the Spirit of God hath made and which are consecrated by the Veneration of all the World and the Decrees of the Apostolick See which are not contrary to these Canons Ex Art Concilii Florent è Sesi 25. Antiq. Eâ—ition cum aâ—â—rob Clement VII And that is the very same that was defined in the Council of Florence after long debate betwixt the Latins and Greeks concerning the primacy and power of the Pope in the Universal Church It was agreed upon on both sides That the Pope as Successor of St. Peter was Head of the Church the Father and Teacher of all Believers who had received from Jesus Christ in the person of St. Peter full power to govern the Church The difficulty only rested in expressing the manner how he might and ought to govern it The Latins would have the Definition run thus That he had above all others the priviledge and full power of governing the whole Church according to the Sayings and Sentences of the holy Fathers Juxta determinationem sacrae Scripturae dicta sanctorum The Emperour John Paleologue and Greek Prelates An siquis inquit sanctorum in Epistola honoret Papam accipiet hoc pro Privilegio vigorously oppos'd that Clause dicta sanctorum How said he if any of the Holy Fathers writing to the Pope says to him what he thinks fit for rendering him greater Respect and more Honour shall the Pope take these Expressions of Complement and Civility for Priviledges that belong to him Besides in the draught of the Bull of Union of the two Churches the Pope having only put his own name Eugenius Bishop Servant of the Servants of God as if he alone had made these Decrees the Emperour and the Greeks would by all means have that amended and that there should no mention be made of the Pope in it unless the other Patriarchs were also named At length after that these two considerable Clauses had been well examinâ—d the Union was made in the manner that the Greeks desired it to which the Latins agreed Then the Bull was framed which began thus Eugenius Servant of the Servants of God c. Our death beloved Son John Paleologue illustrious Emperour of the Romans those who hold the place of our venerablâ— Brethren the Patriarchs and all the rest who represent the Eastern Church consenting to all the Decrees which anâ— in this Bull c. And then amongst other Articles it was defined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 mâ—dâ—m qui in â—â—â—tiâ— conciâ—iâ—â—â— in canonibus conâ—â—â— That Jesus Christ hath given to the â—ope in the person of St. Peter full power to govern the Universal Church in the manner as is contained both in the Acts of Oecumenical Councils and in the sacred Canons and not according to the false Translation Quemadmodum etiam in gestis Conciliorum c. as if it were said that the Canons of Councils attribute also to the Pope the power of governing the Universal Church It is a quite contrary Sense to the Words of the Council which says only that the Pope hath received from Jesus Christ the power of governing the Church in the manner as is prescribed to him by the Canons Juxta eum modum qui in gestis Conciliorum in Canonibus continetur Which comprehends all because it is supposed as it is very true that the Canons of Oecumenical Councils are conform to holy Scripture Tradition and the true Sayings of the holy Fathers from whom we derive our Tradition From those two Clauses of the Bull wherein both the Eastern and Western Churches after they had well examined them agreed two things may be unquestionably concluded the one that the Pope can determine nothing in his Constitutions of infallible Authority without the Consent of the Church and the other that the Exercise of his power which is not infinite and unlimited ought to be moderated according to the Rules prescribed to him by the Canons of the Councils to which all Believers are subject What the Popes have over others is the Care they ought to take to see them observed not only by their Authority but by their Example which is of greater force and efficacy than their Ordinances and if they themselves violate them acting arbitrarily as they please without regard to the Canons which ought to be their measures or suffer them to be violated by others without punishment they become culpable before God who hath made them not the Masters but the Stewards of the Church to act according to her Orders and cause them to be obeyed This the great St. Leo expressed admirably well in those rare words which he wrote to the Emperour Martian With the Assistance of Jesus Christ I must constantly continue my Service In quo opere auxiliante Christo fideliter exequendo necesse est me perseverantem exhibere famulatum quoniam dispensatio mihi credita est ad meum reatum tendit si paternarum regulae sanctionum quae in Synodo Nicenâ ad totius Ecclesiae regimen spiritu Dei instruente sunt conditae me quod absit connivente violentur Ep. 54. ad Martian Dum tamen evidens utilitas vel necessuas id expoâ—cunt Greg. IX In talibus eadem utilitas urgens necessitas secundum instituta canonum debet attendi Innoc. III. Ep. ad Episc Favent in faithfully executing what I am commanded because he has trusted me with the Care and Dispensation of his House and I make my self guilty of great Vnfaithfulness if by my Connivance which God preserve me from I suffer the Rules and Canons to be violated which have been made by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost in the Council of Nice for the Government of the whole Church Not but that the Pope who ought to take the care of the general Good of the Church may on certain Occasions dispense with the Canons but in that thing it self he is subject to the Canons seeing he cannot dispense with them as he pleases and without any other reason save that of his Will but only in Cases prescribed by the Canons when urgent necessity Vbi necessitas non est inconvertibilia maneant sanctorum patrum institâ—ta Gelas Vbi necessitas non est nullo modo violentur sanctorum patrum constituta St. Leo. or manifest advantage makes it appear according to the Canons that the Church intended not to oblige to them Except in such cases the ancient Popes say openly that the Canons and holy Decrees must be inviolably kept and that they cannot dispense with them Whereupon St. Bernard writing to a Pope Quid Prohibes dispensare non sed dissipare c. ubi necessilas urget excu abilis diâ—pensatio est ubi utilitas provâ—cat dispensatio laudabilâ—s est utilitas dico con munu non propria nam cum borum nih lâ— est non plane fideâ—is dâ—â—sheâ—satio est sed câ—â—eussima dissipation Bern. de cons ad Eugen
History of Monothelism Pope Honorius willing to agree both parties writes Letters to Patriarch Sergius which the Monothelites made use of for Authorising their Heresie The Popes John IV. Theodore and St. Martin follow a contrary conduct to his The Emperor Constantine Pogonatus with consent of Pope Agatho calls the sixth Council The History of that Council The Letters of Sergius and Honorius are examined there They are condemned of Heresie and that Pope is Anathematised He is also condemned in the Emperors Edict in the Letter of Leo II. to the Emperor In the Ancient diurnal Book of Rome in the Ancient Breviaries and in the VII and VIII Councils Convincing Arguments that the Acts of the sixth Council have not been falsified and that it cannot be said that the Fathers of that Council understood not well the meaning of Honorius All Antiquity which hath received that Council as we have it hath believed that the Pope is not infallible p. 143 CHAP. XIII Of the Popes Clement III. Innocent III. Boniface VIII and Sixtus V. THE Error of Clement in his Decretal Laudabilem recalled by Innocent III. The Error of Innocent concerning the secret of Confession He condemns that Error in the Council of Lateran That of Boniface in his Bull unam Sanctam recalled at the Council of Vienna That of Sixtus V. in the Edition of his Bible A ridiculous Answer of some Moderns p. 165 CHAP. XIV The instance of John XXII WHAT he did for Establishing his Error concerning the beatifick vision The sacred Faculty of Paris declares the Doctrin of that Pope heretical It had been condemned by Clement IV and was since in the Council of Florence King Philip of Valois obliges that Pope to recant p. 173 CHAP. XV. The tradition of the Church of Rome as to that THE Popes themselves have acknowledged that for ending difference in Religion by a Sovereign and infallible sentence there was a necessity of a Council The Heresies which Popes have condemned without a General Council have been so condemned by the consent of the Church Popes who have confessed that they had not the gift of Infallibility p. 179 CHAP. XVI The state of the question concerning the Superiority of the Council over the Pope or of the Pope over a Council WHether after a Council is lawfully Assembled the Pope being present in it or not that Council has or has not Supreme Authority over the Head as well as over the other Members of the Church or whether or not all its Authority depends on the Pope p. 187 CHAP. XVII That it is the Holy Ghost which in the definitions of Faith pronounces by the mouth of the Council WHAT is to be concluded from that Principle What it is according to the Doctrin of Antiquity to approve and confirm a Council p. 190 CHAP. XVIII That the Ancient Councils have examined the Judgments of Popes to give a last and definitive sentence upon them THE History of the Patriarch Flavian and the Pope St. Leo who submits his Judgment to that of a General Council An instance of the fifth Council that rescinds a sentence solemnly pronounced by the Pope and of the sixth which examines the sentences of Martin I. and Honorius I. approves the one and rejects the other The History of Constantine of the Donatists and of the first Council of Arles which examines the sentence given by Pope Melchiades in his first Council of Rome p. 199 CHAP. XIX That the Ancient Popes have always acknowledged and protested that they were subject to Councils THE History of Pope Sicicius and of the Council of Capona Of St. Leo in the case of St. Chrysostom against the Patriarch Theophilus Of Innocent III. in the case of the Marriage of Philip the August Instances of Pope St. Agapetus and Silvester II. p. 213. CHAP. XX. That the Ancient Popes have believed that they were subject to the Canons PRoofs of this from the conduct and protestations of the Popes Celestin I. St Leo St. Martin St. Gregory the Great John VIII Eugenius III. and Silvester II. What the Council of Florence hath defined as to that The true sense of these words against a false interpretation that hath been made of them Popes are obliged to govern the Church according to the Canons In what case they can dispense with them That they may abuse their Power Of an Appeal to a Council and of an Appeal as abusive to a Parliament p. 225 CHAP. XXI What General Councils have decided as to that Point THE History of the Council of Pisa where that question was first canvassed The debates that arose upon that Subject in the Council of Constance which is a continuation of that of Pisa The Decrees of that Council of Constance and of that of Basil upon the same Point The approbation of these Decrees by the Popes Martin V. and Eugenius IV. p. 241 CHAP. XXII Of the Writing of the Sieur Emmanuel Schelstrate against the two Decrees of the Council of Constance THE Declaration which the Clergy of France met in the Year 1682. made of their Opinion touching these two Decrees which they hold to be of infallible Authority approved by Popes and for those times when there is no Schism as well as during a Schism The Sieur Emmanuel Schelstrate undertakes to refute these three Articles in the three Chapters of his Dissertation p. 256 CHAP. XXIII A Refutation of the first Chapter of the Dissertation of M. Schelstrate THE Decree of the fourth Session hath not been falsified by the Fathers of Basil The Manuscripts of M. Schelstrate are defective and ours are true A demonstration of this Truth by two Sermons of John Gerson who rehearses that Decree before the whole Council of Constance word for word as we have it The Manuscripts by which these two Sermons have been reviewed and the other places were Gerson relates the same Decree An other demonstration of that truth by Pope Eugenius IV. and even by the Manuscripts of M. Schelstrate That question was sufficiently examined The Council consisted of the greatest and soundest part of the three obediences and the absence of others hinders not the Council from being lawful p. 261 CHAP. XXIV A Refutation of one of the two other Chapters of M. Schelstrate PRoofs of the approbation of these two Decrees of Constance The true interpretation of that word Conciliariter The abuse that may be made of the Appeal to a Council is condemned but not the Appeal it self All the Authority of Councils proceeds not from the Pope but chiefly from the Catholick Church p. 297 CHAP. XXV A Refutation of the other Chapter of M. Schelstrate THese two Decrees of the Council of Constance are for all times whilst there was a Schism and when there is none An Ecumenical Council is a whole whereof the Pope is but a part The Pope is the Head but not the Master of the Church The difference betwixt the Power of Popes and of Kings An authentick act of the Superiority of a
