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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85746	Of the authority of the highest powers about sacred things. Or, The right of the state in the Church. Wherein are contained many judicious discourses, pertinent to our times, and of speciall use for the order and peace of all Christian churches. / Put into English by C.B. M.A. The method of every chapter is added in the margent, and collected at the end.; De imperio summarum potestarum circa sacra. English.	Grotius, Hugo, 1583-1645.; Barksdale, Clement, 1609-1687, translator.	1651 (1651)	Wing G2117; Thomason E1244_1; ESTC R202244	156,216	365

Election inferrs thus Yet I will not thence conclude that the right of electing Bishops is to be reduced to the promiscuous Votes of the common people for whether it be better that the Bishop be design'd at the meeting of the whole Church or by the suffrages of a few no right Constitution can be prescribed to all Churches for severall Countries have severall Laws Customes and Institutes If any in whom the right is abuse it by Tyranny they are compelled into order by the Holy Magistrate or the right of designing Ministers may be transferr'd from them to others for it is sufficient that some Elders performe that office of Electing upon command of the King or Magistrate by the advise and Counsell of men who understand what the function of a Bishop is what is the condition of that Church or People over which a Pastor is to be appointed who also can judge of the endowments the learning and manners of every one By this right Justinian as we have said Constituted a manner of Electing somewhat receding from the former usage and the antient Canons by this right after the Nicene Canon were many Bishops elected by the Clergy and the People The Lawes of Charles the Great and other Kings are extant containing divers wayes of Electing so that Bucer said most truly The form of Election is prescribed by pious Princes Let us now consider whether the Highest Power it self may make Election the question is not whether it ought to make it nor whether it be alwayes expedient to doe so but whether if it doe make Election it commit any offence against the Law Divine We say with the excellent Marsilius Patavinus The Law-giver or Prince is not by any Law of God prohibited from the Institution Collation or Distribution of Ecclesiasticall offices Whosoever affirm the contrary doe accuse of impiety innumerable pious Princes of antient and of this age which truly is a point of great temerity when no Divine Law can be produced to prohibit it as hath been abundantly by others and by us in some part demonstrated Although this might suffice for whatever is not circumscrib'd by Divine Law is within the sphere of the Highest Power yet for the desending of our sentence both reasons and examples are in readinesse The first reason is taken hence that all actions even those that naturally belong to others not having causes determined by nature we see are rightly exercised by the H. Power Naturally men choose teachers for their children and give them Guardians sick persons make use of what Physician they please Merchants elect the Curators of their Company Yet in many places Guardianship is appointed by Law alone or the will of the Magistrates Physicians are constituted by publick Order and Informers of Youth too with interdiction of others from the practice of those faculties and to the Commanies of Merchants are fit Curators also appointed by the Highest Power without blame of any any But if this right be competent to the Highest Power over those things which did belong to every one much more over those things that belong unto the People because the power of the people is devolved upon it as all men know that have any knowledge of the Lawes That sometimes there may be just causes why the H. Power should challenge to it self the Election of Pastors no wise man will deny For often errours introduced into the Church against the word of God cannot be rooted out by other means often there is no other way to avoid Schism often the suffrages of the Clergy are disturb'd with factions popular election with seditions whereof are extant many examples even of the purer times Adde in the last place that the times are now and then so boisterous that the King will hardly keep the Crown upon his head except hee have a care the Pastors may be most obedient and faithfull to him Verily all Histories doe witnesse how dearly the German Emperours paid for their abdication of this Imperiall Right That we may come to Examples it hath been shewed afore that before the Mosaicall Law and afterward among the Nations without Judaea Kings themselves enjoyed the Priesthood the Divine Law not then forbidding it at which time there can be no doubt the Priesthood might also have been committed by them to others as we read the Pontifs and Flamens were created by the Kings of Rome But among the Hebrew people after Moses Law no man except of Aarons family could be admitted to the office of a Priest nor to the service of the Temple unlesse he were a Levit. Hence is Jeroboam justly blam'd for choosing Priests who were not Levits for the Law did not allow it nor was it in the King to command Sacrifices to be offered in any place but the accustomed which after David was Jerusalem Other Functions or the places for them the King might assigne to the Priests and Levits So were some Levits appointed by David for preaching others for singing And that there should be Singers with Harps and other Instruments was God's