the Gauls The conduct of Victor pleased not all the other Bishops who exhorted him in their turn to have sentiments conformable to a Peace Unity and Love to our Neighbours There are still of their Letters adds Eusebius wherein they reprehend Victor with eagerness enough Amongst these Bishops was Irenaeus who in the Letter which he Writ upon this Subject in the Name of the Brothers over whom he presided among the Gauls maintains also that one Sunday must be Celebrated the Resurrection of our Lord yet he advertiseth Victor with much gravity that he ought not to cut off from the Communion whole Churches of God who observe a Tradition and Ancient Custom It will be some difficulty to believe that Bom found in this Affair a Proof of the Authority of the Pope Notwithstanding it is the conclusion he draws from it and grounds 1. Upon that the Bishops who were displeased at this Excommunication would undoubtedly have acted with more haughtiness against Victor if he had not been their Superior whereas they speak unto him with a mildness which marks well that they contested not the Right of Excommunicating the Churches as not being of his Jurisdiction but that they only found fault with the use he made thereof the cause of the Excommunication not being of consequence enough according to them 2. That notwithstanding they were deceived in that and that Victor did well to use this rigour because Blastus one of the principal Patrons of the Opinion of the Asiaticks would have introduced Iudaism under this pretence 3. That the Church approved of the Conduct of Victor in condemning the Bishops of Asia to whom was given the name of Quartodecimal Hereticks 4. That Irenaeus himself hath not doubted of the Superiority of the Bishop of Rome seeing he saith elsewhere That all the Churches must to wit all the Faithful of what place soever they are come to this Church in which the Apostolical Tradition hath been preserved by those who came to it from every Part because of its more powerful Principality Ad hanc enim Ecclesiam propter potentiorem Principalitatem necesse est omnem convenire Ecclesiam hoc est eos qui sunt undique fideles in qua semper ab his qui sunt undique conservata est ea quae est ab Apostolis Traditio To this Episcopius Replies That the Answer of the Bishops of Asia and the Letter of Irenaeus would not be very respectful if Victor had been the Chief of the Church that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies properly to give a contrary order and those of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acerbius perstringere are not invented to express the submission of a Subject to his Prince and that if these Bishops could take it ill that their Judge a pretended Soveraign and Infallible should banish from the Church and exclude from Heaven so great a number of Churches for so slight a cause they have therefore thought that he might be mistaken in his Decisions upon matters of Faith and that they had a right to examine them 2. That the Heresie of Blastus justifies not the proceedings of Victor seeing the Asiaticks looked not upon the Celebration of the Passover as a necessary Observance and which should precisely be applyed to such a day that they were contented that Victor and other Bishops should Celebrate it on Sunday if they had their Reasons for it but that they having not the same proofs thereof believed themselves not obliged to abandon the Apostolical Tradition It hath not been remarked that our Professor answereth the passage of Irenaeus because we need only to read it throughly to shew that there is no mention there of the Right of the Bishop of Rome in the Decision of Controversies but only of the Characters which they in the time of Irenaeus did acknowledge Apostolical Thereupon he saith That it must be sought for in the places where the Apostles have established Bishops but because it would be too long to make an enumeration of all the Apostolick Churches he stops at one of the most ancient and greatest which is the Church of Rome As this City was the Capital of the Empire Principalitas Potentior and that for that Reason the Inhabitants of divers Provinces negotiated there and were obliged to come thither Irenaeus concludes that the Apostolical Tradition could not fail of having been faithfully kept there since that if the Christians of a Province or of a City had been minded to corrupt it the Christians of other places who were at Rome would have opposed it it being improbable to suppose that so many different Nations would agree to abandon in so little a time the Doctrine of the Apostles II. Bom often alledged passages out of St. Augustin for the Authority of Popes that gave occasion to Episcopius of citing him the 22d Canon of the Council of Millan where St. Augustin was Secretary and another Canon of the 6th Council of Carthage where this Bishop also assisted both which prohibited the drawing Ecclesiastical Causes of the Diocess of Africk on the other side the Sea whether they regard the Inferior Members of the Clergy or the very Bishops That the Deputies of the Pope having represented to the Assembly That this Canon destroyed the Priviledges which the Council had granted to the Patriarch of Rome in permitting Ecclesiasticks to appeal unto him in Judgments had against them by the Ordinaries the Bishops of Africk were extreamly surprized and said all Unanimously That they never heard of such Priviledges Thereupon these Deputies related three Canons which they said to be of the Council of Nice the Fathers of Carthage to Constantinople Alexandria and Antioch and the Authentick Copies of this Council where not finding these three