem observent in Lateranensi Concilio definitum 39. De multâ Providentiâ fuit in Lateranensi Concilio prohibitum See the rest and you will find that these and those words there used speak plainly that these are not Canons of a Council Hist of the Irish Remonst pag. 66. From these and other Arguments Peter Walsh has well guessed That the words of Matthew Paris who says that Innocent proposed 70 capitula to the Fathers of this Council which to some did seem easie and to others burthensome gave occasion to some Collector to put together what he found in the Decretals under the name of Innocentius in Concilio Lateranensi and give to his Collection the Name of the Acts of the Lateran Council it is plain that Gregory IX who put out the Decretals did allow the same Authority to the Acts of a Pope and especially his Vncle this Innocent III. as if they had been the Acts of a Council And his Propositions in the Lateran Council though never accepted or agreed to by the Council would have as much Authority as the rest of the Decretals have III. But then thirdly it is to be observed farther That whether these reputed Canons were Propositions of Pope Innocent or real Acts of the Council yet no great stress can be laid upon them because all things were then done in extraordinary haste We cannot at this day learn from any man that in this Council there was any such thing as deliberation or consulation no argument was used either pro or con no reason offered no objection removed not a word is mentioned what this or that or the other man said All things past in a huddle after a quite different manner from what was used by the Apostles in their Council Acts 15. But more closely to our present business as to Transubstantiation the Doctrine of which our Authour says was here confirm'd Briet Annales in An. 1215. and Brietius says that the Name of it was here admitted in eo Nomen Transubstantiationis admissum fuit it is to be observed that if we speak strictly the very Name of Transubstantiation is not to be found in all the Council and there is but one Passage in it that refers either to the Name or Doctrine Cabassutius a Roman Catholick in his last Collection of Councils found so little of it that in his Notes upon this Council he has not one remark upon this Point Nor yet has Labbè any thing considerable of it though he takes in the Notes of Binnius and gives us the Errours of Almaric which gave occasion to this Doctrine yet the truth is something of it is in this Council in the first Canon of it But it comes in so sneakingly and so unlike to a Conciliary Act determining a Doctrine de fide that an easie Reader might not observe it and the more accurate would have no great regard for it It seems to be slurred upon the World or design'd to pass like a whisper thorough artificial conveniences where they that are near shall perceive little of it but at distance it will be noisie and loud The words in the first Capitul are these Vna verò est fidelium universalis Ecclesia extra quam nullus omnino salvatur In qua idem ipse Sacerdos Sacrificium Jesus Christus cujus corpus sanguis in Sacramento Altaris sub speciebus panis vini veraciter continentur Transubstantiatis pane in corpus vini in sanguinem potestate divinâ ut ad perficiendum mysterium unitatis accipiamus ipsi de suo quod accepit ipse de nostro These are the words and besides these we have nothing that refers to this matter in the whole Council and all that we have is no more than one barbarous word hooked in by a Parenthesis without any explicite and determinate sense Now this is surprizing and amazing that Christians should be obliged and that with peril of damnation to believe a Doctrine so difficult and so incredible as that of Transubstantiation and that onely by virtue of a word that seems to be slurred upon them must we for this deny our Senses and our Reasons and forget our selves to be Men must this be accounted Authority sufficient to awe Consciences and subjugate Faith and captivate Understandings God Almighty never did this and the Blessed Jesus spake plainly and fully whenever he required obedience under such severe penalties If Transubstantiation be de fide necessary to be believed in order to Salvation certainly we ought to have better grounds for it than the Lateran Council can give For any indifferent Person would require in such a case as this that the Fathers of the Council should have used all application of mind care and industry and hearty humble prayer to God for his direction before they had determin'd such a Point and laid such a burthen upon Christians but of this kind there was nothing done there IV. I add farther that as there appears but little ground for any man to believe Transubstantiation by virtue of the Lateran Council so there is much less for an English-man to receive either that or any other Doctrine in the Name and by the Authority of it An English-man can scarce think of it without wrath and indignation For this was called in the Year 1215. about two years after the great mortification of our King John by this Pope Innocent III. one of the great reasons for it was to shew to the World the Pope's Victory and England's Slavery From thence it was that he wrote his Letter to tell the Barons In additionibus ad Concilium Lateran quartum in Editione Labbeanâ Annales Monast Burton Edit Oxon. pag. 263. that England was his and the King his Vassal Here it was that he expanded his Plumes and shewed his pride and his glory Here he made known to the World that Pandulphus did not go beyond commission when he told King John that he ought to obey his Lord the Pope tam in terrenis quà m in spiritualibus as well in earthly matter as in spiritual nor yet acted beyond commission when he stressed this unhappy Prince so far that he was forced to resign up his Kingdoms
