Princes nor private persons though learned and honest but Ecclesiasticall Prelates in our disputations of the Councels it shall bee demonstrated that Councels generall and particular may judge of Controversies in religion but that judgement of theirs is then of force and validity when the Pope shall confirme it and therfore that the last judgement of all is the Popes to which all good Catholikes owe such absolute obedience that if the Pope should erre by commanding vices and prohibiting vertues the Church is bound to beleeve that vices are good and vertues bad unlesse she wil sinne against Conscience What sinne against Conscience in not sinning and not sinne against Conscience in committing sinnes knowne by the light of nature if the Man of sin command the one and forbid the other Woe bee to them saith the Prophet that call evill good and good evill put darknesse for light and light for darknesse bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Esay 5.20 If Bellarmines divinity be currant Pope Pius the fourth needed not to have coyned twelve new Articles of faith affixt to the Canons of the Councell of Trent it had beene sufficient to have added this one I beleeve in the Pope his soveraigne infallibility for this is prora and puppis the Alpha and Omega the formalis ratio and demonstratio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Papists beliefe The Popes power saith Skulkenius is the hinge and foundation and to speake in a word the summe of Christian faith A short summe and soone cast up What then serves Fathers Councels Church-Traditions and Scripture it selfe for with them for little better than Ciphers which being added to the Popes authority in their Arithmetike makes something but without it nothing To begin with Scriptures they beleeve them to bee divine but not because the Scripture saith that all Scripture is given by divine inspiration For so saith Bellarmine wee read every where in the Alcoran of Mahomet that the Alcoran was sent from God yet we beleeve it not why then doe they beleeve them to bee the word of God hee answers readily propter traditionem Ecclesiae for the Churches tradition Silvester Pierius outvies the Cardinall affirming that the holy Scripture taketh force and authority from the Romane Church and Pope Vpon which prâ—mise of Pierius Gretzer inferres this peremptory conclusion We doe receive and reverence that alone for the word of God which the Pope in Peters Chaire doth determine to be so Strange divinity to beleeve that the Scriptures receive their authority from the Church that is that God receives his authority from man May we not justly upbraid the present Romanists as Tertulian doth the ancient heathen apud vos de humano arbitratu divinitas pensitatur nisi homini Deus placuerit Deus non erit Homo jam Deo propitius esse debebit With you Deity is estimated by mans valuation unlesse God please man he shall not be God now man must bee propitious to God for if the Pope be not propitious to the Scripture to allow it for Gods word it shall not passe for such in Rome As for the Fathers they deale with their writings as Faustus Manicheus did with the writings of the Apostles in which hee takes it for a good proofe that such passages are the Apostles true writings because they made for him others were spurious because they made against him Fathers saith Dureus are not to bee accounted Fathers when they teach or write any thing of their owne which they have not received from the Church meaning the Romane and Gretzer backs this assertion with a reason drawn from the formall definition of a Father for saith he he is a father of the Church who feeds and nourisheth the Church with wholesome doctrine who being set over the Lords houshold gives them their measure of Corne in due season now if in stead of wholesome food and good Corne hee give them Cockle and Tares he becomes no father but a stepfather no Doctor but a seducer To instance in some particular Eusebius Caesariensis when hee seemes to favour Popery hee is highly extolled by Lindane Senensis and Possevine hee is then a most famous writer of the Church most learned worthy to bee Bishop not of one City onely but of the whole world but when the same Eusebius lookes awry upon Rome then hee is branded by Canus Costerus and Baronius for a stickler for Arrius an Arrian heretike a ringleader of the Arrian faction whose memory is accursed in the second Synod of Nice Tertullian likewise is guilded by Lindanus and Rehing with the glorious titles of a very noble author the chiefe of all the Latine Fathers the great light of Africa a most ancient Writer and Doctour most learned most skilfull most acute where hee hath some passages which may bee detorted to give countenance to some Romish superstitions But elsewhere when in expresse words he oppugneth some doctrines defined now for Articles of faith in the Church of Rome he is as much besmeared with foule imputations by Azorius Maldonate and Bellarmine An hereticall author an Arch-heretike an enemy to the Catholike and like to the Calvinists a maÌ„ whose authority is not much to be set by because he was no man of the Church and as Euseb. Tertull. so also Origen hath had contrary testimonials from the Church of Rome where he pleaseth them hee is a famous light of the Church of Alexandria whom S. Hier. cals another M â— of the Churches after the Apostles a witnesse beyond all exception But when he fits not their humours then he is a Schismatike a father of the Arrians and Eunomians a bold and rash man an obstinate lover of his owne errours In Councels the case is yet clearer for the Cardinall sticks not in most plaine termes to hang all them upon the Popes sleeve The whole strength authority saith he of lawfull Councels is from the Pope their judgment then begins to be of force after the Pope shall ratifie them And what Councels will he ratifie you may bee sure not the Councell in Trulio for that taxeth the Romane Church by name for inforcing single life upon the Clergy not the Councell at Constantinople under Constantine Pogonate for that accurseth Honorius the Pope for an heretike not the Councell held at Frankfort in the time of Pope Adrian for that condemneth their Image-worship not the Synod of Pisa for in that Gregory and Benedict Popes were deposed not the Synod of Basil wherein Eugenius was unpoped nor the Councell of Constance for in it a generall Councel is set above the Pope and three Popes were cashiered by their Authority I except the later Sessions of the same condemned Councell which are Gospell with them because they Anathematize the Wicliffists and Hussites But the second Synod of
their supplication with that holy Bishop 12. Saint Cyrill did the like as Proclus herein hee seeing the connivence and dispensation of the Councell not to take the intended effect but that the Nestorians proceeded rather from worse to worse boasting of Theodorus writings that they were consonant to the ancient Fathers and so farre applauding him that in some Churches they would cry out Crescat fides Theodori sic credimus sicut Theodorus let the faith of Theodorus increase we beleeve as he did yea even stoning some in the Church who spake against them Cyrill seeing all this could forbeare no longer Ego ista non sustinui sed fiducialiter dixi I could not hold my selfe to heare those things but said with great boldnesse and confidence that Theodorus was a blasphemous speaker a blasphemous writer that he was an heretike mentiuntur contra sanctos patres I said that they belyed the holy Fathers who affirmed Theodorus writings to be consonant to theirs nec cessavi increpās ea quae scripserunt nec cessabo nor have I ceased nor will I cease to reprove those who write thus and which demonstrates yet further the zeale of that holy Bishop he writ the same things concerning Theodorus to the Emperor Theodosius exhorting him to keepe his soule unspoted from his impieties Thus Cyrill by name condemning both the person and writings of Theodorus 13. The religious Emperors Theodosius Valentinian moved partly by the grave admonitions of Cyrill and specially by that disturbance which the Nestorians then made by their defending and magnifying Theodorus besides the former against Nestorius published two other Imperiall Edicts against Theodorus declaring him by name to have beene every way as blasphemous an heretike as Nestorius and that the defenders of him or his writings should be lyable to the same punishments as the defenders of Nestorius Those Edicts being so pregnant to demonstrate the errour of Vigilius I have thought it needfull to expresse some parts or clauses of them 14. We againe declare that the doctrine impiorum pestiferorum of those impious and pestiferous persons is abominable unto us similiter autem omnes and so are all who follow their error It is just that they all have one name and bee all clothed with confusion lest while they be called Christians they seeme to be honoured by that title Wherefore we by this our Law doe inact that whosoever in any part of the world be found consenting to the most wicked purpose of Nestorius and Theodorus that from hence forward they shall bee called Symonians as Constantine decreed that the followers of Arius should be called Porphirians Further let none presume either to have or keepe or write their sacrilegious bookes especially not those of Theodorus and Nestorius but all their bookes shall bee diligently sought and being found shall be publikely burned Neque de caetero inveniatur praedictorum hominum memoria neither let there be found any memorie of the foresaid persons Let none receive such as love that sect or love their teachers either in any city field suburbs let them not assemble in any place either openly or privily And if any shall doe contrary to this our sanction let him be cast into perpetuall banishment and let all his goods be confiscate And let your excellency they sent this to their Lieutenant publish this our Law through the whole world in every Province and in every city Thus did the Emperours inact and which is specially also to be remembred they inacted all this corroborantes ea que piè decreta sunt Ephesi strengthning thereby that which was decreed at Ephesus 15. Whence two things may be observed the one that Theodorus was not onely accounted and by name condemned for an heretike as by other catholiks so by the Emperors also but that this particular condemning was consonant to the decree of the Ephesine Synode this being nothing else but an explanation of that which they in generall termes had set down and a corroboration of the same The other that seeing this Imperiall decree hath stood ever since the inacting thereof in force and unrepealed by vertue of it had it beene or were it as yet I say not rigorously but duly and justly put in execution not any one defender of the three Chapters no not Pope Vigilius himselfe nor any who defends his Apostolicall constitution and those are all the members of the present Romane church not one of them shold either have beene heretofore or be now tolerated in any city suburbs towne village or field but besides the ecclesiasticall censures and anathemaes denounced against thē by the Councell and catholike church they should endure if no sharper edge of the civill sword yet perpetuall banishment out of all Christian Common-wealths with losse and confiscation of all their goods 16. After this Imperiall Law was once published the name and credit of Theodorus whose memory the Emperors had condemned and forbidden grew into a generall contempt and hatred whereof the church of Mopsvestia where hee had beene Bishop gave a memorable example They for a time esteeemed of Theodorus as a catholike Bishop and for that cause kept his name in their dipticks or Ecclesiasticall tables reciting him among the other Orthodox Bishops of that city in their Eucharisticall commemoration But now seeing him detected and condemned both by catholike Bishops by Councells and by the Imperiall Edict for an heretike they expunged and blotted out the name of Theodorus and in his roome inserted in their dipticks the name of Cyrill who though hee was not Bishop in that See yet had by his pietie and zeale manifested and maintained the faith brought both the heresie person of Theodorus into a just detestation and all this is evident by the Acts of that Synode held at Mopsvestia about this very matter of wiping out of the name of Theodorus 17. We are now come to the time of the Councell of Chalcedon for the expunging of Theodorus name and inserting of Cyrills followed as it seemes shortly after the death of Cyrill and he dyed about seven yeares before the Councell of Chalcedon That by it Theodorus was also condemned their approving the Councell of Ephesus and the Synodall Epistles of Cyrill in both which and in the later by name Theodorus is condemned doth manifest and besides this the Emperour Iustinian expresly saith of it that the impious Creed of Theodorus being recited in that Councell both it cum expositore ejus with the Author and expounder of it and that was Theodorus were condemned in the Councell of Chalcedon 18. When many yeares after that holy Councell some Nestorians began againe contrary to the Edict of Theodosius and Valentinian to revive the dead and condemned memory of Theodorus Sergius Bishop of Cyrus making mention and commemorating him in the Collect among catholikes the truth of this matter being examined and found that same