Innocent X. He alone hath the right of calling Councils for Spiritual Affairs and to preside in them personally or by his Legates I say he hath that right without speaking of matter of Fact which is under debate in respect of some Councils and cannot prejudice his Primacy For though he hath not presided in the first Council of Constantinople which perhaps neither did he call and that it be most certain that he did not call the fifth nor presided in it though he was at Constantinople where that Council was held yet it is not to be doubted but he might have done both the one and the other if he had pleased seeing that in the Letter which the Patriarch Entychius wrote to him for obtaining of that Council Concil 5. Act. 1. he prayed him to preside in it and that he onely presided therein upon his refusal For thus it is in the Original praesidente nobis vestrâ beatitudine and not residente nobiscum as the Minister Junius hath corrupted it by a correction made of his own head against the clear sense of the following words Besides is it not past all controversie that the Pope presided by his Legates in the Council of Chalcedon as he hath done in almost all the others which have been held since For I speak not here of the great Council of Nice nor of that of Ephesus because as I conceive I have elsewhere proved by invincible Arguments not onely against our Protestants but also against the sentiments of some Catholick Doctours that the Popes by their Legates presided in them nay and that they called them as to what relates to the Spiritual Authority which they have over the Bishops as the Emperours to whose rights Kings and Christian Princes have succeeded may call Councils in regard of Temporals by that sovereign power which they have received from God over their Subjects in virtue whereof they may oblige their Bishops to assemble in a certain place either within or without their Territories there to treat of matters purely spiritual wherein they meddle not but as protectours of the Church in causing the Decrees and Canons of these Councils which strike not at the Rights of their Crown to be put in execution It is certain then that the Popes as Heads of the Church have right to call general Councils and to preside in them Moreover seeing the Pope in that quality Concil Sardic Can. 3.4.7 Gelas Epist ad Epis Dardan Innoc. Epist ad Victric St. Leo. Ep. 82. Cap. Car. Mag. lib. c. 187. Hincmar ad Nicol. 1. Flodo Hist Eccl. Rom. l. 3. Gerson de Protestant Eccl. Cons 8. is without dispute above every Bishop of what Dignity soever he may be and above all particular Churches and Synods Appeals may be made from all these Bishops and Synods to his Tribunal It belongs to him to judge of greater Causes such as those which concern the Faith and that are doubtfull universal Customs the deposing of Bishops and some others which I have observed elsewhere the decision whereof belongs and ought to be referred to him In that manner the Inferiour Judges appointed by Moses according to the advice of Jethro Exod. 18. judged of causes of less importance and the greater were reserved to that great leader of the People of God Hence it is also that the Pope hath right to judge yet always according to the disposition of the Canons of the causes of Bishops Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs This appears clearly by the judgment in the case of St. Athanasius Athan. Apol. 2. Theodoret. l. 2. Socr. l. 2. c. 15. Sozom. l. 3. c. 81. Paul Patriarch of Constantinople Marcellus Primate of Ancyra Asclepas Bishop of Gaza and Lucius Bishop of Adrianople whom Pope Julius restored to their Sees from which they had been illegally Deposed and by the case of Denis Patriarch of Alexandria who being accused Athan. de sent Dionys defended himself in writing before the Pope in a word by an infinite number of other instances in all ages of the Church which may be seen in my Treatise of the judgment of the causes of Bishops I shall onely mention one which wonderfully sets off that supreme Authority of the Pope After the death of Epiphanins Liberat. c. 10. Patriarch of Constantinople the Empress Theodora one of the wickedst Women that ever was and above all a great Eutychian in her heart and a great enemy to the Council of Chalcedon prevailed so far by the great power that she had got over the mind of the Emperour Justinian her Husband who could not resist her Artifices that Anthimius was made Patriarch though he was Bishop of Trebizonde by that means possessing at the same time two Episcopal Chairs against the manifest constitution of the holy Canons without any Precedent and without lawfull dispensation Besides that naughty man was both a frank Heretick and great Cheat. For though he was not onely Eutychian but also the head of those Hereticks Justin Nov. 42. Niceph. l. 17. c. 9. yet he always professed that he might deceive the Emperour who at that time was a good Catholick that he received the Doctrine of the four Councils but without ever condemning Eulyches who had been condemned by the holy Council of Chalcedon That occalioned a great deal of scandal and trouble in the East and seeing when matters were in this state Concil Constant sub Men. Act. 1. St. Agapetus the Pope was come from Rome to Constantinople whither Theodatus King of the Goths had obliged him to go that he might endeavour to obtain of Justinian the peace which the Goths demanded The Monks of Syria and many other zealous Catholicks presented him Petitions against that Intruder and Heretick This without doubt is one of the most illustrious marks and one of the strongest proofs of the Authority of the Holy See and of the Primacy of the Pope that ever was seen in the Church The Emperour who loved Anthimius and thought himself obliged in honour to protect him as being his Creature solicited on his behalf and by his earnestness in the Affair made it apparent that he intended to maintain him Theodora who was more concerned still than the Emperour in the preservation of her Patriarch employed all her Artifices and spared neither offers prayers nor threats to shake the constancy of a Pope whom she saw resolved to make use of the power which he had received from Jesus Christ for the good of the Church The Empire was then in a most flourishing state the Emperour shining in glory After the defeat of the Vandals in Africa Constantinople in great splendour Anthimius most powerfull through the favour of his Prince and the Grandeur and Majesty of the Patriarchal See of the Imperial City where he thought himself too well fixed to fear that he could be turned out Rome on the contrary being no more the Seat of the Empire since it was fallen under the Dominion of the Herules and
Optatus St. Cyril of Jerusalem Saint Basil St. Austine and most Catholick Bishops of Aegypt Asia and Africa not to mention those who in the interval of almost Threescore years that was betwixt Pope Stephen and the Council had liberty to follow the party of St. Cyprian believed not in the Third Fourth and Fifth Ages of the Church that the Pope was Infallible What can be answered to that Let us now consult the Council in Question or rather the Councils which have pronounced Sovereignly concerning that point of the Baptism of Hereticks You have three of them First the full Council which is the first Council of Arles to which the Pope St. Sylvester sent four Legats in the year 314. makes this Decree in the Eighth Canon upon occasion of the Africans De Afris quod propriâ lege utantur ut Re-baptisent placuit ut si ad Ecclesiam aliquis de Haeresi venerit interrogent eum symbolum si perviderint eum in patre filio Spiritu Sancto Baptizatum manus ei tantum imponatur sic accipiat Spiritum Sanctum Quod si interrogatus non responderit hanc Trinitatem Rebaptisetur who Rebaptized all Hereticks If any Heretick return to the Church let him be asked the Question and if it appear that he hath been Baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost that hands be onely laid upon him to the end he may receive the Holy Ghost but if he answer not according to the Mystery of the Trinity let him be Re-baptized Moreover the great Council of Nice Twelve years after ordains in the Canon 19. that the Paulanists who return to the Church should be Re-baptized De Paulanistis ad Ecclesiam Catholicam confugientibus definitio prolata est ut iterum Baptisentur omnimodis Aug. de haer ad quod vult Haeres 44. because as St. Austine says these Hereticks the Disciples of Paulus Samosatanus who believed not the Trinity nor the Incarnation of the Word Can. 1. observed not the form of Baptism in Baptizing in the Name of the Three Persons of the Trinity But as to the Novatians who Baptized in the Name of the Trinity as Catholicks did the Council declares that it is sufficient to lay hands upon them In fine Can. 7. the first Council of Constantinople which is the second General ordains also the Montanists Sabellians and such other Hereticks who Baptized not in the Name of the Three Persons of the Trinity against which they blasphemed should be Re-baptized but not the Novatians the Quartodecimans nor yet the Arians and Macedonians because although these had not the true belief which ought to be had of that great Mystery yet they Baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost which St. Austine who hath Written after that Council of Constantinople assures to be sufficient for the validity of the Sacrament though the Faith of him who Baptizes be not pure So that saith he Manifestum est fieri posse ut fide non integraÌ„ integrum in quoquam maneat Baptismi Sacramentum ....... Quamoâ—rem nisi Evangelicis verbis in nomine Patris Filii Spiritus Sancti Marcion Baptismum consecrabat integrum erat Sacramentum quamvis ejus fides sub iisdem verbis aliud opinantis quam Catholica veritas docet non esset integra Aug. l. 2. de Bapt. cont Donatist c. 14 15. if Marcion Baptized using the words of the Gospel in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost his Baptism was good though that Heretick under these words believed a thing quite different from what the Catholick Church teaches That being so there is no more to be done but to compare these Decrees of Councils with those of the Pope St. Stephen and of Saint Cyprian Si quis à quacunque Haeres c. manus ei tantum imponatur This Pope Decrees that if any one return from any Heresie whatsoever he shall have onely hands laid upon him without being Re-baptized Si quis à quacunque Haeresi Qui ex quacunque Haeresi c. Baptisentur c. St. Cyprian says on the contrary that if any one return from any Heresie whatsoever he ought to be Re-baptized These are two extreams directly opposite one to another The Three Councils take the middle course explaining the one and condemning the other They are not for Re-baptizing the Novatians and other Hereticks who Baptize in the Name of the Three Persons of the Trinity and they hold their Baptism to be lawfull and good according to the true Apostolical Tradition but they are also absolutely for Re-baptizing the Paulanists and all such who Baptize not in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost thereby clearly defining that their Baptism is null And therein they explain and rectifie the Decree of the Pope St. Stephen adding but in formal terms an exception which is onely understood therein They plainly then declare on the one hand how the Decree of St. Stephen is to be understood and on the other that St. Cyprian Nondum veritas eliquata declarata per plenarium concilium who expressed himself clearly enough in his was deceived but very innocently because as St. Austine says L. 1. de Baptis Contra Donatis c. 7 8 9 17. the truth was not then discovered and declared by the Council Now seeing before that Declaration one might according to that holy Father freely follow the opinion of St. Cyprian notwithstanding the Decree of the Pope and that after that of the Council one had not the same liberty it is altogether evident that it must once more be concluded that it is because the ancient Church believed that a Council is Infallible and that the Pope is not CHAP. X. The fall of Liberius THESE two holy Popes Victor and Stephen whom so many Catholick Bishops of the Ancient Church have not believed to be Infallible had notwithstanding the truth on their side and in their favours the Councils decided But there are others who according to the unquestionable testimonies of the Ancients have fallen into errour whence it may be irrefragably concluded upon better reason that Antiquity reckoned them not Infallible I shall onely alledge seven or eight of the most evident instances which will be sufficient to prove that the Ancients acknowledged no other Infallibility amongst Men but what God hath given to his Church The first is Liberius who to get himself recalled from the Exile to which the Arian Emperour had Banished him and to remount the Pontifical Throne which Felix had usurped Ann. 357. solemnly approved Arianism This he did by condemning jointly with the Arians St. Athanasius the great defender of the Faith and scourge of Arianism besides by suppressing the Term Consubstantial which distinguished a Catholick from an Arian and which was in a manner the
been in that Belief that the ancient Popes have always protested in their true Epistles for I speak not of those which are supposititious that they were obliged in the Exercise of their Power and in the Government of the Church to square their Conduct according to the Canons and holy Decrees of Councils against which they could undertake nothing Is there any thing plainer as to that point than what is to be seen in the Epistle of Pope Gelasus to the Bishops of Dordany Vniuscujusque Synodi constitutum quod universalis Ecclesiae probavit assensus non aliquam magis exequi sedem prae caeteris oportere quam primam That no man ought more exactly to execute what is ordained by the Universal Council than the Bishop of the chief See In that of Celestin I. to the Bishops of Illyrium The Regulation of Councils must be our Rules and have dominion over us Dominentur nobis regulae non regulis dominemur â—imus subjecti canonibus dum canonum praecepta servam 〈◊〉 and not that we should raise our selves above these holy Rules that we may dispose of them at our Pleasure let us submit our selves to the Canons by observing what they enjoyn In what St. Leo wrote to Anatolius Nimis haec improba nimis sunt prava quae sacratissimis canonibus inveniantur esse contraria Whatsoever is contrary to the most holy Canons is too wicked and d praved to be tolerated In the Letter of Simplicius to the Patriarch Acacius Per universum mundum indissolubili observatione retiâ—etur quod à sacerdotum universitate est constitutum What is established by an Vniversal Council is retained throughout the whole World by an inviolable Observation In that of Pope St. Martin to Jâ—hn Bishop of Philadelphia Defensores divinorum canonum custodes sumus non Fravaricatores quandoquidem Praevaricatoribus conjunctae sunt retributiones We are the Defenders and Guardians of the holy Canons and not the Prevaricators of them for we know that great Correction is reserved for those that betray thâ—m St. Gregory the Great speaks with as much force as these in an hundred places of his Epistles as when he says in the thirty seventh of his first Book Absit hoc à me â—t statuta majorum in qualibet Ecclesiâ infringam Far be it from me that I should infringe the Statutes of our Predecessors in any Church whatsoever And writing to John Patriarch of Constantinople Dum concilia universali sunt consensu constituta se non illa destruit quis â—uts praesumit aut solvere quos ligant aut lâ—gare quos solvunt He that presumes to loose those whom General Councils have bound or to bind those whom they have loosed destroys himself and not the Councils He was so well persuaded of his Duty that obliged him to observe the Canons that he even thought that that Obligation extended to matters which he found to be established by an ancient Custom and Tradition in his Church For the Empress Constantina having entreated him to send her either the Head or some other considerable part of the Body of St. Paul to be put in a Church which she had built to the Memory of that great Apostle that holy Pope wrote back to her Illa praecipitis quae facere nec possum nec audeo c. In Romanis vel totius occidentis partibus intolerabile est atque sacrilegium si sanclorum corpora tangere quisquam â—ortasse volucrit quod si praesumpserit câ—â—ium est quia haec temeritas impunita nullo modo remanebit lib. 3. Indic 