Canons they Writ to the Pope That the Right of Appealing which he pretended to in quality of Supream Judge and belonged not to him by virtue of the Council of Nice seeing the Three Canons upon which he grounded his pretentions were not to be found in the Originals The Exceptions are reduced to this 1. That the Council of Millan prohibits but the Inferior Clerks to Appeal beyond the Sea and that this is evident because Pope Innocent to whom the Synod of Millan submitted all their Decrees as to the Head of the Church approved the Canon in question 2. That there is no reason to believe that the Copy of the Council of Nice which was kept at Rome was supposed but that there is much more likelyhood that those of Constantinople Antioch and Alexandria were defective seeing the Manuscript upon which Ruffinus Writ his History was so and that there are several Canons of this Council cited in that of Calcedonia and in St. Ambros St. Augustin and Ierome which are not found in this Historian 3. That the Decrees which are accused of Supposition have been cited by other Popes before Zozime as Iulius speaks who living but Twenty years after the Council of Nice could easily have been convinced
That the British Churches have a right of absolute judging of all that happens in the Extent of their Jurisdiction seeing they have no less Priviledges than those of Africk For fear this Canon should be contradicted by the Bishops who might have a more extended Jurisdiction the Council made another which intimates That according to antient Customs the Bishop of Alexandria should extend his Jurisdiction over Aegypt Libya and Pentapolis seeing the Bishop of Rome had a like Custom and so likewise at Antioch and in the other Provinces the antient Priviledges of Bishops should be kept that no Bishop should be created without the consent of the Metropolitan and that when differences should arise the Plurality of Voices should decide them There are according to our Author three remarkable things in this Canon 1. A Confirming the Priviledges of some of the greatest Bishopricks as of Rome Alexandria and Antioch 2. A securing those of other Churches against Invasions 3. To put out of contestation the Rights of the Metropolitan Churches For the last of these three things it is so clear that there is no stopping at it but the others chiefly the second are much inlarged upon It seems that the Church of Alexandria was the occasion of this Canon and thereby it appears that the Bishop of the City had a much more extended Jurisdiction than that of the Metropolitans seeing it reached over three Provinces named in the Canon upon which here are divers Remarks which we shall pass over Some Learned Men have maintained that there were no Patriarchs in the time of the Council of Nice but without disputing about words Dr. Sillingfleet shews by this Canon and other Proofs that the Bishop of Alexandria had already before the Council of Nice a true patriarchal Power over Aegypt and which answered to that of the Governour named Praefectus Augustalis Some pretend that the Power of this Bishop was only that which commonly the Metropolitans had because the Provinces of Aegypt had no other Metropolitan but him and depended immediately of him But tho this Authority was as that of Metropolitans as to what concerns the manner of exercising it was Patriarchal in respect of the extent Such was also that of the Bishop of Rome who had under him no Metropolitans and who received immediately the Appeals of divers Provinces Dr. Stillingfleet believes that the Council of Nice provincially confirmed the custom of Alexandria fearing that if it were abolished in remitting to the Provincial Councils of Aegypt the Supream Authority as was done for the most part by other Provinces the Arians should draw an advantage thereby fearing also that this should draw too much hatred upon the Bishop of Alexandria if he were named alone those of Rome and Antioch were added notwithstanding afterwards these Regulations of the Council of Nice were abused several Churches aspired to the Patriarchship and that of Rome tho' named only upon occasion pretended that its Universal Supremacy was established therein The Agents of the Bishop of this City had the boldness to falsifie the Title of this Canon in the Council of Chalcedon and of drawing an Advantage from it The other thing that they principally proposed was to preserve the Priviledges of other Churches for it is known that Exceptions render the Laws more uncontestable in unexcepted Cases so the Provinces which are not excepted in this Canon have a right to govern themselves by their Provincial Synods without acknowledging any Superiour Authority Whence it 's concluded that the British Churches ought peaceably to enjoy this Right seeing they never have submitted to the Patriarch of Rome This Bishop hath never had the right of Consecrating the Metropolitans or British Bishops he hath not convocated them to his Assemblies at Rome none of their Synods have been called to him so that the British Provinces have the Right according to the Council of Nice of governing themselves independant of every other Church It was upon this Principle that the Council of Ephesus condemned the Patriarch of Antioch who pretended to have right of Consecrating the Metropolitan of Cyprus against the antient Custom The Canon of this Council may be seen in our Author who defends it against the Carpings of some Roman Catholick Doctors and shews the true sense thereof particularly against F. Martin Notwithstanding these same Doctors pretend that the Pope hath always had a Patriarchal Power over all the Churches of the West It