so both his twelve Chapters and the Ephesine decree and all the like Cyrill answered with great confidence rem eos postulare quae fieri plane non posset that they required a matter utterly impossible because what hee had written touching that matter was rightly written and in defence of the true faith and therefore that he could not either condemne or deny what he had written 31. When it succeeded not this first way they next attempted to effect the union by Paulus Bishop of Emisa whom they sent to Alexandria to negotiate for them both by words and by a second letter which they sent by him And although they were not in this second so violent as in the former of Acatius yet they writ some things therein also not fitting nor allowable for they reproved the holy Ephesine Councell as if things had been spoken and done therein amisse What did Cyrill answer Hujusmodi epistolas equidem non admisi truly I did not admit or allow of this their second Epistle neither seeing therein they did adde new contumelies who should have asked pardon for the old But where as Paulus did very earnestly excuse the matter affirming and that upon his oath also that their purpose was not to exasperate Cyrill but to accord with him delectionis gratia excusationem admisi I in charity was content to admit of this excuse And Paulus being very desirous to effect the union consented to anathematize Nestorius and his heresies to consent also to the deposing of Nestorius and the electing of Maximianus in his place which when Paulus had performed and subscribed suo chyrographo with his owne hand-writing which was all that either the Emperor or Cyrill required ad synaxim recepi I received him to the communion of the Church But when Paulus would further have perswaded Cyrill that seeing he was sent in the name of the rest and had subscribed this pro omnibus tanquam ex communi omnium orientalium persona for them all and as it were in the person of them all and therefore laboured with Cyrill that this his subscription might satisfie for the others also and that he would require no more of them but be content with their letters which by him they had sent nulla ratione id fieri passus sum saith Cyrill I could by no meanes indure that I told Paulus also that his subscription in condemning Nestorius and his heresies Ipsi soli sufficere could satisfie but only for himselfe but as for the rest Iohn and they must personally and for themselves subscribe or else they could not bee received into communion whereupon Cyrill writ an orthodoxall profession to that same effect whereunto Paulus had subscribed and sent it unto Iohn requiring his personall subscription to it This was the summe of all that was done by Paulus at his first comming 32. Paulus returning to Antioch brought this resolute answer of Cyrill to Iohn and the Bishops of his Synod They seeing no other meanes to make an union but onely by consenting to Cyrill and seeing that Paulus whom they put in trust as their agent had both himselfe consented and further undertaken that Iohn and they should likewise consent unto the same which hee had done did now at length yeeld to all the demands of Cyrill and for an assurance of their sincerity therein they writ a Synodall and Encyclicall Epistle unto Cyrill which they likewise sent unto Pope Sixtus to Maximianus and other principall Bishops wherein they first set downe a very sound true and orthodoxall confession of their faith and then testifie their willing assent and subscription to the deposing of Nestorius and the condemning of his heresies 33. This Synodall letter they sent to Cyrill by Paulus Bishop of Emisa that he might make a finall peace and union At whose comming to Alexandria this second time and bringing with him this undoubted testimony of the orthodoxie of Iohn and the chiefe of the Easterne Bishops and that they had now consented to all which either the Emperour or Cyrill required of them the union was fully concluded on every part and peace made in the Church In token whereof Paulus preached at Alexandria in the month of December making there before Cyrill and the whole City so orthodoxall a profession of the faith that the people for joy interrupting him foure or five times exclamed Bene venisti Orthodoxe O Orthodox Paul thou art welcome to us Cyrill is orthodoxall Paulus is orthodoxall and Cyrill for his part writ that learned Epistle in congratulation unto Iohn and the rest which beginneth Let the Heavens rejoyce and let the earth be glad publishing it as an hymne of joy and thanksgiving for the union now effected in the Church singing Glory unto God and peace among men 34. This is the true narration of the whole proceedings betwixt Cyrill and the Easterne Bishops touching this matter of the union as they who diligently peruse the Epistles of Cyril to Acatius Bishop of Melitene to Dynatus and Iohn and compare therewith the Epistle of Iohn and the Synod of Antioch sent to Cyrill and Xistus will clearly perceive whence three things may be observed The first is the most shamelesse dealings of the Nestorians who slandered Cyrill to have at the time of the union consented in all points unto them and to their heresie and to have condemned his former doctrine and the Ephesine Councell wheras the quite contrary was true He was most inflexible and constant in maintaining the true faith more inexorable than Aeacus or rather as Moses would not consent to Pharoah no not in the least hoofe so would not Cyrill yeeld one heire-bredth unto them but brought them to subscribe wholly and in every point to that which he desired 35. The second is the occasion which the Nestorians tooke for their pretended calumnie They knew that Iohn and the Easterne Bishops had written to Cyrill willing him to condemne his owne Chapters yea that they had writ so resolutely that unlesse Cyrill did so they would not consent unto any peace or union Thus much was true as by the letter of Acatius Bishop of Berea to Cyrill is evident Now they saw that Cyrill afterwards and in that very yeare consented with Iohn and made union with him whereupon they boasted that Cyrill did it upon the condition required by Iohn at the first which was the condemning of his former doctrine wilfully and maliciously concealing both how Cyrill utterly denyed to yeeld unto them or to that condition required by them and how at the length Iohn and so many of them as were received into communion consented wholly unto him and subscribed to the Catholike faith All this they quite suppresse and to colour the matter they forged a letter under the name of Cyrill as consenting to condemne his owne doctrine which no doubt was the same letter that Ibas in his Epistle inclosed and
compassionate and tender heart of Vigilius Not onely Iustinian and the fift generall Councell but Pelagius Gregory and other succeeding Popes and Councels even the whole Catholike Church ever since the time of Vigilius they all by approving the decree of the fift Synod doe not onely taxe the name of Theodoret but accurse anathematize the writings of Theodoret and that even under his name Now such a loving and tender affection doth the Pope carry towards the hereticall writings of Theodoret that rather than they may be condemned or his name taxed by the condemning of them Iustinian Pelagius Gregory and other his successors the fift the sixt and other generall Councels even the whole Catholike Church they all must be and are de facto here declared and by the Popes cathedrall sentence decreed and defined not onely to bee hereticall as the former reason imported but injurious persons backbiters slanderers they all must be condemned and for ever disgraced rather then Theodorets name must bee taxed or his hereticall writings condemned or disgraced 26. But say indeed Is it an injurie a slander a disgrace to one that his errors should either by himselfe or by the Church be condemned How injurious was that holy Bishop Saint Augustine to himselfe in writing so many retractations and corrections of what he saw amisse And what himselfe did hee would not onely willingly but gladly have permitted the holy Church to have done Nor may we think this mind to have been onely in Austen Modestie and humilitie are the individuall concomitants of true knowledge and learning and the more learned any man is the more judicious is he in espying the more ingenuous in acknowledging the more lowly and humble in condemning his owne errors As it is but winde and no solid substance which puffes up a bladder so is it never any sound or solid learning but meere ventositie emptinesse of knowledge which makes the minde to swell to beare it selfe aloft and either not see that truth into which his high and windie conceit will not suffer him to looke downe and dive or seeing it not embrace the same though it were with a condemning yea with a detestation of his owne error It must never be a shame or disgrace to any man to recall and condemne his errors till he be ashamed of being a man that is subject to errors Saint Augustine more sharply saith That its a token not onely of a foolish and proud selfe-love but of a most malignant minde rather to wish others to bee poysoned with his heresies then either himselfe to recall or permit others specially the Church of God to condemne his heresies It was no injurie no slander nor disgrace to Theodoret that his hereticall writings were by the Church condemned but it had beene a fault unexcusable and an eternall disgrace to the Church if shee had suffered such hereticall writings to passe uncondemned 27. Oh but Theodoret was probatissimusvir a man most approved by the Councell of Chalcedon saith Vigilius is it not an injury to condemne the writings of a man most approved No verely the more approved the more eminent learned and orthodoxall any man is the more carefull and ready both himselfe and the Church must be to condemne his former hereticall writings When heresie commeth in his owne deformed habit it doth but little or no hurt at all who will not detest it when he reades it in the writings of Arius Nestorius Eutiches or such like condemned heretikes the odiousnesse of their names breeds a dislike almost of a truth in their mouthes but certainly of an errour But when Satan assumes the forme of an Angell of light when heresie comes palliated yea countenanced with the name of a Catholike a learned an holy a renowned and approved Bishop then and then specially is there danger of infection The reverence the love the honour wee beare to such a person causeth us unawares to swallow the poyson which hee reacheth unto us before we take leasure to examine or once make doubt of his doctrine 28. It was truely said by Vincentius Lirinensis The errour of the Master is the tryall of the Scholler tanto major tentatio quanto ipse doctior qui erraret and the more learned the teacher is the greater still is the temptation which beside other he shewes by the example of Origen he was in his age a mirrour of gravity integrity continency zeale piety of learning of all sorts both divine and humane of so happy a memory that he had the Bible without booke of such admirable eloquence that not words but hony seemed to drop from his lips of so indefatigable industry that he was called Adamantius and was said by some to have written six thousand bookes by Hierome one thousand besides innumerable commentaries of such high esteeme and authority that Christians honoured him as a Prophet Philosophers as a Master they flocked from the utmost parts of the world to heare his wisedome as if a second Salomon had beene sent from heaven yea most would say malle se cum Origene errare quam cum alijs vera sentire that they had rather erre with Origen then thinke aright with others When such a man lapseth into heresie if his writings may scape without censure if it shall be judged a contumelie an injurie or slander to condemne his bookes for the honour which was given to his person one such man as Origen were able to draw almost the third part of the starres of heaven after him 29. And if any beleeve the Epistles going under his name Theodoret was in divers respects not much inferiour to Origen His birth noble his parents being without hope of Children vowed him before his conception like another Samuel unto God And accordingly even from his Cradle consecrated him to Gods service Violently drawne to the dignity of a Bishop the Citie of Cyrus in Syria where was his episcopall See he nobilitated being before but obscure though worthy of eternall memorie as being one monument of the deliverance of Gods people by the hand of Cyrus out of the Babylonish captivitie So upright blamelesse and voide of covetousnesse that having beene five and twenty yeares Bishop of that place in all that time ne obolum mihi in tribunali ablatum aliquis conquestus est none could say that hee had exacted or received for causes of judgement so much as one halfe pennie I tooke no mans goods no mans garments nay which is a memorable token of integritie none of mine house saith he hath taken the worth of an egge or a morsell of bread So plentifull in workes of charitie That he distributed his inheritance among the poore repaired Churches builded bridges drained Rivers to townes where was want of water and such like in so much saith he that in all this time I have provided nothing for my selfe not any land not any house no
I cannot but observe seeing those Nicene Fathers professe that writing against Image-worship going under the name of Epiphanius to be in such sort the book of Epiphanius as this Epistle going under the name of Ibas is the Epistle of Ibas and seeing we have now demonstrated this Epistle to be truly and indeed the Epistle of Ibas it followeth even by their owne reason and comparison that the book also against Image-worship cited by the Councell at Constantinople in the name of Epiphanius is in truth and in very deed the true writing of Bishop Epiphanius And yet further because those Nicene Fathers acknowledge Epiphanius for a Catholike Doctor of the Church one who held the ancient tradition of the Church and consented to the Catholikes in and before his time it hence againe followeth that the doctrine of condemning Image-worship which in that booke of Epiphanius is delivered was by the generall Councell at Constantinople some thirty yeares before this Nicene Assembly decreed that it I say is ancient Catholike consonant to the ancient tradition and the doctrine of the ancient and catholike Fathers of the Church even from the Apostles time And this is all which Baronius hath gained by his alleaging those publike acts of the Nicene Fathers to prove this not to be the Epistle of Ibas And let this suffice to be spoken of the personall untruths of Vigilius and Baronius touching this Epistle of Ibas which are but a praeludium to their doctrinall errors and heresies wherof in the next place we are to entreat CHAP. XI That Vigilius and Baronius in their former reason for defence of the Epistle of Ibas drawne from the union with Cyrill mentioned in the latter part of that Epistle doe defend all the heresies of the Nestorians 1. WEE come now from personall matters to that which is the Capital point and maine heresie contained in the defence of this Chapter wherein Vigilius and Baronius have so behaved themselves that those former errours though they be too shamefull are but a very sport and play to that hereticall frenzie which here they doe expresse For now you shall behold the Pope and his Cardinall in their lively colours fighting under the banner of Nestorius and using the most cunning stratagems that were ever devised to cloake their hereticall doctrine and gaine credit to that condemned heresie Those sleights are principally two The former is gathered out of the latter part of the Epistle of Ibas where mention is made of the union betwixt Cyrill and Iohn which although I touched before yet because it is a matter of greater obscuritie and containeth a most notable fraud of Vigilius and Baronius I purposely reserved the full handling of it unto this place where without interruption of other matters I might have scope enough to explaine the depth of this mysterie 2. In the time of the Ephesine Councell there was as all know an exceeding breach betwixt Cyrill with other Catholike Bishops who condemned Nestorius and Iohn Bishop of Antioch with divers other Eastern Bishops who tooke part with Nestorius against the holy Councell And the division was so great that at the selfe-same time in one the selfe-same citie of Ephesus they held two severall Councels and set up altare contra altare Councell against Councell Patriarcke against Patriarcke Bishops against Bishops and Synodall sentence against Synodall sentence But betwixt those two Councels there was as much difference as is betwixt light