12. Ep. 30. ad Constant Augusâ—am That he could have passionately desired that her Serenity had commanded him in any thing wherein he could have served and obeyed her but as to what she ordered him to do he neither could nor durst do it because said he it is at Rome nay in all the West looked upon as unsupportable and a great Sacriledge to touch the Bodies of the Saints and if any one have the boldness to attempt it his rashness will never pass unpunished Perhaps if at Rome they had made any Reflexion on this Epistle when it was resolved there to have an Arm of the Body of St. Francis Xavier the Apostle of the Indies which was then to be seen at Goa in his stately Monument above threescore years after his Death as fresh and ruddy as when he was alive they would not have given Orders to have it cut off and that if he who obeyed that Command had read that Letter he would have answered with as much respect as St. Gregory did Nec possum nec audio For besides that that Arm which is now to be seen at Rome is all withered and that since that time the holy Body is not so fresh as it was before they who were employed in that Office and had the boldness to lay hands upon that sacred Body died within the Year And I have learned of a very honest Gentleman of Quality who lately returned from the Indies that those of Goa attribute to that Action all the Evils they have been afflicted with since that time and all the Losses which the Portuguese have sustained in the East-Indies Thus the holiest Popes when they were desired any thing to the prejudice of the Canons or even of the ancient Customs which pass for so many Laws have not scrupuled to confess that their power extended not so far For besides the Instances that I have just now alledged Ne in aliquo patrum terminos praeterire videamâ—r contra majorum statuta agâ—re neqâ—iviâ—us Joan. VIII Epist ad Carol. Reg. John VIII speaks in the same manner to one of the Kings of France We could not act against the Decrees of our Predecessors lest it should seem that we transgress the Bounds set to us by our Fathers Contra Deum sacrâ—rum câ—nonum sanctiâ—es nulli omniâ—o petitioni possumus praeberâ— consâ—â—sum And Eugenius III. to the Bishops of Germany We can grant no Demand against God and against the Decrees of the sacred Canons The meaning of that is that as the Pope can grant nothing against the Service of God because he is inferiour to God so neither can he grant any thing against the Canons of Oecumenical Councils because he is under them In fine that we may not alledge an infinite number of other Testimonies which may be seen in the true Epistles of the Popes since Syricius I shall conclude with that of Silvester II. to the Archbishop of Sens Sit lex communis Eâ—â—â—â—sie Catholinae Evanâ—â—lium Aposâ—oli Prophetâ— Canones spirâ—tu Dâ—i condati 〈◊〉 totius mundi reverentia consâ—â—erati decretâ— seâ—as Apostolicae oh his non disâ—oâ—dantia Epist ad Seguin Arch. Senon wherein he says This is the Law according to which the Catholick Church is to be governed The Gospel the Writings of the Apostles and Prophets the Canons which
l. 3. c. 6. told him with a great deal of holy liberty that he forbids not to dispense but to dissipate that he knows very well that the Popes are the Stewards of the house of God but for Edification and not for Destruction and that the Steward ought to be faithful when Necessity urges Dispensation is excusable and laudable when Advantage not of a private person but of the publick requires it and when neither appear in that which is defired then what is granted is no more a faithful Dispensation but a most cruel Dissipation And this as a learned Pope teacheth Hadrian V. de dispens Apostolic renders both him that obtains that Dispensation and him that grants it criminal in the sight of God unless he that granteth it hath been without his Fault imposed upon by a false Information as many times it happens The power then of dispensing exempts not Popes according to the Ancients from the Obedience which they owe to the Decrees of Councils and when they do otherwise and act in their Constitutions contrary to the Canons that is not a lawful practice but an abusing of their power and an abuse that draws many others after it Priâ—cipium maiorum inde fuisse quod nonnulli pontisices coacervaverant sibi magistros prurientes auribus ut eorum studio calliditate inveniretur ratio quâ liceret id quod liberet pontificem esse dominum beneficiorum onniâ—nâ— Ita quod voluntas pontificis qualiscunque ea faerit sit regâ—la quâ ejus operationes actiones dirigantur c. This that great Assembly of Cardinals and Prelates pick'd out of the best and ablest men of the Court of Rome which Paul III. called in the Year One thousand five hundred and thirty eight to search for means of remedying the Troubles of the Church represented to him with much Vigour and Respect when they told him that the source of so many Disorders was the Flattery of some new Doctors who strained their false Subtilties to make his Predecessors believe that they were the absolute Masters of all in the Church that they were above all Canons and that there was no other Law for them but their own Will and Pleasure So that when it happened that some Popes manifestly abusing their power transgressed the limits set them by the Canons Appeals were made to the next Oecumenical Council Ann. 1303. as was done upon account of the Bull of Boniface VIII who pretended to a Sovereign power over all the Crowns upon Earth as the University of Paris in the Year 1491 appealed to a Pope better informed and to the first general Council concerning certain exactions and gatherings of Tenths which were attempted against the Canons and Liberties of the Gallican Church and as hath been done oftner than once in Germany upon the like Occasions But seeing that Remedy is tedious and that it may be abused by Appeals very ill brought which seeing they could not be judged in an whole Age would render the pontifical Authority useless in the smallest matters which Pius II. and Julius II. have most justly condemned instead thereof we have in France an Appeal as of Abuse to theâ—â— arliament which representing the King sitting in his Chair of Justice to whom as protector of the Canons it belongs to hinder any thing from being acted contrary to them has Right to judge whether there be any matter in the Bulls Ordinances and Ecclesiastical Sentences which wound the Canons and our Liberties For in this chiefly consist the Liberties of the Kingdom and Gallican Church that no new thing can be commanded or enjoyned us contrary to the holy Decrees of the Councils received in France and against the ancient Law in the possession whereof we have always maintained our selves without submitting to any other Laws unless we our selves consent to them so that whatever derogates from these ancient Constitutions which are our inviolable Laws is by Decree rescinded And this seems to be grounded upon that excellent Sentiment of Innocent III. a great Pope great Canonist and great Lawyer who speaks like a Pope when he says Quae in derogationem sanctorum canonum attentantur tanto potius infringi volumus carere robore firmitatis quanto authoritas universalis Ecclesiae cui praesidemus ad id nos provocat inducit Innoc. III. l. 1. Ep. ad Episc Favent We will that all that is undertaken and attempted against the holy Canons be void and null and we will it so much the rather that the Authority of the holy Church wherein we preside moves and inclines us to it As if by that he would tell us that the Authority of the Church depends upon the Observation of her Canons and Laws and not on the Liberty that a Pope might take to violate them From all that I have said in this Chapter this truth of Fact results That all Antiquity hath believed that Popes being subject to the Decrees of Councils and obliged to act and govern according to the Laws that are prescribed to them by the Canons Councils by consequent are above the Popes CHAP. XXI What General Councils have decided as to that Point SEeing that Question was not moved in the Ancient Church when all were of the Opinion that I have now mentioned Councils that decide nothing but upon occasion of Differences and Disputes which arise amongst Christians about some certain point of Doctrine have given no definitive Sentence as to that particular till it was begun to be questioned and disputed about Concil Pisan t. 11. Edit Paris Act. conc ex codic Gemmetic t 6. Spirit Monach. Dionys 1.29 l. 1. sequen Niem l. 23. Platina Ciacconius And this I think happened upon occasion of the Council of Pisa which the Cardinals of both obediences that is of Gregory XII and Benet XIII with consent of almost all Kings and Sovereigns called for extinguishing that Schism which these two Competitors and pretended Popes entertained by their Collusion and Obstinacy contrary to the express Promise they had made of resigning up their Pretensions For seeing some who stood for Gregory Ann. 1409. protested against the Council which as they said had no Authority over the Popes such an unprecedented protestation in the Church being exploded the famous Doctor Peter Plaoust one of the Deputies from the University of Paris which at that time was in the Meridian of its Reputation made a long and learned Speech in full Council 29 May. wherein he proved by many Reasons that the Universal Church and by consequent a General Council which represents her is above the Pope adding that that was the Judgment of the University of Paris and of all the other Universities of France No sooner was he come down from the Pulpit but that the Bishop of Novare stept up and read aloud a Writing which declared that an hundred and three Doctors and Licentiates of Divinity deputed by the Universities to that Council being
bare Resolution of the Cardinals and Nations without the Authority of the Council could not oblige the Pope And this was the reason why Martin justly provoked by so unworthy a Proceeding made shortly after a Bull Joan. Gerson Tract an quomodo possit appellari à Papa which he caused to be read not in the Council but in a publick Consistory whereby he declares that it is not lawful for any one to appeal from the Holy See or the Pope nor to decline his Judgment in cases of the Faith which as being greater Causes ought to be brought before the Pope and Holy Apostolical See M. Schelstrate alledges these words as his last Argument which he thinks invincible to prove that the Pope is absolutely above all Councils But it is very easie to give him an Answer that hath been an hundred times made without Reply That these Words and others of the like nature ought to be understood with relation to all Churches taken particularly to all Bishops Archbishops Primates and Patriarchs from the Judgment of any of whom Appeals may be made to the Pope and not to any of them from the Judgment of the Pope who is their Superiour not when they are assembled in Body in a General Council representing the whole Church but when they are taken separately and each of them in particular according to these Words of St. Austin in his second Book of Baptism against the Donatists Quis nescit illam Apostolatus prercipatu cuilibâ—t Episcopatui prâ—fereâ—dum L. 2. de Bapt. contra Donatist c. 1. Who knows not that St. Peter by reason of the Primacy of his Apostleship ought to be preferred before any other Episcopacy whatsoever He says before every Episcopacy and not before all Episcopacy in a General Council So that that Bull of Martin V. no more than another of Pâ—as II. which begins Execrabilis cannot absolutely condemn and forbid the Practice but only the Abuse that may be made of an Appeal to a General Council by appealing to it rashly without Reason and a lawful Cause as those Ambassadors of Poland and Lithuania did If notwithstanding all this M. Schelstrate will have the Pope by that Bull absolutely to condemn all Appeals to a General Council which nevertheless it doth not express he may be answered without difficulty that were it so yet it could be of no force because it was not made Conciliariter and facro approbante Concilio nor with the consent of the Church which hath never pretended but that in certain Cases Appeals may be made from the Pope to a Council Quomodo an liceat à summo pontifice appellare ejus Judicium declinare To be persuaded of this he need only read the Treatise written upon that Subject by that learned and holy man John Gerson Chancellor of the University of Paris and the Declaration which that famous University made by an authentick Act to Philip the Fair Decl. Univ. Paris Ann. 1303. mense Septemb. that a Comcil might be called and appealed unto against Boniface VIII and that the University consented and would stick according to the holy Canons to that Convocation and Appeal which the King and all France made to the Council If I mistake not I have hitherto shewed the Weakness or rather the Nullity of what M. Schelstrate objects and that Martin V. solemnly approved the Decrees of the fourth and fifth Session by the Declaration which he made in the last Session and by the Questions that he will have to be put to Hereticks that are converted But though we had not those two so formal Declarations of that Pope would our Author make no account of that of Pope Eugenius concerning which it hath not pleased him to tell us one word Nevertheless he cannot be ignorant that the Council of Basil Basiliense Concilium initio quidem fuit legitimum nam legatus aderat Pontificis Episconpi plurimi Bellar. l. 3. de Eccles Milit. c. 16. l. 2. de Conc. c. 19. which all men even Cardinal Bellarmine himself own to be lawful in the second Session after its first opening renewed these Decrees of Constance which were approved by the Cardinal of St. Angelo Juliano Caesarini who presided therein in name of that Pope Nor do I doubt but that he knows that Eugenius IV. himself in the Bull which he made during the time of the sixteenth Session approved all that the Council till then had done and consequently these Decrees of Constance renewed in the second Session and the Synodal Answer wherein the same Council anew confirms those Decrees and backs them with very strong Reasons which are there specified at length And now I have but two words to say to M. Schelstrate concerning the Approbation of these Decrees First if he be not satisfied with it he must of necessity reckon as null all the Decrees which the first Councils made against the Arians Macedonians and the other Hereticks because it is never to be found that these Councils have been approved neither so formally nor so many times as the Decrees of Constance have been by the Popes Martin V. and Eugenius IV. Again that he ought to know as I have formerly made it appear that in the Ancient Church no other Approbation nor Confirmation was ever known to have been made of Councils by the Popes but the consent which they themselves as well as others were obliged to give to them For if after that the Councils of Nice and Constantinople which were lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost had defined the Consubstantiality of the Word and the Divinity of the Holy Ghost the Popes Silvester and Damasus would not have received these Decrees nor have approved them it is certain that they would have been reputed Hereticks by the whole Church Who can doubt of that And these Councils would have been no less infallible than they were in making their Definitions by the Inspiration of that divine Spirit which is the Soul of all Oecumenical Councils according to these Words Visum est spiritui sancto nobis For to say that all the Authority of Councils is derived from the Pope who may not follow and approve their Decisions concerning the Faith and thereby take from them all their force is an error condemned by the learned Cardinal of Cambray Peter D' Ailly in most significant terms when preaching before the whole Council of Constance and Pope Martin V. in the Year 1417. the second Sunday in Advent about a month after the Election of that Pope he related the whole History of the Council which the Apostles celebrated at Jerusalem and then expressed himself in these Words By that it is manifest Manifestè reprobatur error quorundam perniciosissimus toti Ecclesiae periculosissimus qui adulando potestati Papae ita detrabunt Authoritati sacri Concilii c. that the Authority of deciding and defining ought not to be attributed to the Pope alone but to