is granted that he had this Authority before the Council of Nice over the Diocess of Rome or the Suburbicary Provinces but it is maintained that it reached not any farther and divers Doctors are refuted who have pretended the contrary Mr. Schelstrate is particularly opposed who in the second Dissertation of his Antiquitas Illustrata hath undertaken to prove That the Bishop of Rome hath this Patriarchal Power upon all the West We agree with him that the Patriarchal Rights consist in these three things 1. The Right of Consecrating Bishops and Metropolitans 2. In calling them to a Synod 3. In receiving Appeals and deciding ' em 1. As to that which concerns the Consecration of Metropolitans and Bishops in all the Western Churches Mr. Schelstrate grants That it was not exercised by the Pope His Adversary shews even that St. Ambrose was elected Bishop of Milan without asking the consent of Damasus who was then Bishop of Rome indeed the Diocess of Rome extended not unto Milan but comprized only 5 Provinces or 70 Bishops Some call these Provinces thus Marsi Compania Thussia Vmbria and Marchia and others thus Latium Valeria Tuscia Picenum and Vmbria To prove that the Diocess of the Bishop of Rome extended further a Letter from Pope Syricius to Anysius Bishop of Thessalonica is cited where the Latter is declared Legate of the Pope in Illyria But our Author shews at length that that begun but in the time of Syricius upon the end of the fourth Age and that this Pope did thus to oppose the Grandeur of the Patriarch of Constantinople who extended his Diocess too far upon which there are Remarks in the Original that cannot be related here Tho' the Library of the Pope is obliged to grant That the Bishop of Rome consecrated not all the Western Bishops he pretends to shew that before the Council of Nice he had the power of deposing the Bishops of the Gauls He proves it by the Example of Marsian Bishop of Arles who was deposed by Pope Stephen But it appears That nothing else was desir'd of the Pope in this Rencounter but to join his Authority to that of the Bishops of the Gaules that acting jointly the People should the more easily submit to their Order as appears by the LXVIII Letter of St. Cyprian wherein he speaks to this Pope as his Equal exhorting him to do what we have said Dr. Stillingfleet refutes also two other Proofs of his Adversary not very considerable we shall not stop at 'em that we may not be tedious 2.
The Bishop of Worcester maintains that the Pope could not convocate Councils but within the extent of the suburbicary Provinces tho' he denyes not but on certain singular occasions other Bishops have not been invited to these Councils as when Aurelian permitted the Bishops of Italy to assemble at Rome for the Affair of Paul of Samosatus But the Bishops of the Diocess of Italy who acknowledged the Bishop of Milan as chief thought themselves not obliged to be at the Patriarchal Councils of Rome And that which is remarkable is that one of these Councils was of Sentiments very different from him who then was upon the Patriarchal See of this City concerning the Ordination of Maximus to be Bishop of Constantinople Damasus writ twice to Constantinople with much fervour for the deposing of Maximus But St. Ambrose and the Bishops of his Diocess in a Synodical Letter to Theodosius justified the Ordination of Maximus and disapproved the Election of Gregory and Nectairus The Defenders of the pretensions of the Bishop of Rome are asked If this Council acknowledged the Patriarchal Power of this Bishop Mr. Schelstrate saith after Father Lupus That the Power of the Pope gave him the Right of deciding all things consulting only the Bishops who could do nothing without him If that is true it must be granted That the Italick Diocess was without the limits of the Patriarchate of Rome seeing the Bishops of this Diocess sent their Advices to the Emperor without having any respect to the Sentiments of Damasus Dr. Stillingfleet sheweth the independancy of the same Bishops in respect to Rome by the Example of the Council of Capua where St. Ambrose presided without asking so much as the Advice of the Bishop of Rome To prove that the Pope had the Right of calling the Bishops of all the West to all his Patriarchal Councils Mr. Schelstrate relates some Examples of Bishops amongst the Gauls and Great Britain who were at some Roman Councils But he is answered That it is no wonder that some should be found in extraordinary Rencounters and that it doth not follow from thence that the Pope was Patriarch of all the West no more than that Councils of Western Bishops being held at Milan Arles Rimini Sardis and elsewhere prov'd That the Bishops of these Cities were their Patriarchs It ought to be shewn That the Pope convocated the Bishops of the West by vertue of his Patriarchal Authority There was also a great Difference amongst the Councils assembled for the Vnity of Faith and the Discipline of divers Diocesses and the Provincial or Patriarchal Synods câ—nvocated at a certain time to appear before the Metropolitan or the Patriarch This is seen in the Diurnus Romanus where the Bishops of Rome oblige themselves to be present at the Councils of this City assembled at certain times as Garnier sheweth He saith it was thrice a year but no more for the Suburbicary Churches which had no other Primate but the Bishop of Rome The last of the Patriarchal Rights was to receive Appeals of the Provinces of the Patriarchship By these Appeals we must not understand the free Choice that parties can make for one to be an Arbitrator of their Differences but Juridical Appeals from an inferiour Tribunal to a higher