precept by the Prophets as the application of persons to the severall offices is every where attributed to David under the name of King and after David to Solomon and Jehoshaphat the King not the Prophet by name electeth Priests and Levits whom he might send forth to the Cities of Juda to instruct them The very same thing that is here debated For as some Fathers were of opinion the right of blood in the Moisaicall Law is correspondent to the Imposition of hands in the Christian Law As then the Hebrew King may apply certain persons to a certain office and place but only such as were of Aarons family and Levits so the Christian King rightly makes a Presbyter or Bishop of a certain City but of them which are ordain'd or to be ordain'd And so did Nehemia's Lieutenant to the Persian King leave some Levits in the particular Cities others hee called forth unto Jerusalem Yea the High Priest attained not that dignity by Succession but Election of the great Synedry yet confined unto certain families which Election seemeth to have been the regall right when the Kings reigned the most learned of the Hebrews Maimonides hath observed But let us proceed with the Christians Before Constantine no man will wonder that no Christian Pastors were elected by the Emperours when the Emperours either were enemies to the Church or had it in contempt and accounted it not worthy of their care Constantine gave the force of a Law to the Nicene Canon of Election to be made by Bishops other Emperours after him did the like either by renewing the Canon or not abrogating of it And 't is manifest this manner of Election was long in use the Empire being of greater extent than that the Emperours diligence could provide for all the Churches Notwithstanding this it was lawfull for the Emperours if they pleased to Elect by themselves For seeing it

humane Counsells are not to be waited for when the Divine suffrages doe lead the way Aurelius our brother an illustrious young man is already approved by our Lord and called by God c. And then Know ye therefore most beloved brethren that He was ordained by me and my Collegues that were present He saith He was wont to consult with the people that they were alwayes to be consulted with he saith not yea by his example he shewes the contrary for He with his Bishops had promoted Aurelius the peoples advise being not required Hee setteth down the cause the people is advised with to give testimony of life and manners but Aurelius had a sufficient testimoniall from his twofold Confession which Cyprian calls a Divine suffrage By the same right Hee declares to his Clergy and people by epistle that Numidicus was to be ascrib'd to the number of the Carthaginian Presbyters and that he had design'd the like honour for Celerinus That in Africa other Bishops also had right of Electing Presbyters the saying of Bishop Aurelius in an African Councill sheweth The Bishop may be one by whom through the Divine grace many Presbyters may be constituted And that the testimonies of the people were not alwaies desired is manifest in the third Carthaginian Councill the words of the Canon are That none be ordained Clerk unlesse he be approved by the testimony either of the Bishops or of the people Wherefore two wayes lead one to the Clergy Popular testimony or Episcopall examination Whence Jerom to Rusticus When you are come to perfect age and either the people or the Prelate of the City shall elect you into the Clergy And in another place Let Bishops hear this who have power to Constitute Presbyters through every City Yea the Laodicean Synod whose Canons were approved by a Councill O●cumenicall rejecteth popular Eclections Upon which place Balsamon notes that the most antient Custome of popular Elections was abrogated by that Canon for the incommodities thence arising as he also notes upon the xxvi of the Canons Apostolicall that Presbyters were of old chosen by suffrages but that custome was long since expired Now let us proceed to the Election of Bishops a thing of so much more moment than the former by how much more care of the Church was imposed on the Bishops than on the meer Presbyters No man denies them to have been chosen by the people that is by the Laity and the Clergy after the Apostles time but this to have been of right immutable no man can affirm For to passe by the examples of them that have been constituted Successors by the deceasing Bishops it is a thing of most easie proof that Bishops were very often chosen either by the Clergy of their City alone or by the Synod of their Comprovinciall Bb. For the right of the Clergy the place of St. Ferom is remarkable At Alexandria from Mark the Evangelest unto Heracles and Dionysius the Bishops the Presbyters alwayes named one to be Bishop chosen out of themselves and placed in a higher degree Naxianzen speaks ambiguously He would Elections were permitted either to the Clergy alone or chiefly to them for so lesse evill would befall the Churches yet withall he shewes this was not observ'd in his time but the suffrages of the richest and most potent men yea the Votes of the people too had the stroke in Elections But the Election made by the Comprovinciall Bishops is approved by the great Nicene Synod without any mention of the people Whereunto agrees the Antiochian adding this If any contradicted such Election the suffrages of the greater part of Bishops should carry it Yet I deny not in many places even in the time of these Synods the people also had their Votes but the custome was not universall It was free untill the Synod of Laodicea was confirmed by