M. Schelstrate then say now with his long discourse about the five Nations agreeing that the Reformation should not be made 'till after the Election of a Pope But once more What does he mean with the great mystery he makes of this that after much debate in the Assembly of these Nations concerning the manner how the Decree should be made whether by obliging the Pope with these Deputies to make the Reformation formation before his Coronation Postea fuerunt factae diversae formae decreti ad h. c Tandem dictum fuit quod Papa electus ligari non poterat or after it was at length said Papa electus ligari non poterat that when a Pope is chosen he cannot be bound Does he by that then pretend that we are obliged to believe that a Pope lawfully elected as St. Silvester was is not obliged to subscribe to the Decrees of an Ecumenical Council as that of Nice was And that when such a Council hath decided the consubstantiality of the word and forbidden Priests to marry the Pope is not bound by these Decrees as well as the rest of Christians are and that he is still at liberty to believe of the one what he thinks fit and to act in regard of the other as he pleases But does he not see that to have the true meaning of those words they are to be applied to the Subject in question to wit whether it should be put into the Decree that the Pope who was to be chosen Ante Coronationem Pape Administrationem aliquam should be obliged to make the Reformation before his Coronation nay and before he could have any part in the Government of the Church and to give good security for it as the German Nation demanded Whereupon they had reason to say that a Pope could not be obliged to a thing so unbeseeming the Pontifical Majesty nor so tied up as to deprive him of the Power he hath by Divine Right to Govern the Church by virtue of his Primacy from the very instant that he is Canonically elected Successor of St. Peter Thus ought these words to be understood in relation to what goes before and not that the Pope is not obliged to any thing The truth is in the Decree that was made after that Conciliariter in the fourtieth Session The Pope was not obliged in that manner as the Germans had proposed nevertheless he was bound in another most reasonable manner if I may say so that is to say he was obliged to reform the Church in the Head and Members with consent of the Council or with the Deputies of the Nations before the end of the Council But if M. Schelstrate will still be opinionative and pretend that the Nations understood something else by these words Quod Papa electus ligari non poterat there need no other answer to be made unto him but that we must not stick to what hath been said in the Assembly of the Nations as he doth but to what hath been defined Conciliariter in the Session as we have just now mentioned I am apt to believe now that M. Schelstrate will be fully satisfied with me seeing I have exactly answered Point for Point all that he hath said upon his Manuscripts unknown to the whole World for near three hundred years and which at present he thinks fit to object to us as most Authentick Pieces in the dissertation he hath made against the Declaration of the Gallican Church and against the perpetual Edict of the King who as Protector of the Church and of her Canons makes it to be observed in all his Territories and in fine against the Council of Constance received by all Christendom and especially by France which looks upon and reverences it as its Palladium the prop support and defender of its liberties This being so there remains no more but in a few words to conclude what I have hitherto said of the superiority of a Council over the Pope I made it out in the beginning that all Antiquity believed it without the least dispute as to that Subject as there happened about the time of the Council of Pisa Then I clearly shew'd what that Council and the two following of Constance and Basil even approved by the Popes Alexander V. Martin V. and Eugenius IV. determined on that Subject in favours of Councils As to the times that have succeeded these three Councils it is certain that all those great Men those Bishops Cardinals Popes those Universities and Learned Doctors of all Nations who as I have said have taught that Popes are not Infallible have by consequent maintained that an Ecumenical Council which cannot be doubted but to be Infallible is above the Pope But in a particular manner it is a Doctrin which the more renowned Doctors of Paris have always taught I say of that learned University the ancientest and most famous of all others of whom if I should make a List with the quotations of their Opinions it would easily fill up a whole Book It is enough for me to mention here what the great Cardinal of Lorraine fearing that some term might be slipt in the Council of Trent that might be interpreted against that Doctrine of all France caused his Secretary to represent to Pope Pius IV. in the year 1563. These are the proper terms that he put into his instructions concerning that Point I cannot deny but that I am a French Man and have been bred in the Vniversity of Paris where it is held that the Pope is subject to a Council and they who teach the contrary there are looked upon and noted as Hereticks The French will sooner lose their lives than renounce that Doctrin It would be folly to think that there is one Bishop in France that ever would consent to the opinion contrary to that truth The truth is Edit Card. Borom 9. Jan. 1563. Pallabicin Hist conc Trid. l. 19. c. 12. n. 10. c. 13. n. 2. The Legates of the Council being instructed from Rome that they should endeavour so to bring it about that in the Canon concerning the Pope the terms of the Council of Florence should be used by putting into it that the Pope hath received the Power of Governing the Universal Church Ibid. n. 7. inesse summo Pontifici potestatem regendi Ecclesiam universalem the Bishops of France opposed it and were followed by most of the Fathers of the Council Not that these words regendi Ecclesiam universalem signifie any thing else but that general Jurisdiction of the Pope which reaches all the parts of the Church in what concerns the Publick good of all Christendom that he may see to it according to the Canons as the Council of Florence expresses it so as we have made it appear But they would not have these words Ecclesiam universalem so much as abused to insinuate thereby that the Pope is above the Church universal taken altogether assembled and represented by an Ecumenical
Council And therefore to remove all ambiguity and to prevent the wresting of these words to a sense contrary to the Superiority of a Council they said that instead of Regendi Ecclesiam universalem it ought to be put into the Canon Potestatem regendi omnes fideles omnes Ecclesias that the Pope hath the Power of Governing all Believers and all Churches which is to be understood of all not Assembled in Council but taken severally and in particular none of them being exempted from the Jurisdiction of the Pope in what relates to the publick good the general Government and the cases limited by the Canons So careful even to a scruple have our Ancestors been to stand upon their guard on that side that no attack in the least might be made against the ancient Doctrin always inviolably observed in this Kingdom And it is most remarkable that at that time when the Doctors of Paris most strenuously maintained that Doctrin after the Councils of Constance and Basil against those that strove to invalidate their Decrees Innoc. VIII Litter ad Theol. Paris 7. iâ— Sept. Ann. 1486. Innocent VIII sent them a Brief wherein he makes their Elogy and amongst other things magnifies the greatness of their zeal which they expressed for maintaining the honour and rights of the Holy Roman Church and for defending the Catholick faith against the Heresies which they incessantly confuted After all that I may end where I began to handle this question I shall conclude with the testimony of another Pope whom the Authors who will have it as M. Schelstrate will that Popes are above Councils can never reject And that is Pius II. who when he was no more but Aeneas Sylvius Picolomini Clerk to the Council of Basil whereof he hath given us the History maintained with all his might as well as the Doctors of Paris that the Authority of a General Council is Superior to that of a Pope But when he himself was promoted to be Pope he thought for a reason that may easily be guessed at that he ought to make known to the World that he had changed his Opinion and that then he thought the quite contrary of what before he had maintained with all the heat that a Man ought to have who is well persuaded of the Justice of the Cause whereof he undertakes the defence And that he solemnly did by a Bull wherein he retracts and in that Recantation that he might declare that he followed another Opinion he would not stiffle the manifest truth concerning the nature of the Opinion which he forsook and of the other that he embraced For in this manner he speaks in his Bull hinting at the Conferences and Disputes that were had with Juliano Cesarini Cardinal of St. Angelo who stood up for the interest of the Pope as much as he could and yet for all that agreed in Judgment with the Council wherein he presided Tuebamur antiqaam seutentiam i le novam defendebat Extollebamus generalis concilii autoritatem ille Apostolicae sedis potestatem magnopere commendabat He defended says that Pope the Ancicient Doctrin and he took the part of the new We extolled the Authority of the Vniversal Council and he magnified extreamly the Power of the Apostolick See This now is plain dealing Pius II. in Bull. retract That Pope who was willing to change his Opinion with his condition which after him Adrian VI. did not declares fairly and honestly in his Bull that the Doctrin whereof he had formerly undertaken the Defence concerning the Superiority of a Council is the Doctrin of Antiquity and that the other is new And that is all I would be at I need no more to gain my cause For all that I have pretended to in this Treatise is to shew what Antiquity hath believed concerning the Points in hand So that after so authentick a Declaration of Pope Pius II. I have ground to say as to this Article what I have already oftener than once said in relation of the others with Pope Celestin I. writing to the Bishops of the Gallican Church Desinat incessere novitas vetustarem CHAP. XXVI The state of the question touching the Power that some Doctors have attributed to Popes over the Temporal I Have if I mistake not made it clearly appear in all the preceding Chapters of this Treatise how far the Ancient Church hath believed that the Power over Spirituals which Jesus Christ gave to St. Peter and his Successors as Heads of the Universal Church extended I am now to shew whether according to the Judgment of venerable Antiquity they have also any Power over the Temporal of any person whatsoever and especially of Kings and other Sovereigns by virtue of the primacy that by Divine right belongs to them Heretofore there have been some so passionately concerned for the Grandieur of the Apostolical See or rather so blindly devoted to the Court of Rome that differs much from the Holy See that they have dared to publish that the Pope representing the person of Jesus Christ who is King of Kings Lord of Lords and Universal Monarch who hath an absolute Power over all Kingdoms from which he may even depose Kings if they fail in their duty as these Kings may turn off their Officers who behave not themselves as they should And this is called the direct Power which Boniface VIII thought fit to take to himself in his Tuae unam Sanctam that his Successor Clement V. was obliged to recal That is not the question here For I cannot think that now a days there is any Man who hath the boldness to maintain so palpable and odious a falshood But there are a great many beyond the Alps who by the Philosophical distinction of an indirect Power which they have invented teach that the Pope may dispose of Temporals depose Kings absolve Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance that they have taken to them and transfer their Dominions to others when he judges it to be necessary for the good of Religion because say they since he hath the inspection over every thing that concerns it so hath he Power to remove destroy and exterminate every thing that may annoy the same and by that clinch they cunningly enough come home to their Point though they would seem to forsake it For a Pope will always take the pretext of the welfair of Religion when he has a mind to undo a Prince as all these Popes have done who after Gregory VII deposed Emperors and since them Julius II. who transferred the Kingdom of John King of Navarre to Ferdinand King of Arragon because that King would not declare against Louis XII whom this Pope persecuted Now seeing that Opinion which the Gallican Church and all our Doctors have always reckoned very dangerous and inconsistent with publick tranquillity hath still vouchers amongst some Modern Doctors especially beyond the Alps I must now make it appear according to the method which I have