and darkenesse betwixt truth and heresie betwixt the Church of God and the Synagogue of Satan The one consisted of holy orthodoxall and Catholike Bishops whose President was Cyrill the other of hereticall factious and divers deposed Bishops whose President was Iohn The former condēned Nestorius his blasphemous doctrine whereby hee denied Christ to be God the latter defended Nestorius and all his impious doctrines The former was held in a Church even in the Church of the Blessed Virgin whose Sonne they professed to bee truly God the latter in an Inne or Taverne a fit place for them who denied Christ to be God The former proceeded in all respects orderly and Synodally as was fit and requisite that they should the latter did all things tumultuously presumptuously and against the Canons of the Church supporting themselves onely by lies calumnies and slanderous reports In a word the former was truly an holy a generall an Oecumenicall Councell wherein was the consent of the whole Catholike Church the latter was nothing else but an hereticall schismaticall and rebellious faction or conspiracie of some thirtie or fortie persons unworthy the name of Bishops insolently opposing themselves to the holy Councel yea to the whole Catholike Church in which number and faction besides others who lesse concerne our purpose were these Iohn Bishop of Antioch the ring-leader of the rest Paulus Bishop of Emisa Theodoret of whom wee before entreated and Ibas not then but some three or foure yeares after Bishop of Edessa whom to have beene present at that time as a Bishop though his name bee not expressed in their subscription both Glicas in his Annales and the Councell at Chalcedon and Ibas his owne words therein doe make manifest 3. Now though there was so great odds betwixt the holy Councell and this factious conventicle yet were they as is the custome of all heretickes and schismatickes most insolent in all their actions As the holy Councell deposed Nestorius for an hereticke so the Conventicle to cry quittance with them deposed Cyrill for an Arch-hereticke also condemning his twelve Chapters as hereticall which the holy Councell had approved as orthodoxall As the holy Councell excommunicated and anathematized Iohn Paulus Theodoret Ibas and all the rest of their factious adherents and defenders of Nestorius and his heresie So did the Conventicle also excommunicate and anathematize Cyrill and all that tooke part with him and defended his twelve Chapters and so among these even Pope Celestine and the whole Catholike Church As the holy Councell truly and justly called themselves the sacred and oecumenicall Councell and tearmed Iohn with his adherents a faction and hereticall Conventicle of Nestorians so did the Conventicle arrogate unto themselves the glorious name of the holy Ephesine Councell and slandered them which held with Cyrill to bee a Conventicle an unlawfull and disorderly assembly tearming them Arians Apollinarians and from Cyrill Cyrillians As the holy Councell constantly refused to communicate with Iohn or any of his faction untill they did cōsent to the deposing of Nestorius and anathematizing his heresie so the conventicle most peevishly and pertinaciously not onely refused the communion with Cyrill and other Catholikes but bound themselves by many solemne oathes and that even in the presence of the Emperor that they would never communicate with the Cyrillians unlesse they would condemne the twelve chapters of Cyrill adding that they
would rather dye then admit or consent unto any one of those twelve chapters Such an unhappie and lamentable breach Iohn and the Eastern Bishops made in the Church at the time of that Ephesine Councell 4. The religious Emperours Theodosius and Valentinian whose imperiall authority was the onely meanes to end all these strifes had they beene personally present in the Synod to see all these disorders they would no doubt either have prevented this breach or after it had hapned have healed and made up the same But they residing then at Constantinople were extreamely at used by the vile dealings of the Nestorians for so much had these Nestorians prevailed both at the Court and in the Citie of Constantinople where Nestorius had beene Bishop that though the holy Councell sent letters after letters to certifie the truth of all matters to the Emperor yet either were their messengers stopt or their letters by the malicious vigilancie of the Nestorians intercepted so that none no not any small notice of them came to the Emperors whereas on the other part the frequent letters of the conventicle fraught with lies slanders had every day accesse yea applause in the Citie in the Court and before the Emperors And which was the worst of all Count Candidianus whom the Emperours made their owne deputie and president of the Councell to see all good and Synodall orders observed therein hee failed of that trust committed unto him and being most partiall towards Nestorius and his heresie by his letters also he seconded and soothed all the lies which the conventicle had writ unto the Emperors By which meanes it came to passe that the Emperors knowing nothing of that division amongst the Bishops how beside the holy Councell there was a factious and schismaticall conventicle held in the citie thought all that was done as well against Cyrill and Memnon in deposing them as against Nestorius in deposing him that all this had beene in the act judgement and sentence of one and the same Councell upon which subreption and misinformation the Emperors confirmed at the first the condemnation of them all three But at length a letter being brought from the holy Synod to Constantinople by one who to avoid suspition put on the habit of a begger and carried the letter in the trunke of his hollow staffe which for that purpose he had provided as soone as the report of these strange disorders came to the Emperors eares they sent for and commanded certaine Bishops of either side personally to come before them to Constantinople that they might bee fully informed of the truth in all the proceedings and the truth after diligent examination being found the Emperors by their Imperiall authoritie adnulled all the Acts of the conventicle restored Cyrill and Memnon approved the judgement of the holy Councell against Nestorius adding banishment also from Constantinople to his deposition But the Synodall sentence of deposition against Iohn and the other Bishops of his faction that they staied and suspended for a while partly to prevent a greater schisme which Iohn was like to procure but specially in hope that Iohn and the other Easterne Bishops might in time be reduced and brought to unitie with Cyrill and the catholike Church which in that height of their heat and stomacke could not have beene expected And thus was the Councell at Ephesus dissolved a farre greater rent by this means being left at the end then had beene at the beginning thereof and so that maladie for which it was called not cured but encreased 5. But the religious Emperor Theodosius could not bee at quiet while the Church was thus disturbed but the very next yeare after the Ephesine Councell was ended when time and better advise had now cooled the former heat of the Easterne Bishops hee began to effect that union which before he had entended and he so earnestly laboured therein that himselfe professed I am certainely and firmely resolved not to desist in working this reconcilement untill God shall vouchsafe to restore unitie and peace to the Church To which purpose hee writ a very religious and effectuall Epistle to Iohn B. of Antioch by many reasons perswading and by his imperiall authoritie commanding him and with him the rest of the faction to subscribe to the deposition of Nestorius the anathematizing of his heresie and so to embrace the holy communion with Cyrill and the catholike Church which perswasions of the Emperor tooke indeed the intended effect for after some tergiversation for a while both Iohn and most of the Easterne Bishops before the end of that yeare relented and in a Synod held at Antioch subscribed as the Emperor perswaded them both to the deposing of Nestorius and to a truly orthodoxall profession sent unto them by Cyrill wherein they approved the holy Ephesine Councell and condemned all the heresies of Nestorius and upon this their consenting to Cyrill and the orthodoxall faith were received into the peace of the Church and so union and concord was fullie concluded betwixt Cyrill with the other orthodoxall Bishops Iohn with most of those Eastern Bishops who before adhered unto him 6. Let us now see how Vigilius and after him Baronius under couler of this Vnion plead for Ibas his heretical Epistle In the end of that Epistle Ibas makes mention of the union betwixt Iohn and Cyrill yea mentioneth it as a great blessing of God to the Church seeing that he not onely consented but greatly rejoyced at the same Thus much is cleare and certaine by the Epistle Now because the Vnion as we have declared was made by consenting to the Catholike faith it seemes that Ibas who consented to the Vnion consented also to the Catholike faith and so was received into the communion of Cyrill and the Catholike Church Seeing then Ibas by this Epistle is shewed to approve and embrace the Vnion and embracing of the union is the proofe of a Catholike it followeth that even by this Epistle Ibâ—â— declares himselfe to be a very good Catholike and an earnest embracer of the Catholike faith This is the summe of their collection which is as any wil confesse a very faire plausible pretence and therefore more fit for the Pope and Cardinall to cloake their heresie under the shew thereof But least we seeme either to wrong them oâ— leave out ought which is emphaticall in their reason it is needfull to heare them dispute in their owne words 7. It differeth much saith Baronius to say that the Epistle is Catholike or that those things which are written in it are true and to say that Ibas by this Epistle was proved to be a catholike Etenim nihil aliud inde acceperunt patres nisi Ibam tunc temporis fuisse Catholicum for the fathers at Chalcedon tooke nothing at all out of that Epistle but that Ibas at that time when he writ it was a Catholike
Emperors enforcing and compelling omnes antistites all the Bishops to condemne the Three Chapters But enough of Iustinian to manifest that he never observed this fictitious Decree of Taciturnitie 14. After the Emperor and Pope let us see if Catholikes that is those who condemned the three Chapters did observe this Decree They did not but like the Emperour they constantly continued to speake to write against them as well after as before the time of this supposed Decree it stopt not the mouth of any one of them Not of Mennas not of Theodorus whom for talking so much against those Chapters Vigilius suspended and excommunicated as the Baronian narration tells you not of the other Bishops subject to thē for Vigilius used the very same censure against them also for their condemning of those Chapters We saith Vigilius condemne thee O Mennas with all the Bishops pertaining to thy Diocesse yea we condemne also thy fellow Eastern Bishops though of diverse provinces be they of greater or lesser Cities wee condemne and excommunicate them all Neither did they begin to condemne the Chapters in that 25. yeare wherein this sentence by the accoumpt of Baronius was pronounced but they did this ever since the time that the Decree of Silence is supposed to bee made for Vigilius there saith to Theodorus wee have declared pene hoc quinquennio elapso almost these five yeares last past our longanimitie and patience both towards you and towards those who have beene seduced by you which five yeares being reckned backe will fall out in the 21. yeare of Iustinian even from that yeare and then was the decree of Silence said to bee published did the Eastern Bishops continue to speake against and condemne the three Chapters Now although this against Baronius who applaudes that sentence and writing of Vigilius bee sufficient yet because it is onely argumentum ad hominem I will adde a more weightie testimonie to cleare this matter concerning Catholikes that is of the whole fift generall Councell which saith the Emperor doth manifest quod nec quenquam latuit that whereof no man is ignorant that the impietie of these Chapters ab initio aliena est à sancta Dei ecclesia is strange and hath beene disliked by the holy Church ever since the controversie about them hath beene moved Then certainely no Catholike none Catholikely affected at any time forbore to condemne them not one of them observed that Decree of Silence 15. All the Cardinalls hope is now in the Defenders of these Chapters they no doubt would bee willing to obey this Pontificall and Synodall Decree seeing for the most part they were Africane Illyrian Western Bishops Among them if anywhere the Pope might hope to have his Decree observed They observe it They are silent in this cause Nay you shall see them after the time that this Decree is supposed to be made to be farre more eager in defending the Three Chapters then ever they were before For now besides the defending of those Chapters they boldly and bitterly invaighed against Vigilius himselfe because he condemned the same This did Liberatus at Carthage at Tunen Victor at Constantinople Facundus the Popes owne orator who now having turnd his stile whetted it as sharpe against the Pope as before he had done at the Popes command against the Emperor yea the Popes owne Romane Deacons Rusticus and Sebastianus besides others freely and openly declamed against the Pope as one who by condemning the 3. Chapters did condemne the Councell of Chalcedon nay they proceeded even to flout and taunt the Pope for his condemning of those Chapters deriding his sentence against Theodorus of Mopsvestia being dead in this manner the Pope should have condemned not onely the person and writings of Theodorus sed territorium ipsum ubi positus est but even the very ground also where hee was buried adding that if any could finde but the bones of Theodorus though now accursed by the Pope gratanter acciperent they would very lovingly embrace them and keepe them for holy relickes 16. And what speake I of a few particular men In the 23. yeare of Iustinian that is in the second yeare after the supposed Decree the Illyrian Bishops held a Synod by which was both writ a booke in defence of those Chapters and sent unto the Emperor and Benenatus Bishop of Iustineanca was condemned by the same Synod because hee spake against those Chapters The next yeare after that did the Africane Bishops hold a Synod wherein they did nominatim and expresly condemne Pope Vigilius excommunicate him and shut him out of their communion because he was one of those who condemned the Three Chapters as Victor Bishop of Tunea who as it seemes was present in that Synod doth testifie Now seeing the Cardinall professeth that these divisions and contentions were among Catholikes pugnantibus inter se orthodoxis orthodoxall Bishops and Catholikes they were who at this time fought one against another yea and by his position Schismaticall they were not because the Pope had not yet given his last sentence If one lifted to digresse here were a fit occasion to make a little sport with his Cardinalship upon whose assertion it clearely ensueth that a Synod even an Africane Synod which with them is more yea the whole Church of Africke may and de facto hath so done judge censure excommunicate and exclude from their communion the Pope and yet for all this themselves at the same time may be and have de facto beene very good Catholikes and neither heretickes nor schismatickes But of that point I have before intreated This onely I doe now observe that by the view and consideration of all sorts and degrees of men in the Church none at all observed that decree of Silence in this cause not the Pope not the Emperor not the Orthodoxall professors such as before condemned the Chapters not the hereticall defenders of them All these and in one of these rankes were comprehended all Christians at that time by their speeches by their writings by their actions by their Synodall decrees and judgements doe evidently witnesse that there was no such decree of Silence ever made which without all question amongst some one order and degree or other would have been observed and taken effect 17. To these I will adde one other reason taken from the weaknesse and unsoundnesse of that ground whereon the Cardinall hath framed this whole narration He tells us that this Decree of Silence the Synod wherein it was made and divers of the consequents for some are of the Cardinalls owne invention are testified by certaine publike acts or Records to wit those which contained the sentence and Pontificall Constitution of Pope Vigilius against Mennas Theodorus and the rest In those acts indeed a good part of this Baronian fable is related how Mennas Dacius and many other both Greeke and Latine Bishops were present in