an Universall Councill the xii Canon whereof following the Nicene and Antiochian gives the right of Electing to the Comprovinciall Bishops the xiii expresly takes away all Sacerdotall Elections from the multitude Justininian also hath excluded the common people from the Election of Bishops and committed it namely to the Clergy and the prime men of the City By the prime men he means the Magistrates and Officers Among many named the designation of one he committed to the Metrapolitan yet so that if there were a scarcity of able men the Election of one by the Clergy and principall men might stand Notwithstanding this Constitution of Justinian which did not long outlive him soon after there was a return to Synodicall Elections which Balsamon relates were usuall in the East in his time also with this exception that the Metrapolitans were chosen by the Patriarchs the Patriarchs by the Emperours Wherefore we conclude it is neither proved out of the Scripture nor was it believ'd by the antient Church that the Election either of Presbyters or of Bishops did immutably belong unto the people Of this judgementa also they must needs be whosoever have transferred the Election to the Presbytery for were it of Divine and immutable right that the Multitude should Elect the election could not be transferred to the Presbytery more than to any others Neither were the Compromise of any value which we read was often made concerning Election if it be determined by Divine Precept that the common people must choose the Pastor for that sentence What a man doth by another bee seems to doe by himself pertains only to those actions whereof the next efficlent cause is undetermined by Law Certainly the very same thing that wee say was judg'd against Morellius at Geneva that is in that City wherein great honour great right belongs unto the people which Decree the most learned Beza defending That the whole multitude saith he was call'd together and gave their Vote was neither essentiall nor perpetuall In the same place he thinks it sufficient if the common people be allowed to bring in reasons why they are displeas'd at the Election which reasons afterward are lawfully to be examin'd Beza himself commits the Election to the Pastors and Magistrates of the City which is congruent enough to Justinian's Law but is not of right Divine and immutable for how can that be prov'd if Ordination and Confirmation be rightly distinguisht from Election And the antient Church was of another mind permitting to the Bishop the Election of Presbyters and of the Bishop to the Comprovinciall Bishops Wherefore the manner of Election is of the number of those things that are not specially determined by Law Divine but only under generall Rules which command all things to be done in the church for edification in the best order and without confusion But in all things of this nature those generall rules remaining safe wee have demonstrated afore Legislation belongs to the Highest Power Bullinger a man of a very sharp judgement is of the same mind who having alleged many examples of popular

is from the Highest Power that the Canon hath the force of a Law no marvell if the Highest Power upon just causes may recede from that Law either in the whole or in some particular case For Lawes are wont either to be abrogated or temper'd and limited by the Law-givers as afore is shewed Yea there is no need of abrogation or solution of the Law when as the Lawyers agree in this that by the generall words in the Law set down the right of the Highest Power is never conceiv'd to be excluded 'T is true the Examples of Elections made by Bishops prove it is not necessary that Elections be made by the Highest Power the Canons also shew the same Elections are rightly made by Bishops with consent of the Highest Power but neither of these is in question The Question is whether it be also lawfull for the Highest Power to make Election That it is lawfull we have the judgement of the best both among the Emperours and the Bishops In the first Synod of Constantinople Theodosius commanded the names of all that were proposed should be given to him in papers reserving to himself the choyce of one What can be more clear One among all the Bishops propos'd Nectarius the Emperour makes choise of him and persisteth in it against the will of many Bishops who seeing the Emperour would not be remov'd give place and yeild him that reverence which was due unto him in a matter not prohibited by Law Divine Who sees not this was done beside the Canons for according to the Canons the Emperour had no share in the Election but here the Emperour alone electeth that is designs the person The Bishops as also the Clergy and people approve of the Election But 't is one thing to elect another to approve of the Election The Bishops approve because it was their Office after Baptisme to impose hands upon Neitarius as yet a lay man and Catechumen And hert too we observe the Canon was not followed for according to the Canons a Catechumen nor Neophite could not be elected The Clergy also and the people doe approve because to them belong'd the Tryal which how far it differs from Election is shew'd above Many examples we might alleage of Elections not Cunonicall but Imperiall Why the Emperours themselves elected we deny not they had peculiar causes but this pertains not to the question of right but prudence Certainly the Emperours believ'd it to be lawfull for them before they consider'd whether or no it were expedient For of things unlawfull there ought to be no consultation To say the cause hereof was