the Iconoclaste Before that saith the same Author Popes were Subject to the Emperors and durst neither judg nor resolve of any thing that concerned them Imperatoribus suberant de iis Judicare vel quicquam decernere non audebat Papa Romanus Thus the Ancient Popes behaved themselves and so much they believed of their Pontifical Authority which does not at all reach the Temporal And to this you may add Onuphr Pavin in vit Greg. VII ex edit Gresser pag. 271. 272. that in the eight first Ecumenical Councils there is nothing to be found but what speaks the compleat submission that is due to Emperors and Kings but nothing that can in the least encroach upon or invalidate the absolute independence of their Temporal Power Now if in some of the Councils which succeeded the Pontificat of Gregory VII Kings have been threatned to be deposed and if an Emperor hath been actually deposed that was not done by the way of decision and though a Council had made a decision as to that yet it must only have been an unwarrantable attempt upon the Right of Princes and could have been of no greater Force than the Bulls whereby it hath been often enough offered at to dispossess them of their States but which have always been condemned and rejected as abusive For after all there will be reason everlastingly to say that which all Antiquity hath believed that the Church her self infallible as she is which the Pope according to the same Antiquity is not hath not received from her heavenly spouse the gift of Infallibility but as to matters purely Spiritual and wholly abstracted from the Temporal and the Kingdom of the World wherein Jesus Christ who hath said my Kingdom is not of this World would never meddle CHAP. XXX What hath always been the opinion of the Gallican Church and of all France as to that The conclusion of this Point and of the whole Treatise HItherto I have made appear what hath been the Judgment and Doctrin of Jesus Christ of his Apostles the Fathers Ancient Popes and of the Councils that is of all venerable Antiquity concerning that Power at least indirect which some would attribute to Popes Now seeing the most Christian Kingdom above all other States of Christendom hath always stuck close to the Ancient Doctrin of the Church which is the solid foundation of their Liberties Therefore it was that all the Bishops of France representing the Gallican Church the faculty of Theology of the great University of Paris so much respected in the World the chief Parliament of France and in imitation of it the rest acting in the Name and by the Authority of the King as Protector of the Canons and holy Decrees have even in this Kingdom maintained the Ancient Doctrin and upon all occasions condemned that pernicious novelty which is contrary to it This I intend briefly to prove The Gallican Church since the settlement of the most Christian Monarchy amongst the Gaules hath always inviolably observed the Rights of the Royalty in her Councils which were so often called by the sole Authority of Clovis and his Successors especially during the first and second race of our Kings And when the Popes would have attempted any thing upon their Temporal the French Bishops have always opposed it with all imaginable force and vigour Of this I shall give you some instances Lotharius Louis and Pepin Sons of Louis the Debonaire instigated by some who had a mind to make their advantage of the dissentions that they had sowed betwixt the Father and his Children Auct Anonym Vic. Ludou Pii rose in Arms against him and found means to engage into their party Pope Gregory IV. Ann. 832. who came in person to their Camp to favour their pretentions The Emperor on the other Hand accompanied with a great part of the Bishops of France failed not to advance with a Powerful Army in May the year following as far as Worms not far distant from the Camp of the Princes his Children Ut si more praedecessorum suorum aderat curâ—tontas necteret moras non sibi occurrendo Immediately he sent them some of his Bishops who exhorted them to return to their duty and who told the Pope in his name that if he was come according to the custom of his Predecessors he much wondered that he had so long delayed to come and wait upon him But when it was discovered that instead of keeping within the bounds of a bare Mediator for reconciling the Children to their Father so as it was believed he was come with a design to Excommunicate the Emperor and his Bishops if they obeyed not his Will and the Princes for whom he thereby manifestly declared himself against the Emperor Then these Bishops without being startled Nullo modo se velle voluntati ejas succumbere sed si Excommunicaturus adveniret Excommunicatus abiret cam aliter se babeas antiquorum Canonum autoritas made it known to him plainly that in that they would no ways obey him and that if he was come to Excommunicate them he should return Excommunicated himself seeing the Authority of the ancient Canons prescribes and ordains the quite contrary to what he attempts The truth is that expression seems to me a little too high but it cannot be denied but that it makes it clearly out to us that the Bishops of France would not at all suffer that the Pope should offer to enjoyn any thing concerning the Government of the State and the Temporal interests which were the Points that occasioned the War and besides that they were very well persuaded that Popes are Subject to the Holy Canons and by consequent to the Councils which have made them Moreover the great clashing that Philip the Fair had with Pope Boniface VIII who openly attacked the Rights of his Crown is very well known and it is also well known what the Gallican Church did for maintaining them and the cautions they took against the Bull unam Sanctam which raised the Popes in Temporals above all Sovereigns It is likewise known what decisions she gave Louis XII for the preservation of his Rights in the difference that he had with Julius II. and what the Clergy of France Assembled at Mante during the League Anno 1591. declared upon occasion of the Bull of Gregory XIV against Henry IV. To the Estates General at Paris 1614 1615. Now if Cardinal Duperron hath in his Speeches said something not altogether consistent with the Doctrin always maintained by the Clergy of France that is but the opinion of one private Doctor who hath oftener than once changed his sentiment and on that occasion transgressed the orders of the Ecclesiastical Chamber of the States General in name of whom he spake and who would have him only represent to the third Estate that it did not belong to them but to the Church to decide that Point of Doctrin concerning the Pontifical Power as it
recessara sit The first That it is not the Doctrin of the Faculty that the Pope hath any Authority over the Temporal of the most Chrishian King that on the contrary it hath always opposed even those who would have that Authority only indirect The other That it is the Doctrin of the same Faculty that the most Christian King hath no other Superior in Temporal affairs but God alone and than that is the ancient Doctrin of the Faculty from which it will never swerve After all these Decrees of the Gallican Church and of the sacred Faculty have always been powerfully supported by the Edicts of the Kings and the thundring sentences of Parliament against all such as ever durst in France maintain and teach that pernicious Doctrin condemned by these Decisions and Censures Of 2 Decemb. 1561.4 Januar. 1594. 7 10 Jan. 1595. 27 May 26 Nov. 1610. 27 July 1614. 2 Jan. 1615. c. which in this Kingdom are reverenced as proceeding from God upon whose word they are grounded So that a Doctrin so well established and which all France look upon as the chief foundation of our Liberties can never be shaken much less overturned by Novelty which whatsoever effort it may make shall never amongst us prevail against Antiquity to which we will always stick close as to the Principle and solid Foundation of true Tradition And therefore also it is that the King as Protector of the Canons of the Councils received in France and of the Gallican Church in particular by his perpetual Edict registred in all the Parliaments not only prohibits all his Subjects and all strangers within his Kingdom to teach or write any thing contrary to the Doctrin contained in the Declaration of the Clergy of France but also commands all secular and regular Professors to submit to and teach it Wherein it is most evident that his Majesty does no more but what many Generals of Orders do who for preserving the uniformity of Doctrin in their Congregation as to Points which they look upon to be of great importance for the good and reputation of their Body oblige their inferiours to maintain and teach certain Opinions which the whole Order hath adopted against others who dispute them Much more ought it to be lawful for so great a King so zealous for Religion and for the Ancient Doctrin upon which are founded the inviolable rights of one of the most August Crowns of Christendom and liberties of the Gallican Church to oblige his Subjects for preservation of Uniformity of Opinion within his Kingdom as to Points of that importance to maintain and teach the Doctrin of the Clergy of France in all things conform to that of the Ancient Church And so much I had to say in this Treatise wherein always following that Principle which both Catholicks and Protestants equally agree to I have held a mean betwixt the two extremes that ought to be shunned One is of those who blinded by the hatred which they have conceived against the Church of Rome from which they have separated would take from the Pope the Prerogatives which Antiquity hath believed were given him by Jesus Christ as Successor of St. Peter The other of those who through a zeal not according to knowledg nay and if I dare say with those Cardinals of Paul III. through a too great compliance with Popes attribute to them what Antiquity instructing us by the Fathers the Councils and even by the most Ancient and most holy Popes themselves have believed they never have received from Jesus Christ Seeing the mean is the place of Virtue and Truth I think one cannot mistake the way when he follows Antiquity for his guide which placing us with it self in that lovely mean will make us condemn our Protestants who are in the first extreme and abandon those who abandon themselves to novelty under the conduct whereof they are fallen into the other extremity Now if it be said to me that these new Authors who have fallen into that which I call the second extreme have only done so out of the great zeal which they have for Religion It will be easie for me to answer with the great Pope St. Leo That many times Men carry on their private interests under a specious pretext of Piety Privatae causae pietatis aguntur obtentu câ—piditatum quisque suarum Religionem habet velut pedissequam St. Leo Epist 25. ad Theodos Imper. and that every one maketh Religion to be the handmaid of his lusts and desires The truth is it may very well be that the lustre of the Purple wherewith at Rome the three Authors who have most highly exalted the Power of Popes by raising it beyond all the bounds that Antiquity prescribed to it were cloathed may have dazled the Eyes of that croud of Modern who have followed them and who for all that what ever they may have expected never received a like reward But not to Judge of the secret motives of their Heart which it belongs to God alone to dive into I had rather Answer with Vincentius Lirinensis one of the most zealous Defenders of the true Doctrin Mos iste semper in Ecclesiâ viguit ut quo quisque religiosior foret Vincent Lerin l. 1. Commonit c. 3. eo promptius novellis adventionibus contrairet It hath always been the custom in the Church that the more of Piety and Religion any one had the more ready he was to oppose all new inventions in Doctrin And to conclude my Work with the excellent words of the same Author I should be glad that Men would think that in composing it I have had no other design but to discharge the duty of a good Catholick by doing what he enjoyns me when he says Christianus Catholicus providebit ut Antiquitati inhaereat quae prorsus non potest ab ulla Novitatis fraude seduci The Catholick Christian will have great care to stick close to Antiquity which cannot be deceived by the artifice of Novelty FINIS Books Printed for and sold by Joseph Hindmarsh at the Black Bull in Cornhill over against the Royal Exchange THE famous History of Auristella Translated from the Spanish The whole Art of Converse Cicero's three Books touching the Nature of the Gods done into English A Breviary of the Roman History written in Latin by Eutropius Translated into English by several young Gentlemen privately Educated in Hatton-Garden The Countermine by Dr. Nalson History of Count Zosimus done into English Love Letters between a Noble Man and his Sister The Doctors Physitian or Dialogues concerning Health Translated out of French The Prerogative of Primogeniture by David Tenner B. D. Navigation rectified by Peter Blackborough The Works of Mr. John Oldham together with his Remains A Discourse of Monarchy as it Relates to the Succession of his Royal Highness James D. of York Seneca's Morals by way of Abstract by Mr. Lestrange Beaufions or a new discovery of Treason in an Answer to the Protestant Reconciler Familiar Epistles of Col. Hen. Martin The Rampant Alderman a Farce Dame Dobson or the Cunning Woman a Comedy Jovial Crew or Merry Beggar a Comedy Venice preserved a Tragedy Sir Hercules Buffoon a Comedy The disappointment a Play An Essay upon Poetry Choice new Songs never before Printed by Tho. Dirfey Gent. The Malecontent being the sequel of the progress of Honesty Vivat Rex a Sermon Preach'd at Bristol on the 9th of Septemb. 1683. by Mr. Kingston The History of the Civil Wars of France Written in Italian by H.C. D'Avila Translated out of the Original The Second Impression whereunto is added a Table FINIS