same time while the holy Councell was held in the Church at Ephesus held a Conventicle by themselves in an Inne in the same Citie and yet notwithstanding the personall absence of the first the negligent of the second and wilfull absence of the last the holy generall Councell saith of their Synodall judgement given by those who were then present that it was nihil aliud quam communis concors terrarum orbis sensus consensus nothing else but the common and consenting judgment of the whole world How could this be when so many Bishops besides three Patriarchs were either personally or negligently or wifully absent How was there in that decree the consent of these Truly because they all even all the Bishops in the world did either personally or by their Agents expresse or else in such a tacit and implicit manner as wee declared wrap up their judgement in the Synodall decree made by the Bishops present in the Councell 28. But what if many of those who are present doe dissent from that which the rest being the greater part doe decree Truly even these also doe implicitè and are in reason to bee judged to consent to that same decree For every one is supposed to agree on that generall Maxime of reason that in such an assembly of Iudges what the greater part decreeth shall stand as the Act and Iudgement of the whole seeing otherwise it would be impossible that such a multitude of Bishops should ever give any judgement in a cause for still some in perversenesse and pertinacie would dissent Seeing then it is the ordinance of God that the Church shall judge and seeing there can no other meanes be devised how they should judge unlesse the sentence of the greater part may stand for their judgement reason enforceth all to consent upon this Maxime Vpon this is that Imperiall Law grounded Quod major pars curiae effecit pro rato habetur acsi omnes id egerint what the greater part of the Court shall do that is ratified or to stand for the judgement of the Court as if all had done the same And againe Refertur ad universos quod publicè fit per majorem partem That is accounted the act of all which is publikely done by the greater part Vpon this ground is that truly said by Bellarmine That whereon the greater part doth consent est verum decretum Concilij is the true decree of the Councell even of the whole Councell Vpon the equitie of this rule was it said in the Councell at Chalcedon when ten Bishops dissented from the rest Non est justum decem audiri It is not just that the sentence of ten should prevaile against a thousand and two hundred Bishops Vpon the equitie of the same rule did the fift generall Councell truly constantly judge that the Councell of Chalcedon even in that definition of faith which they all with one consent agreed upon condemned the Epistle of Ibas as hereticall although they knew that Maximus with Pascasinus and the other Legats of Pope Leo in the Councell of Chalcedon adjudged that Epistle to be orthodoxall How was it the consenting judgement of the whole Councell of Chalcedon when yet some did expresse their dissent therein How but by that implicit consent which all give to that rule of reason that the judgement of the greater part shall stand for the judgment of the whole which the fift Councell doth plainly signifie saying In Councels we must not attend the interloquutions of one or two but what is defined in common ab omnibus aut amplioribus either by all or by the greater part to that we must attend as to the judgement of the whole Councell But omitting all the rest there is one example in the Councell of Chalcedon most pregnant to this purpose 29. All the Councell save onely the Popes Legates consented upon that third Canon decreed in the second and now confirmed in this fourth Councell that the See of Constantinople should have Patriarchall dignity over Thrace Asia and Pontus and have precedence before other Patriarches as the next after the Bishop of Rome The Legates following the instructions of Leo were so averse in this matter that they said not without some choler Contradictio nostra his gestis inhaereat Let our contradiction cleave to these Acts and so it doth to the eternall disgrace both of them and their master The glorious Iudges notwithstanding this dissenting of the Legates and of Pope Leo himselfe in them said concerning that Canon That which we have spoken that the See of Constantinople ought to be the second c. Tota Synodus the whole Councell hath approved it Why but the Popes Legates approved it not they contradicted it True in this particular they dissented But because they as all other Bishops even Pope Leo himselfe consented unto that generall Maxime That the judgement of the greater part shall stand for the judgement of the whole Councell in that generall both the Legats of Leo and Leo himselfe did implicitè and virtually consent to that very Canon from which actually and explicitè they did then dissent For which cause the most prudent Iudges truly said Tota Synodus the whole Councell hath approved this Canon either explicitè or implicitè either expressely or virtually approved it Neither did onely those secular Iudges so esteeme the whole generall Councell it selfe professed the same and that even in the Synodall Relation of their Acts to Pope Leo The universall Synod said thus We have condemned Dioscorus we have confirmed the faith wee have confirmed the Canon of the second Councell for the honour of the See of Constantinople we have condemned the heresie of Eutyches Thus writ the whole Councell to Leo declaring evidently that act of approving that Canon to be the Act of the whole Synod although they knew the contradiction of the Pope and his Legates to cleave unto it 30. You see now that in every sentence of a generall and lawfull Councell there is an assent of all Bishops and Presbyters they all either explicitè or tacitè or implicitè consenting to that decree whether they be absent or present and whether in that particular they consent or dissent Now because there can bee no greater humane judgement in any cause of faith or ecclesiasticall matter than is the consenting judgement of all Bishops and Presbyters that is of all who have power either to teach or judge in those causes it hence clearly ensueth that there neither is nor can be any Episcopall or Ecclesiasticall confirmation or approbation whatsoever of any decree greater stronger or of more authority then is the judgement it selfe of such a generall Councell and their owne confirmation or approbation of the decrees which they make for in every such decree there is the consent of all the Bishops and Presbyters in the whole world 31. Besides this confirmation of any synodall decree which is by
be one as whē the Empire was united the whole Christiā world subject to his authority or moe as it was when the Empire was devided and ever since that great dissolution of it in the time of Charles the great To them and them onely this right to belong I have in two other bookes the one concerning the calling the other concerning the Presidencie in Councels at large and clearly demonstrated I hold them to be so evident truths both by the doctrine of Scripture and by the constant judgement and practice of the Catholike Church for more than eight hundred yeares after Christ that if any would reade the Tomes of the Councels hee had need put out both his eyes if he will not see this 6. To them and them onely is the sword given by God that by it they might maintaine the faith and use it to the praise of them that doe well but take vengeance on them that doe evill They are the nursing fathers of the Church unto whom the care is committed by God that all his Children to whom they next unto God are fathers be fed with the sincere milke of Gods word all mixture and poison of heresie and impiety being taken away and severed from it They are like Ioshua and David appointed by God to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Pastours even supreme Pastours of the Israel of God not indeed to reach and give the food themselves which duty belongs to their inferiour servants yet to performe those which are the principall most proper Pastoral acts offices procurare are ac providere alteri cibū ducere reducere tueri praesse regere castigare to provide that all the sheepe of Christ have wholesome and convenient food given unto them to lead them bring them backe defend governe and chastise them when they will not obey their Pastorall call and command None of all which Pastorall duties were it possible for Kings to performe if for publike tranquillity and instruction of Gods people they might not by their authority assemble a generall Councell of Bishops and being assembled if they might not defend and uphold all just and equall but castigate and keepe away all violent fraudulent and unjust proceedings in such Councels 7. I purposely said supreme Pastours for none is ignorant that Peter and all the Apostles equally with him as also all who either in their Presbyteriall or Episcopall authority succeed unto them for in their Apostolicall none of them had or have any successour that all these are Pastours also of Gods flock but they are all subordinate to the Imperiall Pastours of the people of God the sheep-hooke is subject to the Scepter the Crosier to the Imperiall Crowne Concerning Kings Saint Peter gives a generall precept Feare God and honour the King which honour he expresly calleth subjection and obedience in the same Chapter first wee owe obedience to God and next God unto Kings and Emperours Concerning all others excepting Kings and such as have Kingly authority Saint Paul gives a like generall precept Let every soule be subject to the higher powers even to those who by Gods warrant and as his Vicegerents doe beare the sword to them every soule ought to be subject who can except thee from this generality This is commanded saith Chrysostome Not onely to secular men but to all to Monkes to Priests and Bishops the Apostle teacheth them ex debito obedire even in duty to obey Kings and Princes sive Apostolus sis sive Propheta sive Euangelista sive quisquis tandem fueris not the Prophets not the Apostles not the Euangelists not any soule in exempt from this subjection and if not Peter himselfe then certainly not his Vicar as the Pope cals himselfe And this very subjection of the Pope and all Bishops to the Emperours to omit Silvester Iulius Leo and Gregorie Pope Agatho in most submissive manner acknowledgeth almost seven hundred years after Christ Omnes nos praesules vestri imperij famuli All we Bishops are the servants of your imperiall highnesse saith Agatho and a Synod of 125 Westerne Bishops with him to which purpose hee cals Italy his servile Province and Rome his servile City adding that he did this at the Emperours sacred command pro obedientiae satisfactione pro obedientia quam debuimus for that obedience which hee did owe to the Emperour nay yet in more lowly manner he saith not that hee but studiosa obedientia nostri famulatus implevit the willing obedience of his owne servitude to the Emperour did performe this Nor was this the profession onely of Agatho and the Westerne Bishops but the whole sixt Councell approved the same Petrus per Agathonem loquebatur Saint Peter spake by the mouth of Agatho Now because they all acknowledge the Pope to be the first and chiefe Bishop in the Church for they all in that Councell approve the Councels of Chalcedon and first Constantinopolitane in both which that is decreed seeing by the confession of Agatho by them approved the Pope is a servant and oweth subjection and obedience to the Emperour much more are all other Bishops in the whole world servants and subjects to the Imperial command and that by the consenting judgment of the whole catholike Church represented in that sixt generall Councell 8. The same Soveraignty and supreme Pastorall authority of Kings is after this againe testified in that which they call the eighth generall Councell more than eight hundred and sixty yeares after CHRIST Basilius the Emperour said before the Councell in his letters unto them The government of the Ecclesiasticall ship is by the Divine Providence committed unto us in that ship doth saile all who are members of the Church Bishops or Laicks and the government of the whole ship is given to the Emperour Hee like the Pilot rules and directs all Raderus the Iesuite and Binius following him in stead of nobis have put vobis in the latine text as if Basilius had said that the government of the Church belonged to Bishops not to Emperours It is a Iesuiticall and fraudulent tricke for which no colour of excuse can bee made The Greeke set on the very opposite Page is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nobis in the Surian Collectiō of those Acts it was rightly read nobis their owne Cardinall Cusanus out of the ancient Acts of that Synod cites it commisisset nobis the very sense inforceth it to be nobis for the Emperour addeth Therefore doe wee with all sollicitude exhort and warne you that you come to the holy Oecumenicall Synod which had beene a most foolish collection had he not said nobis but vobis for then not to him but to them should have belonged the care to call the Bishops to the Synod yet against all these evidences of truth Raderus and Binius falsifie the text corrupt the words