some Divine revelation or inspiration in such an age of the Church is a meer refuge of pertinacious ignorance to say the Domination of the Roman Bishops was the cause of Imperiall elections when as yet that Episcopacy was not turn'd into temporall Dominion is to be quite mistaken in the order of times Nor yet can wee doubt but the more Sanctimony abated in the Clergy and Obedience was slackned in the people the more just cause had the Highest Powers to vindicate Election to themselves In the West that Bishops were most often and for a long time elected by the most Christian Kings of France without any suftrage of the people or Clergy is written in all the French Histories as it were with Sun-beams What was said of the Domination of the Roman Bishops as if he had given occasion to Kings to draw to themselves the Elections besides that it is before answered cannot be applyed to the Bishops of France and to those times when the French Kings did not yet possesse Italy Yea on the contrary because the French Kings used this right in their own kingdome therefore also in Italy did Charls the great assume this to himself that hee might not with lesse power governe Italy than France and Germany For it is most truly observed by Godalstus and others the Decree made in Pope Adrians time pertains only to the Italian Bishops when in other parts the compleat right of Election was in Charls before In vaine also a recourse is had to the wealth of Bishop-pricks the Temporall Jurisdictions annexed to them for even in the times of Charls the Great and much more in the antient and purer times Bishopricks were but poor and slender as is noted by that most searching Antiquary Onuphrius And for Jurisdictions the Bishops in Charls his time had none annexed to their Bishopricks but this came into use at last after the avulsion of Germany from France when the Ottoes were Emperonrs in Germany And the Jurisdictions were so far from being the cause of Imperiall Elections that on the contrary therefore were Jurisdictions granted unto Bishops because the Emperours were most assured of their fidelity being chosen by themselves and thought the custody of Cities might therefore most safely bee committed to them as the same Onuphrius hath observed Some have been deceiv'd by the name of Investiture Because the word is used of Fees especially therefore have they thought all that is sayd of investitures of Bishops to belong to territories and Lands which is a grosse ●rrour for to vest and to invest are old words of German Originall that signify the collation of any right whatsoever and are therefore found in old Authors applyed to all Offices both Civill and Ecclesiasticall It appears by a passage in the life of Romanus Bishop of Rouen about the year 623. that Investiture by the staffe was almost 300. years before Territories were given to Bishops which began under Otto the first Emperour of that name And truly if Investiture had been with respect to Civill Jurisdiction it would have been by the Scepter Sword or Banner as the manner of those times was not by a ring and staffe Wherefore although the most Christian Kings did not challenge to themselves imposition of hands which maketh Presbyters yet these two things they esteemed as their right to joyn this man unto this Church which is signified by the Ring and to conferre upon him Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall that is judgement concerning Sacred affairs with a certaine publike power which is signified by the staffe For to the King himself also when he was first consecrated together with the Scepter was wont to be given a staffe And by this saith Aimonius the defence of the Churches that is a power to maintaine Religion was deliver'd to him from God for the Offices corresponded to the signs as also a Canon was vested by a Book Many ages after when piety had begotten opulency and the daughter laid a snare for the mother the Emperours almost detruded from their most antient right began to shew the indignity of the thing by this argument among the rest because the Bishops by their munificence possessed Lands and territories But never did the Election of them depend upon this alone being more antient than the same munificence Moreover the accessory cannot have so much force as to draw

Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Doctors not only distinct in Functions but by certaine degrees also For God hath given in the Church first Apostles in the second place Prophets in the third Do ors The very Deaconry by the Apostles instituted is sufficient to prove that Christ had not commanded an equality of Church-men Therefore we set down this first as a thing of undoubted verity Wherein we have Lanchius Chemnitius Hemingius Calvin Melanchthon Bucer all consenting with us yea and Beza too so far as to say That some one chosen by the judgement of the other Presbyters should be and remaine President of the Presbytery cannot nor ought not to be reprehended Secondly we determine That the Episcopacy we speak of hath been received by the Universall Church This appears out of the Universall Councils whose Authority even now among pious men is very Sacred It appears also by comparing Synods either Nationall or Provinciall whereof there is hardly one to be found but it carries in the forehead manifest signs of Episcopall eminence All the Fathers none excepted testify the same Among whom the least friend to Episcopacy is Jerom being himself not a Bishop but a Presbyter His testimony therefore alone sufficeth It was decreed all the world over that one chosen