AN Historical Treatise OF THE FOUNDATION AND PREROGATIVES OF THE Church of Rome And of Her BISHOPS Written Originally in French By Monsieur MAIMBOURG And Translated into English By A. LOVEL A. M. LONDON Printed for Jos Hindmarsh Bookseller to His Royal Highness at the Black Bull in Cornhill MDCLXXXV The TRANSLATOR to the READER I Should be thought perhaps no less unmannerly than fanciful if I offered any other reason of the Authors publishing this Book than what he himself is pleased to give in his Epistle Dedicatory to his Great Master the Most Christian King which is that he might thereby according to his duty second the grand design of the King and his Gallican Church in removing those obstacles that hinder the reconciliation of Dissenting Believers and in confuting the mistakes of Authors who have occasioned either a scandalous separation from the Unity of the Church or a persistance in that Separation Yet seeing the Book before it came out and since it hath been Published hath made no small noise at Rome the French Court and elsewhere The Reader possibly may think that so Publick and Religious a design hath been either very ill Managed or far worse Interpreted I have nothing to say as to that it being a matter above my reach but I know the Ingenious will be apt to make remarks such as are now a days very frequent that no great matter ought or indeed can be brought about if Religion came not in for a share and if that turn not the World it will be hard for any thing else to convert it There is Religion so called that makes Turks fight against Christians and Christians not fight against Turks that makes some States invade the Rights of the Church and some Churches usurp upon the State that makes the Godly Plot and fight for Peace sake and the harmless Doves as innocent as Serpents And since these and many other such Principles are now a days in great vogue over most part of the World one may venture to say of the Religion which many nay I would it were not most Men practise at present what the Great Author of our true Religion says of the Wind It bloweth where it listeth and Men hear the sound of it but neither know whence it cometh nor whither it goeth And I should not be irreverent beyond example if I called it downright Hocus Pocus This may seem to the Reader an extravagance and a start out of the road but I had nothing else to say for my self in attempting to Translate a Book that like a Quarter-Staff strikes on both Hands pelts Protestants and knocks down the Pope save only that nothing of Modern Religion moved me to it for indeed I find not that I have any inward call to labour in anothers Vineyard but perceiving that this is an Age wherein People either open their own Eyes or desire they should be opened I was very willing since I am no loser nor I hope the Government offended by it to reach to others the Eye-salve that hath been handed to me And truly if by impartial Readers the issue of a Mans Religion should be tried by the verdict of the Authors Book perhaps it would be no easie matter to decide the Point since they 'll find in it too much either for a True Protestant or a truly Jesuited Papist How far this may justifie my undertaking I cannot tell but since the Bookseller can satisfie the Reader with how great dispatch it hath been Translated I hope he will be so kind as to pardon the hasty mistakes of the Translator A. Lovell The Authors Epistle Dedicatory TO THE FRENCH KING SIR ONE of the greatest impediments that hinders the re-union of Protestants with the Roman Church from which by a fatal Schism they are separated is that false Opinion wherewith they are prejudiced that we raise the Popes even above the Universal Church in attributing to them what only belongs to her and in giving them an absolute and unlimited Power not only in Spirituals but also over the Temporal and Crowns of Princes The Gallican Church willing to help on that great zeal which Your Majesty makes so conspicuously successful for the Conversion of your Subjects who continue still in Error hath thought that she could not do any thing to better purpose than to remove that obstacle by undeceiving them and professing as she hath done by a solemn Declaration upon a Point of that importance her Doctrin which is in all things conform to that of the Ancient Church It is the business of this Treatise which is purely Historical to make this out by matters of fact against which no subtlety argumentation nor Artifice of Novelty can hold good Nay Sir I dare even present it to Your Majesty as a Work that perhaps may be so happy as to contribute somewhat in making the Justice of your Edict known to the World whereby in quality of Protector of the Canons you make the Ancient belief current in the most Christian Kingdom This it is Sir that makes it truly to be said that Your Majesty hath done more for the Church of Rome than the Kings your Predecessors who have enriched her with the great Revenues she possesses and who have raised her to the pinacle of Temporal Grandeur and Dignities For indeed all that Wealth and these Worldly Grandeurs belong not to her true Kingdom which being that of Jesus Christ ought not to be of this World But in commanding by your Laws that this Doctrin of Antiquity be maintained in France to which the Gallican Church which hath always vigourously defended the interests and just Prerogatives of the Church of Rome hath in all Ages inviolably adhered You most solidly establish the Primacy of the Pope against the Novel attempts of Hereticks who dispute it and do all that they can to snatch it from him At the same time you take from them the pretext of their Revolt by letting them see that we believe not that which scandalises them and which some late Divines attribute to him of their own Head against the manifest Judgment of Antiquity That Sir is what may be called an effectual endeavour for restoring the true Kingdom of the Church of Rome to its Just Rights from which Hereticks who have separated from it through erroneous Notions that have been given them of our Doctrin have in little more than an Age rent away a great part of Europe Your Majesty who hath wrought and still work so many Miracles to render your Kingdom more Powerful and more flourishing than ever and to grant us once more a general Peace by making our Enemies accept it upon the conditions you thought fit to prescribe to them is apparently appointed of God to work the greatest of all in pacifying the troubles of Religion and in rendering to the Kingdom of the Church in France its ancient extent by the reduction of the remnant of our Protestants For my own part who have but very
were not reputed Hereticks Victori non dederunt manus Hieron Ibid. cut off from the communion of Catholicks It was about an hundred and eight years after that the great Council of Nice abolished that custome in respect that Saint John had onely allowed it for a time in these Provinces of Asia that bordered upon the Jews to give an honourable Funeral to the Synagogue and that the other practice was taken universally as transmitted from the Apostles after which there lay an obligation upon Christians to submit to that Decree and they who headstrongly refused to obey it were declared Hereticks under the name of Quartodecumans This being so it is evident to all Men that neither these Bishops of Asia and of the East nor St. Irenaeus and the Gallican Church nor the Bishops of other Countries who wrote so smartly to Pope Victor in favour of these Eastern Churches did believe the Pope to be Infallible For had they believed it it is certain on the one hand that these Asiaticks would have submitted to the Decree of the Pope as they afterwards submitted to that of a Council because they believed as all other Catholicks doe that a Council is Infallible and on the other hand it is very clear that St. Irenaeus and so many other Bishops would not have written as they did to Pope Victor and found fault with his conduct For they never questioned but that those who refused to obey an Infallible Tribunal ought to be condemned and punished It was not then believed in the Church that the Pope had the gift of Infallibility though he might make a Decree for the instruction of all believers CHAP. IX What inference is to be made from that famous contest that happened betwixt the Pope St. Stephen and St. Cyprian concerning the Baptism of Hereticks THis famous question that hath made so much noise in the Church was fourty years before St. Cyprian solemnly examined in a Council held in Africa by Agrippinus Bishop of Carthage Ann. 217. and there it was determined that the Baptism of Hereticks being null there was a necessity of Re-baptizing all those who having abjured their Heresie should return to the bosome of the Church Cypr. Epist 71. ad Quin. Epist ad Jubaian Commonit 6.9 Vincentius Lirinensis hath Written that that same Agrippinus was the first who contrary to the custome of the Universal Church and the determination of his Brethren thought that Hereticks ought to be Re-baptised But saving the honour and respect that is due to so great a Man it is evident he was mistaken For besides that the Bishops of Africa and Numidia Cypr. loc citat with common consent and in conjunction with Agrippinus decided the same thing Tertullian Ann. 203. Cap. 12. who Wrote his excellent Book of Prescriptions against Hereticks fourteen years before the Council of Agrippinus says therein very plainly that their Baptism is not valid Cap. 15. Which in his Book of Baptism he also asserts in most express terms a Book Written by him before he fell into the Heresie of the Montanists Ann. 200. Strommat 1. Clemens Alexandrinus who flourished in the same time also rejects the Baptism of Hereticks which shews that it was the doctrine and custome of the Church of Alexandria the chief and most illustrious Church next to that of Rome So that Agrippinus and the Bishops of Africa and Numidia whom he assembled in a Council to determine that Question are not the first who established that Custome and Disipline which appoints all Hereticks who return into the bosome of the Church to be Re-baptized Probably it may be objected by some that what these ancient Authours say ought onely to be understood of the Hereticks of their times who all of them blaspheming against the most Holy Trinity Baptized not in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and that therefore their Baptism was null which is most true But the reason whereupon they ground the nullity of the Baptism of Hereticks to wit that they are strangers without the Pale of the Church Ad quos vetamur accedere quis servus cibaria ab extraneo ne dicam ab inimico domini sui petat c. Tertull. de praescrip Quos extraneos utique testatur ipsa ademptio communicationis Id. de Baptis Trajicies aquam alienam c. Clem. Alex and that we are forbidden to have any commerce with them proves manifestly that what they said ought to be understood of all sorts of Hereticks both present and to come because they are all out of the Pale of the Church Now seeing some considerable time after the Council of Agrippinus Novation who was the first Anti-pope caused Catholicks who followed the party of the true Pope Cornelius to be Re-baptized the Question concerning the Baptism of Hereticks was argued afresh in Africa where it was put Whether or not the Novatian Schismaticks who returned to the Church ought to be Re-baptized Litt. Synod ad Epis ad Episc humid ap Cypr. Epist 90. Numid ap Cypr. Epist 70. Whereupon St. Cyprian having assembled a Provincial Council at Carthage it was there declared that since no body can be lawfully Baptized out of the Church there was a necessity of Re-baptizing Hereticks and Schismaticks those excepted who having been Baptized in the Catholick Church Cypr. Epist 74. ad Pomp. had afterward separated from it because Baptism once rightly administred could never again be reiterated The Bishops of Numidia who had received the Decree of the Council of Agrippinus Litt. Synod ad Epise Numid having consulted Saint Cyprian upon that new emergent received also the Decree of the Council of Carthage and that it might be rendered more Authentick Saint Cyprian assembled them together with the Bishops of his Province in a second Synod where the decision of the former was confirmed And thereupon a Synodal Letter was written to the Pope St. Stephen Cypr. Epist 73. ad Jubai informing him of what had been decided in those two Councils to wit that all those who being out of the Church Eos qui sunt foris extra Ecclesiam tincti apud haereticos schismaticos profanae aquae labe maculaeti quando ab nos venerint Baptisare oportere eo quod parum sit eis manum imponere Epist 70. Apud Cypr. ap August l. 6. 7. de Bapt. had been polluted by the profane Baptism of Hereticks and Schismaticks ought to be Re-baptised which was also confirmed in a third Council wherein were present the Bishops of Mauritania with those of Africa and Numidia Pope Stephen though his Predecessours had not opposed the Council of Agrippinus but left the Africans in the possession of their custome thought that he ought to condemn it as contrary to Apostolical Tradition And thereupon Euseb Hist l. 6. c. 5. in two Letters which he Wrote to the Africans he made a Decree quite contrary to that of St. Cyprian
of Scripture which teacheth us Nec rationem habere ullam exempli quod hic vel ille decessor meus c. that God permits that men should for a time be ignorant of that which afterwards he discovers to his Church Perspicite an decessores nostri id satis intellexerint quod de indissolubili matrimonii vinculo disquirimus Who knows then now said he but that God may manifest by our means what others have not known touching the indissolvable Bond of Marriage Wherefore have no respect to Examples and don 't tell me what this man or that man of my Predecessors have determined about this matter in a like Case Confider only whether these Popes have understood rightly or not what they have decided concerning this matter of Marriage which we examine There is a Pope who doubtless will never be accused of having failed in maintaining the pontifical Authority that nevertheless frankly confesses and in very plain terms that he and his Predecessors may have erred in Decisions that they may have made concerning points relating to the Faith So that from all that I have hitherto said upon that Subject it may evidently be concluded That great Saints of the ancient Church Bishops in all parts of Christendome in the East in the West and in Africa full and general Councils ancient Popes who have either presided in or consented to these Councils in a word that all Antiquity hath believed that the Pope deciding by his pontifical Authority without the consent of the Church is not at all infallible CHAP. XVI The state of the Question touching the Superiority of a Council over the Pope or of the Pope over a Council IF I proceeded in this Treatise by way of Discourse and Argument I might soon conclude and not fear that any Objection could be brought against my Conclusion for if Antiquity hath believed as I think I have demonstrated that the Pope is not Infallible and that he may be deceived in his Decrees it 's most evident that it hath also believed by necessary consequence that the Tribunal of the Universal Church which without contradiction is infallible and represented by a general Council is above that of the Pope But because for avoiding of Dispute I only alledge evident matters of Fact against which all the Arguments in the World can never prevail for in fine can one by dint of Argument make that which has been never to have been I shall only relate what the Ancient Church hath believed touching that famous Question Seeing the State of the Question ought plainly and without Ambiguity to be proposed for avoiding perplexity to the end that people may at first agree about the thing that is in question and that it may not be said as it oftentimes happens after much jangling and dispute without concluding any thing that the thing was understood