Bish. of Constantinople said O our Lord crowned by God command that the name of Pope Vitalianus may bee set in the Dipticks his answer was quod postulatum est fiat let that be done which he hath requested The Emperour commanded the books of Macarius to be read the whole Synod answered Quod jussum est what your highnesse hath commanded shall be performed After the authenticall letters of Sergius Pope Honorius had been read in the Synod the glorious Iudges called for the like authenticall writings of Pirrhus Paulus Peter and Cyrus to bee produced and read the whole Councell answered that it was superfluous seeing their heresie was manifest to all the Iudges replied omnino necessarium existit this is necessary that they be convicted out of their owne writings and then their writings were produced I omit the rest whereof every Action of that Synod is ful and by those Acts the Presidency in Councels doth so clearly beloÌ„g to Emperors and that also by the acknowledgment of that whole generall Councell that Albertus Pighius being unwilling to yeeld to this truth hath purposely writ a most railing and reviling Treatise against this holy generall Synod condemning both this Councell and these Acts as unlawfull for this among other reasons because the Emperour with his Iudges plena authoritate Praesidet is President with full authority in the same hee doth all he proposeth hee questioneth he commandeth hee examineth he judgeth he decreeth And yet in all these hee doth nothing but what belongs essentially to his Imperiall authority nothing but what Constantine Theodosius Martian and Iustinian had done before him and done it with the approbation and applause of the whole Church and of all the Catholike Bishops in those holy generall Councels and hee performed this with such uprightnesse and equality that hee professed necessitatem nullatenus inferre volumus wee will inforce no man but leave him at his owne freedome in sentencing the causes proposed and aequalitatam utriusque partis conservabimus we will bee equall and indifferent Iudges betwixt both parties 16. In the second Nicene though by the fraud of Anastasius there be not many yet are there some prints remaining of this Imperiall Presidencie We have received say the Emperours letters from Hadrian Bish. of Rome sent by his Legates qui et nobiscum in Concilio sedent who also sit with us in the Synod Those letters jubemus publicè legi we command to be publikely read according to the use in Councels and we command all you to marke them with decent silence After that you shall reade two quaternions also sent from the Bishops in the East and the whole Synod obeyed the Imperiall commands Pope Hadrian himselfe was not ignorant of this right in the Emperours when sending his Pontificall and Cathedrall judgement concerning the cause of Images hee said thus unto them We offer these things to your highnesse with all humility that they may bee diligently examined for we have but perfunctoriè that is for fashioÌ„ and not exactly gathered these testimonies and we have delivered them to your Imperiall Highnesse to be read intreating and beseeching your mansuetude yea and as if I were lying at your feete I pray and adjure you that you will command holy Images to bee restored Thus hee When the Pope cals the Emperours his Lords and submits both his owne person to their feet and his judiciall sentence to such tryall as they shall thinke fit doth not this import an higher Presidency in the Emperour than either himselfe or his Legates had in the Synod Nay it is further to be remembred which will remaine as an eternal blot of that Synod that Irene the Empresse not contenting her selfe with the Imperiall which was her owne rightfull authority intruded her selfe into the Episcopall also she forshooth would be a Doctrix in the Councell she present among the Bishops to teach the whole Councell what they should define in causes of faith Perversas Constitutiones tradere shee tooke upon her to give Constitutions and those impious also unto them Those Constitutions backed with her sword and authority the Bishops of the Councell had not the hearts and courage to withstand All which is testified in the Libri Carolini which in part were written and wholly set forth by Charles the great being for the most part composed by the Councell at Frankfourd and approved by them all in that great synod A truth so cleare that Pope Adrian in his reply to those Caroline bookes denyeth not Irene to have done this which had easily and evidently refuted that objectioÌ„ and discredited those Caroline Bookes for ever but hee defends her fact by the examples of Helena and Pulcheria to which this of Irene is so unlike that for this very cause she is by the whole Councell of Frankford consisting of three hundred Bishops or thereabouts resembled to the tyrannizing and usurping Athalia Lastly when that whole Synod came to the Kingly City for the Imperiall confirmation of their Acts seeing it is expresly testified by Zonaras and Paulus Diacâ—â—â—s that the Emperour was President in that assembly of the Bishops why should it not by like reason be thought that both himselfe when hee was present and in his absence the secular Iudges his Deputies held the same Imperial Presidency in the Nicene Synod 17. For that which they call the eighth generall Councell both the Emperours Deputies are called Presidents and in the sixt seventh eighth and tenth actions it is expresly said Presidentibus Imperatoribus the Emperours being Presidents yea and both of them by their very actions declared their Presidencie The Popes Legate would not have permitted Photius and his Bishops to bee heard the Emperours Deputies over-ruled them as was fit in that matter yea they said to the Photian Bishops Imperator jubet et vult the Emperours will pleasure and command is that you should speake in your owne cause Of the Emperour they intreat libety to defend themselves Rogamus domine Imperator we beseech you our Lord and Emperour that without interruption we may defend our cause When the bookes of Photius were brought into the Synod and burned in the midst thereof this was done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Emperour commanding it and many the like 18. Now these eight are all which are accounted by them in the number of generall and approved Councels for the space of more than a thousand years after Christ Of al which seeing it is now cleare that they were both called by Imperiall authoritie and governed by Imperiall Presidencie it hence appeareth that as by the warrant of the Scriptures and example of the ancient Church before Christ so also by the continued practice of the whole Catholike Church for a thousand years together these rights of calling and ordering generall Councels doe belong and were acknowledged to
that I must be bold to tell him that it also is a fiction and that Vigilius brought no such Ioviall darts with him to Constantinople or if he did he spent them not upon the Empresse It was Pope Agapetus and not Vigilius by whom if by any Theodora was excommunicated seeing Theodora did contend with Agapetus about Anthimus and that also before his deposition It was he which called Theodora Eleutheria a persecuting Empresse Vigilius had no occasion at his comming to excommunicate her the cause of Anthimus was before that ended Theodora and Vigilius consented together in one profession of faith he condemning the three Chapters a little after he came to Constantinople as well as the Empresse could not condemne or excommunicate her for an heretike but hee must condemne himselfe also I but Pope Gregory saith expresly he did excommunicate her Might I in stead of an answer say as some of their owne Writers do in another cause Gregorius hîc non est audiendus Gregory is here not to bee regarded or but say as their owne Bishop Canus doth that Gregory was too credulous in writing reports the matter were soone answered But I am not willing to censure Gregory so hard as they doe my answer is that the name of Vigilius is by an error either of the writer or Printer of Gregory inserted there in stead of Agapetus for of Agapetus Victor is an expresse witnesse that he indeed deprived Theodora of the communion All the circumstances accord thereunto Theodora was then an enemy to the Councell of Chalcedon she tooke part and was a patron of Anthimus Gregory himselfe notes this fact to be done equally against the whole sect of the Acephalian heretikes as against Theodora now Vigilius had nothing to doe with those heretikes it was the cause of the three Chapters wherewith hee was troubled the heads of the Acephali Anthimus Severus Petrus Zoaras and their followers were condemned both by Agapetus and by the great Councell of Constantinople under Mennas where were present the Legates of the Romane See Agapetus being lately dead and the same sentence was confirmed by the Emperour Iustinian at the end of the Synod so that there was nothing left for Vigilius to doe against the Acephali who both by the Pontificall Synodall and Imperiall sentence were condemned nine yeares before his comming to Constantinople Lastly the very scope and coherence of Gregories text doth inforce this correction The defenders of the three Chapters alledged that since the time of the fift Councell wherein the three Chapters were condemned many calamities had befalne Italy whereupon they concluded that God afflicted the Church for that decree of the fift Councell and for condemning of those three Chapters Gregory to refute this their reason alledged another example and of former times to wit of condemning the Acephali whom they to whom Gregory writ acknowledged for heretikes saying Postquam after Pope Agapetus when he came into this kingly City denounced a sentence of condemnation against Theodora and the Acephali then was Rome besieged and taken by the enemies that is the Gothes was therefore God angry for that sentence against the Acephali Apply this reason to Vigilius and his time and it is not onely untrue but unfit to the purpose of Gregory for before Vigilius his comming to Constantinople not only Vitiges the Goth possessed Rome from whom Bellisarius in the time of Silverius recovered it and made great havocke in Italy but Totilas also before Vitiges came besieged it so hard that by reason of the famine they were driven not onely to eate mice and dogs but even dung also and last of all one to eate up another and that same yeare Totilas tooke Rome sacked it and had purposed utterly to have abolished it and burnt it to ashes but that Bellisarius by his most prudent and fortunate perswasions staid him from that barbarous immanity Now seeing not onely the siege but captivity of Rome was after the comming of that Pope to Constantinople and sentence against Theodora of whom Gregory speaketh it must needs be hee meant Pope Agapetus whose sentence all the foresaid calamities follow and not Vigilius before whose comming to Constantinople Rome was besieged by Totilas and taken also before the sentence if it was as by Anastasius is to be gathered not denounced till the second yeare after Vigilius his comming thither Neither onely had the reason of Gregory beene untrue but most unfit for his purpose had he meant Vigilius in this place for hee clearly intends such a calamity as hapned before the condemning of the three Chapters but after the condemning of the Acephali Now it is certaine by the Acts of the fift Councell and by the Emperours testimony that as the Easterne Bishops so also Vigilius presently after he came to Constantinople consented to condemne the three Chapters yea condemned them by a Pontificall decree and judgement and continued in that minde till the time of the fift Councell at which time by the general Synod they were also condemned Gregory then should have spoken against himselfe had hee meant Vigilius and his comming to Constantinople in saying that after the sentence of Vigilius against Theodora the City was besieged and taken as it was once againe indeed taken by Totilas in the 23. yeare of Iustinus for his adversaries to whom he writ being defenders of the three Chapters would have replyed against him that this calamity befell them from the very same cause seeing both the Easterne Bishops and the Pope consented in that doctrine of condemning of the three Chapters Thus it appeareth not by surmises and conjectures but by certaine and evident proofe that the text of Gregory is corrupted or else that Gregory himselfe was mistaken therein which in a matter so neare his dayes wee may not thinke and so that it was not Vigilius but Agapetus whom Gregory intended to denounce that sentence against the Acephali or Theodora of which Baronius maketh such boast and commends with such great ostentation that thereby he might make the Empresse who was a condemner of the three Chapters more odious and strengthen that fiction and fabulous tale of Anastasius that Vigilius contended with Iustinian and Theodora about Anthimus CAP. XXII How Baronius declameth against the cause it selfe of the Three Chapters and a refutation thereof 1. BAronius not content to wrecke his spite upon the Emperour and Empresse in such uncivill manner as you have seene carpes in the next place at the very cause it selfe of the three Chapters What did Vigilius saith hee offend in appointing that men should be silent and say nothing untill the future Synod of this cause of the three Chapters which if it could have beene potius perpetuo erat silentio condemnanda sopienda sepelienda atque penitus extinguenda was rather to be condemned to perpetuall silence to be buried and utterly extinguished Againe I doe never feare to