from among the Presbyters should bee set over the rest to whom all the care of the Church should pertaine Yea so universall was this Custome that it was observed oven among the Hereticks which went our of the Catholick Church All these things saith the Author of the Homilies upon Matthew which are proper to Christ in verity have Hereticks also in their Schism Churches Scriptures Bishops and other orders of the Clergy Baptisme Eucharist and all things else Certainly this errour of Aerius was condemned of all the Church that he said A Presbyter ought to be discerned from a Bishop by no difference Jerom himself to him who had written There is no difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter answers 'T is spoken as ignorantly as one would wish you have as the Proverbe is made shipwrack in the Haven Lastly Zanchius also acknowledgeth the consent of the whole Church in this point Our third determination is That Episcopacy had its beginning in the Apostolicall times Witnesse the Catalogues of Bishops in Irenaeus Eusebius Socrates Theodoret and others all which begin from the Apostles age now to derogate faith in an Historicall matter from so great Authors and so consenting together it cannot but be the marke of an irreverent and pertinacious mind It is all one as if you should deny the truth of that which all the Roman Histories deliver That the Consulship began from the expulsion of the Tarquins But let us againe heare Jerom At Alexandria saith he from Mark the Evangelist the Presbyters alwaies elected one from among themselves placed him in a higher degree and call'd him Bishop Marke deceased in the 8. of Nero to whom John the Apostle being yet alive succeeded Anianus to Anianus Abilius to Abilius Cerdo The same Apostle surviving after the death of James Simcon had the Bishoprick of Jerusalem after the death of Peter and Paul Linus Anacletus Clemens Held that of Rome Evodius and Ignatius that of Antioch Surely this Antiquity is not to bee contemn'd whereunto Ignatius himself the coetanean of the Apostles and his next followers Justin Martyr and Irenaeus yield most apparent testimonies which need not bee transcribed We will end this with Cyprian Now saith he through all Provinces and through every City are appointed Bishops Our fourth is this This Episcopacy is approv'd by Divine Law or as Bucer speaks it seemed good unto the Holy Ghost that One among the Presbyters should be charged with a singular care The Divine Apocalyps affords an irrefragable argument to this assertion for Christ himself commands to write unto the seven Angels of the Asian Churches Who by Angels Understand the Churches themselves they manifestly contradict the Holy Scriptures For the Candlesticks are the Churches saith Christ and the stars are the Angels of the seven Churches 'T is a wonder how farre men are transported by the spirit of Contradiction when they dare confound things so openly distinguisht by the Holy Spirit We deny not but every Pastor in a generall signification may be capable of this title of Angel but here 't is manifestly written to One in every Church Was there but one Pastor in every City No sure for even from the time of Paul at Ephesus were many Presbyters ordained to feed the Church of God Why then is the Letter sent to One in every Church if no One had a peculiar and eminent Function Under the name of Angel saith Austin is commended the Governour of the Church The Angels are the Presidents of the Church saith Jerom. If any had rather hear the modern Writers let Bullinger speak The heavenly Epistle is destin'd to the Angell of the Church of Smyrna that is the Pastor Now Histories doe witnesse that Angel or Pastor of the Church of Smyrna Polycarpus was ordained Bishop of the Apostles namely by St John and lived in the Ministery of this Church 86. years What Bullinger relates of Polycarpus is confirmed by Irenaus Tertullian and other Antients who say We have the Churches nourished by John for though Marcion reject his Apocalyps yet the Order of Bishops recounted to its Originall will stand upon John the Author Let Marorat also speak John began with the Church of Ephesus for the celebrity of the place nor doth he addresse himself unto the people but the Prince of the Clergy that is the Bishop Haply Beza's Authority or Rainolds will be more accepted See therefore what favour the Truth found with them Beza To the Angel that is to the President who was in the first place to be admonisht of these things and by Him his other Colleagues and all the Church Rainold In the Church of Ephesus although there were many Presbyters and Pastors for the administration thereof yet One was over those many whom our Saviour calls the Angel of the Church and writes the things to him which others from him might learn Certainly if it be well said by Dio Prusoeus that Kings are the Genii of their Kingdomes and in Holy Scripture Kings are stiled by the name of Angels who sees not that this name is also by an excellent right agreeable to the Prince of Presbyters Christ therefore writing to those Bishops as men Eminent in the Cergy without all question hath approved this eminence of Episcopacy To let passe the Annotations after the second Epistle to Timothy and that to Titus which are found in the most antient Greek Copies Concerning Timothy hear the writer supposed Ambrose whose words are these Timothy created Presbyter by himself the Apostle called Bishop because the prime Presbyters were so entitled of whom One receding the next succeeded but because the following Presbyters began to be found unworthy to hold