in a quite different sense than it was proposed in Take therefore the state of the Question as follows It is enquired Whether after that a Council is lawfully assembled the Pope who without contradiction is Head of it presiding in it in person or by his Legates or not being present nor presiding therein either the one way or t'other as it hath happened oftner than once and is to be seen in the second Oecumenical Council of an hundred and Ann. 381. fifty Bishops Ann. 553. and in the fifth of above an hundred and sixty Whether I say that Council considered in its Membets united either under the Pope who has Right to preside in it or failing of him under another President is above the Pope and hath sovereign Authority over him so that he is obliged to submit to its Decrees and Definitions to approve them and consent thereunto as all others are though he be in his own particular of a contrary Judgment or whether the Pope is so above all the other Members of that Council united together be he there or not that if he approve and confirm not by his Assent and Authority the Decrees and Definitions thereof That Council has no Authority neither over Him nor over Believers In this precisely consists that Question which hath not been moved in the Church but since the Council of Pisa some two hundred and forty Years ago Ann. 1409. And the reason why it was never spoken of before is because it was not at all doubted in the Ancient Church but that a Council was above the Pope I shall make it out by matters of Fact against which no Reply can be made CHAP. XVII That it is the Holy Ghost which in the Definitions of Faith pronounces by the Mouth of the Council ANtiquity hath always believed as it is believed at this day That the Council held at Jerusalem concerning the Legal Observations to which many amongst the converted Jews pretended that all who embraced the Faith of the Gospel were tied hath been a pattern to all Oecumenical Councils which have been since celebrated in the Church for the supreme Decision of other points of Controversie which have often divided Christians inâ—o very different Opinions and when the matter in question had been well examined the Decree that pass'd in that Council proceeded from the Holy Ghost which was uttered in these Words Visum est spiritui sancto nobis It hath ever since also been believed that when other Councils after an exact Enquiry into the Truth defined what was to be believed or what was to be done it is the Holy Ghost that speaks in their Decrees and that it may truly be said as it was said at Jerusalem It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to this Assembly This hath been expressed by St. Leo in these terms Sanctorum patrum canones spiritu Dei conditi totius mundi reverentia consecrati St. Leo Epist 84. ad Anast Thessalonic which have been received with so much Applause in the whole Church when he saith in one of his Epistles That the Canons of the holy Fathers have been made by the Spirit of God and that they are consecrated by the Veneration of the whole Earth Now it is certain that St. Peter depended upon the Holy Ghost as well as St. James St. John St. Paul St. Barnaby the Elders and other Brethren who were present in that Council and if after that he compelled by his Example the Christians to Judaise as Cardinal Baronius hath thought he had been much more to be blamed for having disobeyed the Holy Ghost and the Council than when St. Paul rebuked him openly before the Council as I have made it clearly out by the Testimony of the Fathers and of Pope Pelagius II. So that it ought to be concluded that the Pope who is no less inferiour to the Holy Ghost than St. Peter to whom he succeeds is obliged to submit to his Judgment against his own to obey and consent to his Decisions and consequently to those of the Council who neither speaks nor decides
that And that he may not think to object to us the multitude of his Manuscripts for he quotes nine of them I can tell him that there are ten in Paris all conform to that of St. Victor which alone is worth all his And certainly I can very well exceed that number seeing I my self not to speak of ot her Manuscripts which they who are more curious than I am without doubt have in their Libraries have discovered ten of them Besides we may produce against him the unquestionable Evidences of Peter D' Ailly Cardinal of Cambray and of the famous John Gerson Chancellor of the University of Paris who was at the Council of Constance not only as the Deputy of that great Body but also as Ambassadour from the King for in fine that holy and learned man who cannot be suspected of Imposture and whose Manuscripts we have in many places relates that first Decree of the fourth Session word for word as it is in the Manuscript of St. Victor Tractat. de potestat Ecclesiast Tract an quomodo licèt appel Serm. pro viagio Reg. Rom. directione prima Serm. coram Concil dom secunda post Epiph. and the printed Acts and what can never be answered he related it even in presence of the whole Council in the Sermon which he made for the Journey of the King of the Romans and having recited the Decree entirely with that Clause Ad generalem reformationem Ecclesiae Dei in Capite in Membris immediately after he said to all the Fathers of the Council declaring his Judgment these very significant and expressive words Conscribenda prorsus esse mihi videretur in eminentioribus locis vel in culpenda per omnes Ecclesias saluberrima haec definitio lex vel regula tanquam directio fundamentalis c. vilut infallibilis adversus monstruosum horrendumque offendiculum quod hactenus positum erat per multos de Ecclesia in itinere mandatorum Dei determinantes ex textibus Glossae non ad regulam evangelicam aternam acceptis Papam non esse subjectum Generali Concilio neque Judicari posse per ipsum quod praeterea Generale Concilium ab ipso robur immediatè sumebat nec poterat sine eo casu quocunque convocari vel stabiliri quod nemo poterat ei dicere Cur ita facis Quoniam solutus erat legibus supra jus Et ita de plurimis per quae blonda fallax subdola adulatio fovebat libidinem dominandi in tyrannidem Ecclesiae destructricem Papatum seu ejus usum convertebat ita ut non pateret via reductionis seu pacis I am of Opinion that in all Churches and in the most eminent Places of the World this holy and most useful Definition this Law or Rule of the Council ought to be written or even engraved in great Letters as being the fundamental and infallible Direction which we ought to follow against the horrible and monstrous Scandal which is a stumbling Block that many amongst us have cast in the way of the Commands of God determining and endeavouring to prove by Texts of the Gloss ill understood contrary to the Evangelical and Eternal Rule that the Pope is not subject to a General Council and that he cannot be judged by it besides that a General Council receives from him immediately all its force and that in no case it can be called and held without him that no man may say to him Why do you do that because he is not bound to obey the Laws and that he is above all Canons and many other such Maxims whereby a soft fallacious and malicious flattery fomented the unbridled desire of predominating and changed the Pontifical Power or the exercise of it into a Tyranny which wholly ruined the Church so that there would no way remain of reducing matters into good Order and of setling Peace Now I would beseech M. Schelstrate to tell me ingenuously if he dares think that the Chancellor of Paris had the Impudence to recite in a Sermon and before all the Fathers of the Council the Decree of the fourth Session otherwise than they themselves had made it and add impudently these words Ad reformationem Ecclesiae in Capite in membris which the Council had not put into it and afterwards to speak to them in the manner I have now mentioned I take him to be a man of too much Honour and too prudent ever to let that Thought enter into his Head and I make no doubt but that he will give Glory to God by confessing That since Gerson recited that Decree before the whole Council as we have it in the printed Acts it is altogether evident that the Council made it so and that it is not in the least falsified that otherwise the Council would have given him the Lie as an impudent Impostor But what now if I shew that that so famous Doctor hath done the same oftner than once as may be seen particularly in the Sermon which he made before all the Fathers of the Council the second Sunday after the Epiphany upon that Text of the Gospel There was a Marriage in Cana of Galilee There he treats very amply of the Marriage of Jesus Christ with his Church represented by the Council of Constance and having said that the second Advantage of that Spouse is the fullness of Power that the Council which represents her hath even over the Pope and that that was solidly proved in a Book lately before published he speaks in this manner Quamvis ultra multiplicare sermonem quid opus est super eâ veritate cujus decisio clarissima solidissimaque facta est per hoc sacrum Concilium cui non licet obniti nec ipsam in argumenta deducere quoniam disputationum argumentationum evasionum frivolarum nullus unquam esset finis sed casus assiduus in errores absurdos insanos impios Vere graviter Ecclesiastes Quia cito non profertur contra malos sententia filii hominum absque ullo timore perpetrant mala Nunquid non ideo sacra hujus synodi Constantiensis impugnantur Judicia qua sic habent But what necessity is there to enlarge Discourse or reason any more upon that Truth which hath been most clearly and solidly decided by this sacred Council to which it is not lawful to gainsay nor to bring that Question any ways under Examination again to clear it by Arguments for there would be no end of disputing Evasions and frivolous Distinctions would always be found out to betray men into absurd mad and impious Errors The Preacher hath truly and gravely said that because Sentence against an evil Work is not executed speedily therefore the Heart of the Sons of Men is fully set in them to do Evil Is it not therefore that there are some who dare boldly impugn the Determinations and Decrees of this Council of Constance of which the Tenor follows Primo declarat
the whole General Council whence it follows that the most pernicious and dangerous Error to the Church of some men ought to be condemned who to flatter the Pope so rob the Council of its Authrity that they have the Boldness to say that the Pope is not of necessity obliged to follow the Decisions of the Council and that on the contrary we should test upon the Judgment of the Pope if he oppose that of the Church or of a General Council Thus that great Cardinal from the chair of Truth before the whole Council of Constance conform to its Decrees and in presence of the Pope himself who found no fault with it and seemed not at all displeased that that Opinion was called an Error most pernicious and most dangerous invented by the Flatterers of Popes Decr. Facult Ann. 1429. Kal. April So also the sacred Faculty following so good an Example about twelve years after made F. John Sarasin retract that Proposition which he had put into one of his Theses All the Authority that gives force to the Decrees of a Council Tota authoritas dans vigorem statutis residet in solo summo pontisice resides in the Pope alone He was obliged to make a publick recantation and to change his Proposition into this All the Authority that gives force to the Decrees of a Council Toâ—â— authoritas dans vigorem statutis residet non in solo summo pontifice sed principaliter in spiritu Sancto in Catholica Ecclesia resides not in the Pope alone but chiefly in the Holy Ghost and Catholick Church And certainly it is very rational that the Pope should depend upon the Will of the Holy Ghost who teaches as it pleases him all Truth to the Church and to the Council which represents it and not that the Holy Ghost should depend upon on the Will of the Popes as it must needs do if after that divine Spirit hath by the Council defined the Consubstantiality of the Word the Divinity of the Holy Ghost the Unity of Person and the Plurality of Natures Wills and Operations â—n Jesus Christ and such other Truths concerning the Faith his Decisions had no Authority if it pleased not the Pope to consent to â—hem And this I think is sufficient in relation to the Approbation of the Decrees of Constance one word more as to what M. Schelstrate pretends that they were only made for the time of a Schism CHAP. XXV A Refutation of the other Chapter of M. Schelstrate THis Objection that is made against us is of an old ruinous Engine ready to fall of it self tho we set no strong hand to it to push it down The truth is the Council of Constance which foresaw that it might be made use of to weaken the supreme Authority of Oecumenical Councils did anticipate and overthrow it even before it was made and for that end in the fifth Session wherein it declared that all men of what Dignity soever are obliged to obey the Decrees and Ordinances of that sacred Council of Constance these words are added And of any other General Council lawfully assembled Et cujuscunque alterius Concilii Generalis legitimè congregati He that speaks of any other Council without Restriction comprehends all times both out of Schism and during a Schism So the Council of Basil which was a long time lawful when there was no Schismâ— declared that the Pope was obliged to obey it and every other Council and the Reasons given for it in that long Synodal Answer approved by Pope Eugenius necessarily comprehend all times as may be seen in the two Reasons which only I shall alledge The first is That an Oecumenical Council is a whole and a Body whereof the Pope or he that presides in it in his place is the Head For there is no Acephalous Council as M. Schelstrate speaks that is to say without a Head calling that of Constance so in the Absence of the Pope Nay if he refuse to preside when he might or withdraw himself from it there is always some body that presides therein in his place and represents him in that quality of Head as the whole Council represents the Universal Church and it will be acknowledged without difficulty that the Head is no more but the chief Member and principal Part of that great Body Certè Petrus Apostolus primum membrum universalis Ecclesiae est Gregor l. 4. Ep. 8. as Saint Gregory speaking of Saint Peter positively affirms Not as Jesus Christ who is not only the Head but also the Master of the Universal Church which he hath purchased with his own Blood and by consequent it is his Church it properly belongs unto him and he can dispose thereof as he thinks fit as an Owner can do with his Estate Dominus est Hence it is that he cannot be said to be but a part of the Church Domious Vniverss noâ— est pars universiâ—â—â— Arist 12 Meâ—aph he is over all as God who is the absolute Master of the World is not a part of that whole of that Universe whereof he is the Master as Aristotle himself hath acknowledged It is not so with the Pope who is indeed Head of the Church Universal but not Master Jesus Christ having said to St. Peter as well as to all the other Apostles Matth. 20. Mark 12. Luke 22. The Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them but it shall not be so among you And that entirely ruines that odious Comparison that some would make between our Kings who are over the States of their Kingdom and the Popes whom they would place over the whole Church There is a great deal of Difference Our Kings are the Masters in their States exercise Dominion over them but not the Popes in the Church but it shall not be so with you The Pope then is but a part of the Church and of a General Council that represents it and not the Master Now it is evident by the light of Nature that the whole is more noble than every part and carries it over them according to that sentence of St. Austin L. de Bapt. c. 4. Vniversum partibus semper optimo Jure praeponitur And upon that Maxim received of all Men without contradiction St. Jerome in one word derides that question when he saith Ep. ad Evagr. Major est Authoritas orbis quam urbis Thus the Pope as the chief part and Head of the universal Church is above every part and his power regulated according to the Canons extends over all the Churches taken particularly and none are exempt from his Jurisdiction but no ways over all the Churches assembled in a General Council unless it be for calling of them and presiding therein And in this manner is to be understood what is to be found in the Bulls of Eugenius IV. and Leo X. in the Councils of Florence and the Lateran besides that this last is not agreed upon to be