that since then strenuè atque impigrè laboravit that he laboured stoutly and diligently for the Catholike faith To which purpose he againe saith Post restitutam Ecclesiae pacem after the peace and unity of the Church Theodoret by all Catholikes was knowne to bee orthodoxall and to communicate with those that were orthodoxall Which orthodoxy of faith saith hee those Epistles of his doe so abundantly testifie that by them plus satis abstersit he hath too much wiped away purged and abolished all the blots and blemishes which he had contracted by his acquaintance with Nestorius Thus Baronius denying Theodoret at any time after the union made to have beene hereticall or a favourer of Nestorius and then undoubtedly this Epistle which both is hereticall and wherein such entire love and affection is expressed to Nestorius and which is recorded to have beene written after the time of the union can be none of Theodorets but must be rejected for an imposture a forgery 6. Doe you not verily beleeve the Cardinall had sent his wit out of the Country when hee writ that whole part of his Annals which concernes these three Chapters A little before he professeth this to be truly the Epistle of Theodoret and now hee will prove that it was not that it could not possible be the Epistle of Theodoret. Yea which is no lesse worthy of observing hee before not onely allowed this Epistle with the inscription wherein it was sayd that it was writ to Nestorius after the union to be Theodorets but he further sayth that Theodoret seemes to have beene of this minde which is noted in this Epistle etiam post concordiam even after the agreement union and concord made with Cyrill seeing Theodoret so obstinately professeth in his letters that hee would never assent to the sentence against Nestorius Sicque certum est aliquandiu perseverasse and so it is certaine that Theodoret continued some while after the union with an angry minde against Cyrill But now hee will prove the quite contrary that Theodoret for a certainty writ no such things nor had any fellowship with Nestorius after the union So both it is certaine that Theodoret writ this and yet it is certaine he writ it not certaine that hee writ it after the union and yet certaine that he writ it not after the union That is to speake plainly it is certaine the Cardinall demonstrates himselfe and his Annals to be false untrue and ridiculous repugnant both to the truth and to his owne writings 7. This might suffice to oppose against whatsoever Baronius can produce If he prove by any testimony this Epistle not to be Theodorets I on the contrary will prove it to bee Theodorets by the Cardinals owne testimony If he prove by any reason Theodoret after the union not to have favoured Nestorius and his heresie I on the contrary will prove that after the union hee favoured Nestorius by a stronger reason even by the Cardinals owne confession If hee bring Theodoret I bring Baronius and so I might Par pari referre quod male mordeat hominem But besides this confession of Baronius which disproves whatsoever he can prove against us in this matter I will adde somewhat concerning those Epistles of Theodoret on which hee much relyeth Those Epistles comming out of the Vaticane the very Mint-house of forgery are in truth nothing else but counterfeits as hereafter I purpose more fully to demonstrate for this time I will onely mention that which most concernes this present cause out of those Epistles which the Cardinall most urgeth and those are his Epistles to Dioscorus to Pope Leo specially seeing that to Dioscorus as the Cardinall tels us declareth the faith of Theodoret to bee such and so orthodoxal that it is enough ad abstergendum suspitionem to wipe away all suspition of heresie wherewith by reason of some counterfeit writings in the Synod I thinke he meanes the fift Councell hee was blamed And indeed in those Epistles there is a plain condemning of the heresies of Nestorius but first those Epist. were writ long after the union and so cannot helpe the Cardinall at all in this point and if they had beene writ presently upon that union yet those not to bee truely Theodorets divers circumstances doe make evident In the Epistle to Dioscorus Theodoret is made to relate how long before that time hee had beene a Bishop and where hee had preached The yeares of his Bishopricke he reckons to bee twenty six all which time he continued a Preacher at Antioch Whence Baronius observeth Theodoretum Episcopum publicum semper egisse Cathechistam Antiochiae that Theodoret being a Bishop was continually the publike Catechist at Antioch during that time of three Patriarchs Theodatus Iohn and Domnus And at least it might bee supposed that hee was a Preacher or as the Cardinall cals him a Catechiser in that City before hee was Bishop another of those Epistles that ad Nonium wil assure us the contrary for there Theodoret saith of himselfe I stayed in a Monastery quousque Episcopus factus till I was made a Bishop And Baronius further explanes this saying creatus Episcopus after Theodoret was made and ordained Bishop he was held at Antioch to be the preacher there first by Theodatus then by Iohn his successor Theodoret goes on to set forth his owne orthodoxy and praise saying that though hee so long continued a preacher at Antioch yet in all those yeares neither any of the Bishops nor any of the Clergy did reprove his doctrine or sayings which hee explanes in that other Epistle to Pope Leo saying thus Whereas I have beene a Bishop these sixe and twenty yeares yet in all this time non subij quantumvis levem reprehensionem I have not beene so much as lightly reproved for my doctrine but by the favor of God I have delivered more than 1000 or as Baronius corrects it more than ten thousand soules from Marcionisme Arianisme Eunomianisme so that in eight hundred Parishes so many are in my Diocesse of Cyrus there hath not remained no not one weede but my flocke is free from all hereticall errour Thus hee in that Epistle Which his orthodoxy hee yet more fully declares in another Epistle Looke on my writings both before and since the holy Ephesine Councell in singulis quae edidimus operibus Ecclesiae sanus sensus mens mihi conspicitur in all and every one of my writings the doctrine of the Church and my sound opinion is conspicuous And againe in that to Nomus speaking of the same his integrity of faith in all these five and twenty yeares saith he Nec à quoquam accusatus nec quenquam accusavi Neither have I beene accused of any man neither have I accused any Thus is Theodoret made to write in those Epistles 8. Let us omit the vanity and folly of the forgerer who reports this as an
on Orpheus harpe made an heavenly harmony but how hee failed in his skill and proved no better than Neanthes his Constitution touching the Three Chapters is an eternall record and yet all that time hee sat in the Chaire and prophesied for as the common saying is Vbi Papa ibi Roma so it is as true Vbi Papa ibi Cathedra it is more easie for the Pope to take the Chaire with him than like an Elephant to carry the whole City of Rome upon his backe to Constantinople and goe up and downe the world with it 17. But is this narration thinke you of Anastasius true verily not one word therein neither did the Empresse write nor Vigilius answer any such thing for both these were done as Anastasius saith eodem tempore at or after that same time when Bellisarius having killed Gontharis came out of Africk and offered those spoiles of the Vandales and seeing that as wee have proved was never this writing of Theodora and answer of Vigilius was at the same tide of Nevermas Againe this answer of Vigilius was given statim ac sanctam sedem ascendit at his very first placing in the See as Binius sheweth and that was in the fourteenth yeare of Iustiâ—ian for then Sylverius dyed now seeing Theodora writ not this till Gontharis was overcome and that was as Procopius sheweth in the nineteenth yeare of Iustinian it was a fine devise of Anastasius to tell how this new Saint answered a letter by way of prophesie three or foure yeares before the letter was written Further Vigilius as Liberatus saith implens promissum suum quod Augustae fecerat performing his promise to the Empress writ a letter in this manner hee performed it as much as hee could he laboured a while to doe it and this was both before and a little after the death of Sylverius but when hee could not effect it and after that the Emperor had writ unto him to confirme the deposition of Anthimus Vigilius seeing his labour to be lost therein left off that care untill hee could have a better oportunity to overthrow the Councell of Chalcedon which so long as it stood in force was a barre unto Anthimus If Vigilius could have prevailed to have had the fift Councel and the Church approve his Constitution published in defence of the Three Chapters by which the Councell of Chalcedon had beene quite overthrowne then in likelihood he would have set up Anthimus all who with Anthimus had oppugned the Councell of Chalcedon but till that were done till the Councell were repealed Vigilius saw it was in vaine to strive for Anthimus and therefore waiting for another oportunity for that hee in two severall Epistles the one to Iustinian the other to Mennas confirmed as the Emperour required him to doe the deposition of Anthimus and this hee did the yeare before Bellisarius returned to Constantinople with Vitiges namely in the fourteenth yeare of Iustinian and five yeares before the death of Gontharis Would the Empresse then write to him to come and doe that which he knew not onely the Emperour most constantly withstood but Vigilius also to have five yeares before publikely testified to the Emperour that hee would not doe specially seeing as Baronius saith Vigilius by that his letter to the Emperour Omnem prorsus sive Theodorae sive alijs spem ademisset would put both Theodora and all else out of all hope that he should ever performe his promise in restoring Anthimus So although those words eodem tempore were not as they ought to be referred to the time after the killing of Gontharis but to the time when Bellisarius came with Vitiges to Constantinople which was the yeare after Vigilius his letter sent to the Emperour yet the Anastasian narration is not onely untrue but wholly improbable that Theodora should then send to him to come and restore Anthimus who had the yeare before confirmed the deposing of Anthimus and professed both to the Emperour and Mennas that hee would not restore him and that he ought not to bee restored Lastly at this time when Anastasius faineth Theodora to write to Vigilius to come and restore Anthimus which following the death of Gontharis must needs bee in the nineteenth or twentieth yeare of Iustinian the cause of Anthimus was quite forgotten and laid aside and the Three Chapters were then in every mans mouth and every where debated The Emperor having in that nineteenth yeare as by Victor who then lived is evident if not before published his Edict and called Vigilius about that matter to Constantinople Anastasius dreamed of somewhat and hearing of some writing or sending to Vigilius about that time he not knowing or which I rather thinke willing to corrupt and falsifie the true narration for his great love to the Pope conceales the true and onely cause about which the message was sent to Vigilius and deviseth a false and fained matter about Anthimus and indeavors to draw al men by the noise of that from harkning after the cause of the Three Chapters which he saw would prove no small blemish to the Romane See Iust as Alcibiades to avoyd a greater infamy cut off the taile of his beautifull dog which cost him 70. minas Atticas that is of our coyne 218. pound and 15. shillings and filled the mouthes of the people with that trifle that there might bee no noise of his other disgrace The true cause of sending to Vigilius as Victor sheweth was about the Three Chapters this of Anthimus which Anastasius harpes upon is in truth no other but the dogs taile and the din of it hath a long time possessed the eares of men but now the true cause being come to the open view fils the world with that shamefull heresie of Vigilius which Anastasius would have concealed and covered with his dogs taile But enough of this passage wherein there are not so few as twenty lyes 18. The next passage in Anastasius containes the sending for Vigilius and the manner how hee was taken from Rome and brought to ConstaÌ„tinople He tels us that the people of Rome taking that oportunity of the displeasure of Theodora against him for his former consenting to restore Anthimus suggested dâ—vers accusations against him as that by his Counsell Sylverius was deposed and that hee was a murderer and had killed his Nephew Asterius whereupon the Empresse sent Anthimus Scribâ— to take him wheresoever hee wee except onely in the Church of Saint Peter Scribe came and tooke him in the end of November and after many indignities both in words and actions as that the people cast stones and clubs and dung after him wishing all evill to goe with him hee in this violent manner was brought to Sicilie in December and on Christmas eve to Constantinople whom the Emperour then meeting they kissed and wept one over the other for joy and then they led him to the Church of Saint Sophie the people
former tenne about this Helena Iustinian and his Empresse must for want of variety of phrases be termed Dioclesian and Eleutheria Vigilius must be buffeted and beaten haled dragged imprisoned and banished Truly Anastasius had some ground for the act under Agapetus for this of Vigilius he is beholding to none but his own poeticall pate lest any little scene or shadow of resemblance might be wanting Baronius supplying one defect in Anastasius tels us how Vigilius for the same cause of Anthimus excommunicated Theodora at his comming to Constantinople even as Agapetus had done before Who sees not all this to be nothing else but a mimesis of the acts of Agapetus and a meere fiction of Anastasius in which there are not so few as thirty lyes 22. You have seene the tragicall part of this Anastasian fable now followeth the Catastrophe or sudden change of all this hard fortune Tunc Gothi fecerunt then saith he the Gothes made Totilas their King who comming to Rome besieged it so sore that the City was pressed with a great famine so that they did eate their owne children Totilas entred the Citie at the gate of Saint Paul in the 13. Indiction and for a whole night caused a Trumpet to be sounded till all the Romane people were fled away or hid in Churches And Totilas dwelled with the Romanes quasi pater cum filijs even as a father with his children Thus Anastasius Who would not think by this narration that Totilas were made King after the beating dragging and imprisonment of Vigilius and banishment of him his fellows upoÌ„ which Anastasius presently adjoyneth Tunc Gothi fecerunt then the Gothes made Totilas King and yet Totilas was King not onely before all that tragicall act but foure or five yeares also before Vigilius came to Constantinople or before the Emperour sent for him and in like sort Totilas his besieging of Rome by Anastasius narration follows all the former whereas by Procopius it is evident that Totilas besieged Rome while Vigilius stayed in Sicilie before he set forward to Constantinople The like errour is in the note of the Indiction for Totilas tooke the City not as Anastasius saith in the 13. but as Marcellinus witnesseth and that aright in the 10. Indiction neither did he enter at the gate of Saint Paul but as Procopius expresly declareth at that which was called Asinaria neither did Totilas sound any such Trumpet to give them warning or space to flee but entring the City in the night and that by trechery of the watch he stayed his army together till morning for feare that some danger might befall himselfe or his army in the darke by the lying in wait of the enemies And when after this Bellisarius having recovered the City Totilas againe wan it from the Romanes which was three yeares after this to wit in the 15. yeare of the Gothicke warre as Procopius sheweth which was the 24. of Iustinian whereas his first taking it was in the 21. of Iustinian then indeed Totilas as Procopius declareth caused divers Trumpets to sound an alarum on the river of Tyber in the night time as if hee would on that side assault the City while hee had his army in readinesse on the contrary side and