Authority than our Authour This is a blunder and shews us that new Converts are not men of the greatest skill and that some of them have as little knowledge in Councils as they have in the Scriptures This man deserves a greater lash than I will give him for bringing in his Story with that pomp and appearance of skill telling us that this Council is owned by Protestants the time of its celebration the number of Bishops who were in it And now at last it appears that whatever we Protestants do yet the Pope himself will not allow what this man challenges in his behalf But perhaps his case is piteous For more may be required of new Converts than they are able to perform He that takes up a Religion by submitting to Authority without reason may easily be confounded when he seeks to give reasons for what he has done For once I will be kind and make the best Apology for our Authour I can and I think a good one and that is this He is not the first man of the Church of Rome who has quoted Councils to little purpose He follows great Examples and the chiefest among them For thus did Paschasinus one of the Pope's own Legats in this very Council at Chalcedon and that too in his opposition against this 28th Canon After he had declared it was the Pope's pleasure that nothing should be determin'd there concerning his Power or the Power of the other Patriarchs he alledged in behalf of the Pope's Supremacy that it was fixed beyond exception or doubt by the sixth Canon of the great Council at Nice wherein it was declared that Ecclesia Romana semper habuit primatum The Bishops wondered they should know nothing of this and thereupon required the Canon to be read Paschasinus produced his Copy and there those words were But the Fathers not satisfied called for others and more attested Copies and in them there was not the least word intimating any such thing Now this compare of the Copies made Paschasinus blush and the Fathers of that Council think what sort of men they had to deal with A Roman Catholick tells us this Passage in these words Primò refertur à Paschasino Leonis in Concilia Chalcedonensi Legato Act. 16. quod Ecclesia Romana semper habuit primatum At statim Chalcedonenses Patres eundem Canonem ex codice suo sine additione istâ retulerunt Quapropter consentiunt omnes eruditi verba haec non esse genuina sed assuta Thus too in the Council of Carthage Du Pin p. 325. Faustinus Legate of Zosimus challenged a right for the Pope to receive Appeals and that by right of a Canon of the Council of Nice The African Fathers found no such thing in their Copy brought thence by Caecilianus one of the Fathers of that Council Synodi Carth. Acta Edit à Beveregio p. 5â—9 But because Faustinus insisted upon the skill knowledge or infallibility if you will of Pope Zosimus and had shewed that the Pope himself in his Commonitory directed to him and the other Legats did expresly assert that this was his right and that according to the determination of the Council of Nice the African Fathers resolved to send Messengers to the three great Seats Alexandria Antioch and Constantinople to get new Copies one from each of them attested under the hands of those Patriarchs Epist ad Coelestinum in fine Canonum Carthag à Bevereg Edit p 675. and compare them with their own and the Roman Copy At the return of the Messengers it manifestly appeared that their own Copy intirely agreed with every one of the others and that the Council of Nice had not given the least advantage to the Bishop of Rome in the case of Appeals Thus it seems that Councils are different things in Rome from what they are in other places A Pope or his Legate can reade that in them which no man else can The Popes seem extraordinarily wise in challenging a power to confirm Councils but they had as good let it alone For it will doe their business as well if they follow these Examples to take from them and add to them what they please Brietii Annales in An. 418. p. 402. Both these things I know are excused and some tell how Paschasinus was led into his mistake others say it was a mere oversight of Pope Zosimus in quoting the Nicene Council instead of the Sardican To avoid other difficulties some are willing to allow that a Pope may be deceived and that too when he is inlarging his Power over the Church Catholick with all art and subtilty Nor do I know what Article of Faith or Infidelity might not be established in the Church by such mistakes and oversights as these It 's well for succeeding Christians that the Fathers at Carthage and Chalcedon had eyes in their heads and did use them too without giving trust to Pope or Legate or Roman Copy For had they been as much mistaken or overseen as others there are enough at this day that would make advantage of it and declaim sufficiently against us pleading an oversight in the case But these Senses of men are evil things and most mischievous to the Interests of Rome These tempt men in spight of all their resolutions doe they what they can to misdoubt the Doctrine of Transubstantiation These shewed of old what was and what was not in the Council of Nice and are every day telling tales opening and disclosing some fine intrigue or other so that I cannot but wonder that Rome has not yet taken a full revenge of them For if they would oblige men to deny or at least misdoubt their Senses in every thing as well as one and require the Learned not to see what they do see in Councils and old Records as well as they require all not to see what they do see in the consecrated Elements then conversions would be easie and they might soon find an intire submission from all the World to all the Supremacy they can wish But to let that pass it is said in the defence of Zosimus that he was overseen and he easily might be For the Canon that he quoted was a true Canon made at Sardica and not at Nice and the Council of Sardica as to Faith intirely receiving and requiring all that which was concluded at Nice made onely Canons concerning Discipline and they were put into the same Book or upon the same Roll with those of Nice Which the Pope finding in the Title at the beginning might easily refer all that followed to it This is said But the Fathers at Carthage did not judge it an oversight but intrigue and design and to withstand it to the utmost made the 31st Canon which ordains most stoutly and resolutely that If any hereafter should appeal to a Foreign Power or Transmarine Judicatory he should never be received into Communion by any in Africa Upon which Canon Zonaras says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the huffing