that passage to prove the necessity of praying and of obtaining grace from God without which we cannot persevere And this is also the sense that Theophylact Oecumenius Euthymius Cardinal Hugo Albertus Magnus St. Thomas St. Bonaventure Lyranus Dionysius Carthusianus and all the rest of the most famous Interpreters and Divines have followed as being the true literal sense It is evident that that onely agrees with the time of the Passion and the Person of St. Peter alone wherein his Successours can have no part And though they should pretend they had yet that would not hinder but that they might fail and fall as St. Peter did by publishing a falshood contrary to the true faith which is more against the duty of a Pope than to believe an Errour without publishing it CHAP. VIII What follows Naturally from the great debate that Pope Victor had with the Bishops of Asia THere had been for a long time very different Customs in the Church about the Celebration of the Festival of Easter and the observation of the Fast which ought to go before that holy day For all over the West according to the practice observed from the beginning in the Church of Rome that Festival was kept on Sunday which is the day of our Saviour's Resurrection But the Churches of Asia founded by the Apostle St. John Euseh Hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 24. Hieron de script c. 44. Exod. 12. Hieron de script in Polychr some of their Neighbours and many other Churches of the East kept it always the fourteenth of the Moon of March as the Passover is appointed to be kept in Exodus and according to the Tradition which they had received from St. John As to the Fast that is to be observed before Easter there was still a greater diversity in the Customs established in several places Irenae ap Euseb hist l. 5. c. 24. For some fasted but one day before that Feast as we do on the Vigile of Christmas and of Whitsunday others fasted two days some who were numerous fasted longer and many observed punctually the Fourty days fast of Lent Omnes Ecclesiae tum eorum qui decimo quarto die diem festum pachat is observabant tum eorum qui secus tranquillâ pace inter ipsas fruebantur Euseb Ibid. However these different customs that were amongst Christians of the second nay and of the first age of the Church concerning Lent and Easter made no breach at all of the peace and every one observed peaceably the custom of their Church which they thought to be good without condemning the practices of others This is so true that St. Polycarp Bishop of Smirna being come to Rome under the Pontificat of Saint Anicetus these two great Saints in a long conference which they had about the celebration of the Feast of Easter did what they could mutually to draw one another over to their party and seeing both remained stedfast in their opinions St. Polycarp saying always that he had from St. John his Master the custom that was observed in his Church and St. Anicetus affirming that that which was followed at Rome and in the Western Churches was derived from St. Peter they could never agree upon the matter Yet that hindred not but that they still lived together in great amity and in the same communion insomuch that the Pope to doe honour to St. Polycarp Ibid. prayed him to officiate publickly in his Church That good intelligence continued always betwixt the Popes and Asiatick Bishops Ann. 193. Euseb l. 5. c. 22. untill Victor I. who having held several Councils at Rome about that subject amongst the Gauls and elsewhere where the practice of the Roman Church was observed Euseb c. 24. would needs compell the Asiaticks to conform to it by celebrating Easter on Sunday And because these who thought not themselves obliged to obey him contrary to the tradition which their Churches had from St. John Omnes fratres eam incolentes regionem prorsus à communione secludendos edicit Ibid. would by no means comply He threatened them with Excommunication and published against them that which now adays is called a Monitory Polycrates who was at that time Bishop of Ephesus held also a Council with his brethren about the same subject and answering in name of all by a Synodal Letter to Pope Victor and his Bishops he says That what the Asiaticks did had been religiously observed by the Apostles St. Philip and St. John Hieron de Script in Polychr by another St. John a Bishop and Martyr whose body rested at Ephesus by St. Polycarp Bishop of Smirna by the Martyr St. Thraseas and by many other holy Bishops who had always celebrated that Holy day the fourteenth of the Moon according to that Tradition that for himself who was sixty five years of age having consulted many able Men of all Nations and carefully read all Writings for informing himself in that controverted Peragratâ omni scripturâ non formidabo eos qui nobis minantur c. point he did not fear those that threatned him because it hath been said by his Predecessours that it is better to obey God than Man And seeing Victor still persisted in his threats and that he would by all means Excommunicate the Asiaticks if they obeyed not Verum ista caeteris omnibus parum place-bant Episcopis ....... quorum verba utpote Victorem acrius acerbius coarguentium scriptis prodita adhuc extant Euseb l. 5. c. 24. Ibid. several Bishops of other Countries who blamed his proceeding wrote sharply to him to divert him from his enterprise Amongst others St. Irenaeus the great Archbishop of Lyons sent him a long Letter in name of all the Gallican Church whom he had assembled for that effect wherein he represents to him with as much force at least but with far greater moderation than the rest that he ought not for a difference of that nature cut off from the Universal Church so many particular Churches so many Bishops and so many Believers who acted according to an ancient Tradition upon which they founded themselves He adds that he would doe far better to follow the example of so many holy Popes his Predecessours Anicetus Pius Hyginus Telesphorus and Sixtus who though they as well as he had observed a quite different custome from that of the Bishops of Asia yet never treated them as Hereticks for that nor forbore to communicate with them in a perfect union Multos Asiae orientis Episcopos ..... damnandos crediderat Hieron de script Eccles c. 24. But notwithstanding all these Remonstrances Victor was still of the mind that they ought to be Condemned Nay there are some who affirm that he did actually condemn and thunder an Anathema against them However it be it is certain that they would not submit to his Ordinances that the custome of their Churches concerning the Feast of Easter was allowed them and that they who observed it
the King protests before God Innoc. III. in l. 3. Regest 15. Ep. 104. ad Philip. Reg. Franc. Non auderemus in hujusmodi casu de nostro sensu pro te aliquid definire that if he could in Conscience grant what he demanded he would do it with all his Heart but that tho he would stand by that which the Queen had answered Cardinal Robert Cortzeon in favour of the dissolution of that Marriage who had interrogated her judicially yet he could not of himself determine any thing about so important an Affair as that and that Si super hoc absque deliberatione Concilii determinare aliquod tentaremus praeter divinam offensam mundanam insamiam quam ex eo possumus incurrere forsan ordinis officii nostri periculum immineret If he offered to do it without a Council besides offending of God and the Disgrace that he should draw upon himself in the World he might perhaps be in danger of being deposed and of losing his Pontifical Dignity There was a Pope and one of the most learned that ever sat in St. Peter's Chair who twice and in few Words confesses with much Sincerity that the Council is above him once by saying that he could determine nothing in that Affair proposed to him without the Definition of a Council and then if he offered to do so that he should run a hazard of being deposed from the Popedom By whom Without doubt by a Power that was superiour to his which as it is evident could be none other upon Earth but that of a Council Pope Agapetus long before said the same upon an occasion where the Question however was not about a matter of so great Importance as this and of which it is fit I should give my Reader an Account in few words In one of the Councils which Pope Symmachus held at Rome there was a prohibition made That no Pope for ever should alienate the Goods of the Church and especially of the Church of Rome which at that time were not Cities and Provinces as they were after the Donations of the Kings of France but some Lands and Farms which it held of the Bounty of Believers besides the Oblations which in those days made up the greatest part of it I give you here the most considerable terms of the Decree which prohibits that Alienation Ann. 500. We ordain in the Presence of God Mansuro cum Dei consideratione decreto sancimus ut nulli Apostolicae sedis praesuli à praesenti die donec disponente domino Catholicae Fidei manserit doctrina salutaris liceat praedium rusticum quantaecunque fuerit magnitudinis vel exiguitatis sub perpetuâ alienatione vel commutatione ad cujustibet jura transferre nec cujusquam excusentur necessitatis obtentu by this Decree that from this present day so long as the Doctrine of the Faith continues in the World by the Disposition of divine Providence that it be never lawful for any Pope to alienate any farm great or small nor to transfer the same by way of Exchange to any whosoever under pretext and excuse of any necessity that may happen Now seeing about thirty six years after there was a Permission desired of Pope St. Agapetus to alienate some of these Lands Concil Rom. sub Symmach de bon Eccles non alien c. 4. under a very specious pretext of relieving the poor he made Answer that the venerable Constitutions of his Predecessors that had prohibited such kinds of Alienations tied him from granting it that he thought they would not take it ill that he did nothing contrary to those Decrees whatever the occasion might be for any Respect in the World Nor would I have you think adds he in his Epistles to Caesarius Bishop of Arles Nec tenacitatis studio aut saecularis utilitatis causâ hoc facere vòs credatis sed divini consideratione Judicii necesse nobis est quicquid sancta synodalis decrevit authoritas inviolabiliter custodire that I do so out of Covetousness or any temporal Interest But considering the strict Account that I must give at the last Judgment I think my self obliged to observe inviolably what the holy Council hath enjoyned us Yet all this while this was but a National Council of Italy which had made that Decree to which Pope Agapetus says that he was obliged to submit upon stronger Reason without doubt would he have said the same if it had been a Decree of an Oecumenical Council There are a great many Popes who have expressed themselves as plainly as these that they were subject to a Council I 'll mention no more but one who delivers his Mind upon that Subject in such a manner as no man is able to reply to And that is the famous Gerbert Silvester II. who filled three Sees successively of Reims Ravenna and lastly of Rome and was a most Learned Pope whom I have characterized in some of my Histories For that purpose he makes use of this passage in the Gospel where our Saviour says to his Disciples That if your Brother offend you reprove him privately and then in presence of two or three Witnesses and if he amend not tell the Church of him and if he obey not the Church let him be as a Publican and as a Heathen Defensor p. c. c. 29. The famous and learned Tostatus Bishop of Avila employs that Passage to prove that the supreme and highest Tribunal of the Church is that of a Council to which Jesus Christ referred all his Disciples and by conquent St. Peter who is therefore subject to it as to his lawful Judge from whom he is to expect the Justice that he may demand against his Brother Pope Silvester makes use of it in another manner but for the same end for he pretends what is true that these Words spoken to St. Peter by our Saviour in relation to his Brethren were also spoken to the same Brethren in regard St. Peter as well as of the rest Whereupon that Pope writing to Seguinus Archbishop of Sens Constanter dico quod si ipse Romanus Episcopus in fratrem peccaverit saepiusque admonitus Ecclesiam non audierit hic inquam Romanus Episcopus praecepto Dei est habendus sicut Ethnicus Publicanus Sylvest 2. Epist ad Seguin Senon hath made no difficulty to express himself in these very pithy and significant Words I say it boldly that if even the Bishop of Rome offend against you and that being often admonished he obey not the Church that Bishop of Rome I say ought to be look'd upon by the Command of God himself as a Publican and as a Heathen Could that Pope have expressed himself more clearly That he thought the Popes for all they are Heads of the Church are still subject to a Council that represents it CHAP. XX. That the ancient Popes have believed That they were subject to the Canons IT is another invincible Argument that Antiquity hath always