entred there by trechery also of the Watch the Romanes giving little regard to that part These Trumpets gave the occasion to Anastasius his fiction which is so blockish that what Totilas used as a warlike stratagem to deceive and more easily to overthrow and kill the Romanes that Anastasius in his simplicity takes and relates as done in favour of the Romanes that they might escape and not be killed And yet the taking of the City wherof Anastasius speaketh cannot be this second wherein the Trumpets were sounded but the former at which time Totilas used no such policie as appeares by the famine which Anastasius mentioneth which happened in this former and not at this second taking of Rome by Totilas So very incoherent and false is all that Anastasius writeth of this matter But whereas Anasâ—asius addes of King Totilas that hee dwelt among the Romanes as a father among his children I know not how to checke so great a solly The barbarous Gothes after that long and miserable siege of the Romanes having by trechery in the night entred the City the very next morning when they saw there was no danger of the enemy Quos obvios habent obtruncant killed all that they met and had made no end of slaughter if Pelagius comming in most submissive manner had not stayed their Gothish fury The Romane people so many as could by flight sought their safety there remained of their innumerable Romane troups but to the number of five hundred the Noblemen and better sort who remained among them led a life more ignominious and miserable than death being spoyled of all domos circumeundo foresque appulsando cibum dari sibi supplicitèr precabantur from doore to doore in most abject and beggerly manner praying for some reliefe of the proud and insolent victor nor was Totilas content herewith but he was resolved to ruinate and utterly deface the whole city of Rome which also he had then done had not the most prudent perswasions of Bellisarius never sufficiently even for this onely cause to bee commended hindred so barbarous a designe And which is noted as one of the most miserable spectacles of all other in Rome which was the most frequent populous and eminent City in the whole world Totilas when he went away left not so much as one man woman or childe to remaine or inhabit therein would any but Anastasius call or account this fatherly usage what is then or can be called hostile savage and barbarous But let us leave this passage wherein we will account no more than ten of Anastasius grand lyes and proceed to the rest of his narration 23. At the same time saith he the Emperour sent Narses into Italie to whom God gave the victory over the Gothes the King and a great multitude of them were slaine I should have thought this eodem tempore to have had relation as in an orderly narration it ought to that taking of Rome by Totilas which is before expressed which if Anastasius meant then is this circumstance most sutable to all the rest that is wholly untrue for Totilas the first time tooke Rome in the 12. and the second time in the 15. yeare of the Gothicke warre whereas Narses overcame him not nor came as chiefe Generall into Italy till the eighteenth yeare of the same warre All which by Procopius is clearly testified But Binius doth here set to his helping hand and making a glosse upon the text by two notes of time he declareth unto what this Anastasian eodem tempore is to be referred the former is this It was saith he Illo anno quo Imperator revocavit
upon him then yeelding to the truth and true judgement of the Synod in condemning the Three Chapters Are these which are all of them hainous crimes and notorious in Vigilius the matters that offend the Cardinall No none of these hee is not used to finde such faults in their Popes these all hee commends as rare vertues as demonstrations of constancy of prudence of fortitude in Vigilius what then is it that his Cardinalship dislikes Truely among many great and eminent vices in Vigilius which are obvious and runne into every mans sight it hapned that once in his life he did one thing worthy of commendations and that was his obedience in going to Constantinople when the Emperour called and requested him to come thither and the Cardinall winking at all the other reproves his Holinesse for this one thing which both in equity and duty hee ought to have done This forsooth is it which hee notes as a very dangerous and hurtfull matter and a speciall point of great indiscretion in Pope Vigilius that leaving Rome that holy City hee would goe to Constantinople and to the Emperours Court which his predecessors Leo and others in very great wisdome would never do not goe into the East nor suffer themselves to bee pulled away from their See fixed at Rome 2. Truely I never knew before that there was such vertue in the Romane or such venome in the Constantinopolitane soile or in the Easterne ayre specially seeing the holy Land and the holy City and the holy Temple were all in the East All the Westerne nations are beholding to the Cardinall for this conceit Shall there not bee given to thy servant two Mules load of this Romish earth But let us a little more fully see why the Pope and particularly Vigilius might noâ— goe to Constantinople Oh saith the Cardinall it is found by experience that the Popes going from Rome to the Court obfuisse haud modicum hath done great hurt to the Church for then partly by the threats and partly by the favours and faire intreaties of Emperours as it were with two contrary windes the ship of Peter is exposed to great hazzard Modicae fidei phy a Cardinall to feare or distrust any wracke of Saint Peters ship though never so dangerous a tempest happen though Vna Eurusque Notusque ruant creberque procellis Africus S. Peter hath left such a Pilot in his Rome that a thousand times sooner might he himselfe than his ship sinke Pasce oves tues Petra oravi pro te Petre will uphold it against all winde and weather And truly I would gladly know of his Cardinalship for my learning how any of their Popes can forsake their See or Rome They have heretofore held it for a maxime ubi Papa ibi Roma let the Pope goe to Peru yea ultra Garamantas Indos he hath a priviledge above all creatures but the Snaile hee carrieth not onely their infallible Chaire but the whole City of Rome on his backe whithersoever hee goes If not so or if the Chaire bee fixt to Rome where sate all their Popes for those seventy yeares when they were at Avinion or how shall they sit in the Chaire when their Babylonish Rome for her Idolatries shal be burnt with unquencheable fire and sinke like a Milstone into the bottome of the Sea which being foretold by Saint Iohn of the Romane City which yet remaineth as their owne Iesuite Ribera doth truely and undeniably demonstrate is a most certaine Article of the Catholike faith though they seldome thinke of it and will hardly put it into their Creed When their Pope goe whither hee will carieth still with him his infallible Chaire was it not infidelity in the Cardinall to dreame or doubt lest that ship should any where miscarry more at the Court or Kings Pallace than in a Country Cottage more in the Trullane than in the Laterane Temple 3. Yea but usu rerum reperitur experience teacheth that their going to the Emperour hath done exceeding hurt and particularly for Vigilius that his going to Constantinople hath brought magnum damnum great harme to the Catholike Church declararunt eventa the events have shewed Events and experience are the most woefull arguments in Divinitie that can possibly be devised Measure the Gospell by temporall calamities which ensued upon it the bloody murdering of the Apostles of the Saints of God almost for three hundred yeares together and hee may as well conclude that the Gospell and truth of Christ is found by woefull experience to have brought exceeding great hurt to the Church The Cardinall was driven to a narrow strait and an exceeding penury of reasons when he was forced to put Argumentum ab eventu for one of his Topicall places 4. But say what hurt can he tell us that ever any Emperours presence with the Pope brought unto the Church If both were Catholike or both hereticall they agreed well enough together As not Satans so much lesse is Gods Kingdome devided against it selfe if the Emperour Catholike and the Pope hereticall the worst the Emperour ever did was but to inflict just punishment on an heretike the worst the Pope sustained was but a just recompence of his heresie and hatred of truth The execution of Iustice never did nor ever can hurt the Catholike Church If the Emperor were hereticall and the Pope orthodoxal there was trial of the Popes art skil in converting such a man to the truth triall of his constancy and love unto Gods truth whether by feare or favour he would forsake it triall of his patience and fortitude in induring all torments even death it selfe for his love to Christ. All the hurt which such an Emperour did or could doe was to crowne him a glorious Martyr and in stead of the white garment of innocency to send him in scarlet robes unto heaven and woe be to that Church which shall thinke Martyrdome an hurt unto it which was and ever will bee the glory of the Catholike Church Non decet sub spinoso capite membrum esse delicatum when Christ his Apostles and glorious Saints and Martyrs have gone before upon thornes and briars wee must not looke to have a silken way strewed with Roses and Lillies unto the Kingdome of God This which is yet the very worst that can befall any Catholike is no harme to him who hath learned that lesson Blessed are they which die in the Lord so whether Pope and Emperour be both of one or of a different religion his presence with the Emperour may happen to doe good but it is certaine it can never possibly doe hurt unto the Church The greatest hurt that was ever done to the Church by this meanes was when Constantine after his baptisme by Pope Silvester in liew of his paines and in token of a thankful minde sealed unto him that donation of the Romane and Westerne Provinces That one fable I must particularly except
time Theodorick and after him Odoacer having enacted and that as they affirme by the advice of Pope Simplicius electionem Romani Pontificis ad Regem spectare that the election of the Pope should belong to the King and that no election should be made without the consent of the King of Italy as by the fourth Romane Councell under Symmachus doth appeare For which cause Boniface called a second Synod to Rome wherein he recalled his nomination of Vigilius and burned his former Constitution acknowledging himselfe and by consequence all the rest of the former Synod to bee reus Maiestatis guilty of high treason for presuming to name Vigilius This was the first onset of Vigilius seeking the Papacy both by violation of the Canons and treason against the King and perjury of the Pope and of the whole Synod whom he had cunningly drawne to that snare either by making him Pope to incurre treason or by defeating him of it to incurre perjury 11. Hâc non successit he could not by such petty offences as treason perjury and contempt of the Canons prevaile about he will againe and try another course and that is by treason against Christ himselfe and abnegation of the Catholike faith For after the death first of his old friend Boniface then of Iohn the second then of Agapetus who died at Constantinople Vigilius that he might effect his purpose tampered and consulted with the Empresse Theodora who though of her selfe at that time she was too earnestly affected to Anthimus and being by him seduced sought for his cause to overthrow the Councell of Chalcedon yet Instigabat ardentem Vigilius Vigilius incited her by his ambitious desires She and Vigilius the Deacon having advised about the matter and covenanted it was concluded betwixt them as Liberatus sheweth that the Empresse for her part should procure Vigilius to be Pope and give him 700. peeces of gold and that Vigilius for his part and in recompence of so ample wages and so great a reward should when he were Pope abolish and adnull for ever the Councell of Chalcedon and restore Anthimus Theodosius and Severus three Eutychean Bishops of their Sees The words of Liberatus are very worthy observing Libenter suscepit Vigilius promissum ejus amore episcopatus auri Vigilius gladly tooke the offer for his desire both of the Popedome and of the pounds of gold O ambition auri sacra fames what will not it effect in such a Balaam such a ludas as Vigilius was It was a very bitter scoffe and some touch also to the credit of Pope Damasus that Praetextatus an heathen man said in derision of him Facite me Romanae urbis Episcopum ero protinus Christianus make me Pope and I will be a Christian But see the difference betwixt this heathen man and Vigilius Praetextatus would renounce paganisme and become a Christian so hee might gaine the Popedome thereby Vigilius will renounce Christ and Christianity and turne quite Pagan to obtaine the same honour What thinke you would Vigilius have sayd to him that made the offer All these will I give thee and fall downe and worship me when he was so glad for the offer of 700. peeces of gold and the triple Crowne that for them onely he undertakes and bindes himselfe in an obligation under his owne hand to renounce Christ and abandon out of the world the whole Catholike faith Which is every whit as bad if not all one with falling downe to adore the Devill Vigilius having now the Empresse warrant seemed sure and secure of the Papacy and in this confidence hee posts from Constantinople to Rome but it fell out so unhappily that when he came he found Silverius placed by Theodotus holding quiet and peaceable possession of the See This had beene enough to have discouraged a faint heart but Vigilius was of a better courage though he found it not he will make the See vacant He comes to Bellisarius Sinite me praeterire how gladly would I passe by this fact and fault of Bellisarius one for warlike prowes wisedome and successe inferiour to no Generall that Rome ever had by whom the Persians were subdued the Vandals expelled Africke the Gothes out of Italy the Empire restored with an overplus also to his pristine beauty and dignity But it so fals out that all men even the most praise-worthy yea the most holy Abraham Lot Sampson Peter and the rest they all have some blemish or other like a moale or wart in a faire body they must all be commended as God himselfe praised David with an exception of that one matter of Vriah Peter a most holy Apostle save onely in the matter of denying Christ. Bellisarius a most worthy and renowned man save this one matter of Silverius To this renowned Bellisarius comes Vigilius and delivered unto him praeceptum Auguslae the Empresse mandatory letters to make him Pope and to perswade him more easily knowing what strong operation gold had in himselfe Duo ei auri centenaria promisit he promised to part stakes with him and give him two hundred pieces of gold I wish any but Bellisarius had beene the instrument of so vile an action But so it was either the command of the Empresse or the importunity of Vigilius or both caused him to condemne Pope Silverius as guilty of treason for practising to betray the Imperiall City of Rome to the Gothes under pretence of which false accusation for I cannot assent to Marcellinus who thinks Silverius guilty thereof Silverius was expelled and thrust away and then Vigilius by the same meanes of Bellisarius intruded himselfe and slept into the Apostolicall See usurping it about two yeares during the life time of Silverius all which time he caried himselfe for the onely lawfull Pope as Pope he received Letters from Iustinian as Pope he gave answer and judgement to Etherius to Caesarius as true and Catholike you may be sure as if S. Peter had given them the Chaire would not permit him to speake amisse 12. Now though it was too bad for any Pope to enter into the holy throne of S. Peter by open injustice by slander and false accusations by a sacrilegious extrusion of the lawfull Bishop by Symonie by undertaking to restore condemned heretikes and to abolish the holy Councell of Chalcedon which is in effect utterly to abandon the whole Catholike faith yet the sequell of his actions bewrayes further the most devillish minde of Vigilius Who would have thought but that Vigilius would have kept touch and performed his sacrilegious and symoniacall contract with the Empresse and Bellisarius Liberatus notes of him that he would doe neither not restore Anthimus timore Romanorum it was not out of conscience he feared the people he feared his owne life Not pay the 200. Centenaria to Bellisarius avaritia patrocinante better lose all his
others or of a Synod herein what better direction advice or counsell could his Cardinalls or any Synod in the world give unto him than the decree of the whole Councell of Chalcedon That Vigilius had before his eyes at this time that was in stead of a thousand Cardinals unto him seeing he as Ecclesiae Princeps defined Eutycheanisme notwithstanding that most holy and generall Synod yea against that Synod what could the advice of another or of a few Cardinals have avayled at this time 50. Thus all the evasions which they use being refuted it may now be clearly concluded not onely that Vigilius writ this impious and hereticall Epistle and writ it when he was the true and lawfull Pope but that he writ it also ex animo even out of an hereticall heart and writ it as he was Pope that is in such sort as that by his Pontificall and supreme authority hee confirmed that heresie which hee taught therein And this is the former of his Acts which as I told you is very remarkable his purpose and intent therein being the overthrow of the Councell at Chalcedon and of the whole Catholike faith 51. The other act of Vigilius concernes the cause of the three Chapters wherein by the heresie of Nestorius he publikely decreed and performed that as much as in him lay and as by his Apostolicall decree could be effected which hee had purposed and intended to doe by the heresie of Eutycheanisme In which whole cause how Vigilius from the first to the last behaved himselfe how at the first hee oppugned the Emperours most religious Edict and the Catholike faith how afterward he played the dissembling Proteus with the Emperour and the whole Church for the space of five or six yeares together how at the last he returned to his naturall and habituall love of heresie and how in decreeing it by the fulnesse of his Apostolicall authority hee sought utterly and for ever to abolish the Councell of Chalcedon and with it the whole Catholike faith the former Treatise doth abundantly declare which withall demonstrates the vanity of that saying of Bellarmine For the time sayth he that hee was true Pope neither any errour nor simulation of errour was found in him sed summa constantia in fide but the greatest constancy of faith that could be For as by our former treatise is evident he was not only most wavering but hereticall in faith And this was in a manner the whole course of Vigilius life or the most eminent acts thereof while he was Pope pretending orthodoxy but embracing heresie and as opportunity offered it selfe labouring by words by private Epistles by resisting the imperiall just and godly Edict by publike constitutions to overthrow the faith and the whole Church of God 52. You see now his ingresse into the Papacy and his progresse in the same touching his egresse both out of it and this life heare what S. Liberatus saith How Vigilius being by heresie afflicted died it is knowne unto all Heare what Cardinall Bellarmine saith out of Liberatus Ab illa ipsa haeresi afflictus Vigilius was miserably afflicted by that selfe same heresie which at the first he nourished and againe Misere vexatus usque ad mortem he was miserably vexed even untill hee dyed Heare Baronius who first promised to declare how invigilavit in Vigilio vindicta Dei how the vengeance of God watched Vigilius and at last revenged the innocent blood which he shed and then performing that promise sayth He died in an Iland in Sicily by the just judgement of God confectus ipse aerumnis ex morbo himselfe being wasted with misery by reason of his disease who had caused Silverius in an Iland in Palmaria to bee pined away and put to death As he got the papacy by wicked meanes so was he immensis agitatus fluctibus tossed with exceeding great tempests therein hated by the Emperour not gratefull to the Easterne and execrable to the Westerne Bishops and when hee seemed to have come out of the streame into the haven and almost one foot into the City being pined away immensis doloribus with unmeasurable paines he dyed Thus Baronius Now if we should deale with him as Baronius doth with Iustinian and by his precedent acts judge of his reward according to the Text Opera eorum sequuntur eos I feare the censure would seeme very harsh to those who are so ready to examine Iustinian by that rule For what workes I pray you followed Pope Vigilius Ambition usurpation sacriledge murder symony hypocrisie schisme heresie and Antichristianisme concerning which the Apostle sayth They which doe them shall not inherit the kingdome of God I will not I list not be rigorous in this point neither towards him or any other I contenâ— my selfe with that lesson of the Apostle Domino suo stat aut cadit Yet thus much by occasion of this Treatise and the approved judgement of the Church declared therein concerning Theodorus of Mopsvestia long before dead must needs bee said of him of Baronius and of all other who have already or shall at any time hereafter write as they have done in defence of heresie and oppugnation of Gods truth As repentance for such sinnes and impious writings opens unto them so impenitency and persevering therein eternally shuts against them the gates of Gods mercy and the kingdome of heaven Both which because they are hid from mans eyes the Church leaving the judgement of certainty and verity onely to God passeth her sentence which is the judgement of charity by the outward and apparant acts which are open unto them whomsoever shee seeth not nor findes by certaine and evident proofe to have manifested the detestation and revocation of their hereticall and impious writings which before they published and maintained all those though dead ten an hundred or a thousand years before she by her censure doth and doth most justly condemne accurse and anathematize as by her sentence against Theodorus of Mopsvestia dead an hundred yeares before is most evident whose condemnation and anathema pronounced by the fift Councell is approved by all succeeding generall Councels by all Catholikes and even by the whole Catholike Church Not will I here dispute whether such a sentence doth not sometimes passe errante clave the party having repented whom they not having proofe of his repentance thought to dye impenitent but howsoever that fall out none may justly complaine of the Churches judgement as unjust or unequall herein for besides that it is presumed that those who so notoriously and publikely by their hereticall writings doe scandalize the Church and people of God if they had seriously repented would have expressed some publike and outward testimony of the same the Church would by this severity of her censure teach all men a lesson which is very hard to learne first that they should not have such an itch and ambitious desire to write or utter those detestable heresies which lurk
that decree is by the Acts of the Councells most evident For both their consenting judgement pronounced by word of mouth and after that their subscription to their decree did ratifie and confirme their sentence In that which they call the eighth generall Synod after the sentence pronounced the Popes Legates said Oportet ut haec manu nostra subscribendo confirmemus it is needfull that wee confirme these things which we have decreed by our subscribing unto them Of the great Nicene Councell Eusebius this writeth Those things which with one consent they had decreed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were fully authorized ratified confirmed or approved the Greeke word is very emphaticall by their subscription In the Councell of Chalcedon when the agreement betwixt Iuvenalis and Maximus was decreed they subscribed in this forme That which is consented upon confirmo I by my sentence doe confirme or firma esse decerno I decree that it shall be firme and to the like effect subscribed all the rest Whereupon the glorious Iudges without expecting any other confirmation either from Pope Leo or any that was absent said This which is consented upon shall abide firme in omni tempore for ever by our decree and by the sentence of the Synod Of the second generall Councell a Synod at Hellespont said Hanc Synodum Timotheus unà cum eis praesens firmavit Timotheus with the other Bishops then present confirmed this Synod The consent and subscription of the Bishops present in the Synod they call a Confirmation of the Synod In the Synod at Maesia after the sentence of the Synod was given they all subscribed in this forme I M.P.D. c. confirmavi subscripsi have confirmed this Synodall sentence and subscribed unto it In the second Councell at Carthage held about the time of Pope Celestine Gennadius said Quae ab omnibus sunt dicta propria debemus subscriptione firmare what hath beene said and decreed by us all wee ought by our owne subscriptions to confirme and all the Bishops answered Fiat fiat let us so doe and then they subscribed So cleare it is that whatsoever decree is made by any Councell the same is truly and rightly said to bee confirmed by those very Bishops who make the Decree confirmed I say both by their joint consent in making that Decree and by their subscribing unto it when it is made 26. Vpon this confirmation or approbation of any Decree by the Bishops present in the Councell doth the whole strength and authority of any Synodall decree rely and upon no other confirmation of any Bishop whatsoever when the Councell is generall and lawfull For in such a Councell lawfully called lawfully governed and lawfully proceeding as well in the free discussing as free sentencing of the cause there is in true account the joynt consent of all Bishops and Ecclesiasticall persons in the whole world No Bishop can then complaine that either he is not called or not admitted with freedome into such a Councell unlesse that he be excommunicated or suspended or for some such like reason justly debarred If all do come they may and doe freely deliver their owne judgement and that not onely for themselves but for all the Presbyters in their whole Diocesse For seeing the pastorall care of every Diocesse even from the Apostles time and by them is committed to the Bishop thereof all the rest being by him admitted but onely into a part of his care and to assist him in some parts of his Episcopall function he doth at least because he should he is supposed to admit none but such as hee knoweth to professe the same faith with himselfe whence it is that in his voice is included the judgement of his whole Diocesan Church and of all the Presbyters therein they all beleeving as he doth speake also in the Councell by his mouth the same that he doth If some of the Bishops come not personally but either depute others in their roomes or passe their suffrage as often they did in the voice of their Metropolitan then their consent is expressed in theirs whom they put in trust to be their agents at that time If any negligently absent themselves neither personally nor yet by delegates signifying their minde these are supposed to give a tacit consent unto the judgement which is given by them who are present whom the others are supposed to thinke not onely to be able and sufficient without themselves to define that cause but that they will define it in such sort as themselves doe wish and desire for otherwise they would have afforded their presence or at least sent some deputies to assist them in so great and necessary a service If any out of stomack or hatred to the truth do wilfully refuse to come because they dissent from the others in that doctrine yet even these also are in the eie of reason supposed to give an implicit consent unto that which is decreed yea though explicitè they doe dissent from it For every one doth and in reason is supposed to consent on this generall point that a Synodall judgement must bee given in that doubt controversie there being no better nor higher humane Court than is that of a generall Councell by which they may bee directed Now because there never possibly could any Synodall judgement be given if the wilfull absence of one or a few should bee a just barre to their sentence therefore all in reason are thought to consent that the judgement must be given by those who will come or who do come to the Councell and that their decree or sentence shall stand for the judgement of a generall Councell notwithstanding their absence who wilfully refuse to come 27. If then all the Bishops present in the Councell do consent upon any decree there is in it one of those wayes which we have mentioned either by personall declaration or by signification made by their delegates and agents or by a tacit or by an implicit consent the consenting judgement of all the Bishops and Presbyters in the whole Church that is of al who either have judicatory power or authoritie to preach publikely and therefore such a decree is as fully authorized confirmed and approved as if all the Bishops and Presbyters in the world had personally subscribed in this manner I confirme this Decree Hereof there is a worthy example in the third generall Councell No Presbyters at all were therein not in their owne right Very many Bishops were personally absent and present onely by their Legates or Agents as almost all the Westerne Bishops and by name Celestine Patriarch of Rome Some no question upon other occasions neglected that businesse as it may be the Bishops of Gangra and of Heraclèa in Macedonia who were not at this Councell Divers others wilfully and obstinately refused to come to that holy Synod as by name Nestorius Patriarch of Constantinople Iohn Patriarch of Antioch and some forty Bishops who at the