one It hath oft fallen out that Bishops have been chosen Arbitrators of a common approbation to make others agree or that Bishops intermedled in the Differences of others without pretending to end them with Authority Our Author brings an Example of a Council of the Italick Diocess who medled with a dissention at Constantinople whereof we have already made mention But to this is opposed That the Bishops of Rome have several times sent Legates throughout all the West to examine the causes of the Bishops and to make Report of â—em For the Letters of the Popes to the Bishops of Thessalonica which are in the Roman Collection are cited to prove this But we have already taken notice what Dr. Stillingfleet's Answer is to that He adds here that the Origine of these pretensions was from this That the Council of Sardis being exasperated against the Eastern Bishops gave the Bishop of Rome the liberty to re-examine some Causes in divers Provinces He took the occasion from thence of sending Legates and that was one of the first steps by which he ascended to so great a Power in the West A Doctor of Sorbone who writ some years ago de antiquis majoribus Episcoporum causis alloweth That in the space of CCCXLVII Years viz. about the time of the Council of Sardis no Example of a Cause can be produced which was referred to Rome by the Bishops who were the Judges thereof It is besides Objected That the Council of Arles attributes to the Pope majores Dioeceses but it hath been seen by the Government of this Council which has been spoken of that it was far from acknowledging the Bishop of Rome for Superiour Besides there are reasons to believe that the place where these words are has been corrupted and tho' it was not so this may signifie another thing except this Bishop had a Diocess more large than his Brethren Dr. Stillingfleet refutes some more Reasons of Mr. Schelstrate of small consequence and relates some places of the Letters of Pope Leo where he presses hard the Canons of Nice against the usurpations of the Patriarch of Constantinople and maintains it was not lawful for any to violate or to reveal the Decrees of this Council from whence it 's concluded that the Churches of England are in no wise obliged according to the Discipline of the first Ages to submit to the Pope After having ended this Controversie our Prelate sheweth there is a great likelyhood that some Bishops of England were at the Council of Sardis But thence an occasion is taken to say that the British Churches having received the Council of Sardis they are obliged to acknowledge the Pope for the Patriarch of the West seeing this Council hath established the Appeals to the Bishop of Rome To see if this Objection be of any force Dr. Stillingfleet examines the Design and the Proceedings of this Council as follows Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria had been deposed by two Synods of Eastern Bishops for some Crimes of which he was accused He could not hope to have this Judgment reverst in the East because the Arian Party was very strong there he made his Address to the Bishops of the West and particularly to Iulius Bishop of Rome as to the Chief He desired that his Process might be reverst and shewed by Letters of divers Bishops of Aegypt that he had not been heard according to the Forms neither at Tyre nor Antioch because of the violence of the Faction of Eusebius Thereupon Iulius having communicated his Design to his Brethren the Bishops of the West writ in their name and his own to the Eastern Bishops That it was just to examine this Cause by
Life of Christ though perhaps the Reason that Eusebius was the Person that first takes notice of it might be this that these Letters lying in the hands of the Arch-bishop of Edessa were not come to the knowledge of the Greeks because they were written in Syriac and that Eusebius first Published them in the Greek He cites also other Pieces that many Learned Men have censured as Counterfeit among which are the Acts of Pilate from whence Tertullian hath taken what he saith in his Apologetic touching I know not what Design of Tiberius to put Jesus Christ into the Number of the Roman Deities See what Mr. Le Feverre saith of this History in his Epistles Dr. Cave makes no long stay on the Preaching of the Apostles but passing to the Third Part he there considers first the Progress that the Christian Religion hath made in the World after the Apostles time secondly What contributed to so great and swift a Growth as that of Christianity in spight of all the Persecutions that it suffered and then gives a brief History of them Of which according to the common Opinion he reckons up Ten and he advances many other things that the Learned have contested about as the silence of the Oracles c. It is not long since the Ingenious Dodwell made it appear that the number of these Persecutions was very dubious and that an Author of the United Provinces shews there was no certainty in the Reason that was generally given for the pretended silence of the Heathen Oracles 1. Without rehearsing what all the World knows of Saint Stephen by reading the Acts of the Apostles he tells us ancient History teacheth nothing certain of the Extraction Place Birth nor Life of this first Martyr Baronius maintains as he says upon the Authority of Lucian Presbyter of Ierusalem who lived about the beginning of the Fifth Age that Saint Stephen was a Disciple of Gamaliel as well as Saint Paul who became his Enemy after he was Converted to Christianity But Dr. Cave saith he found nothing like it in this Letter Others say he was one of the Seventy Disciples Be it as it will he was certainly one of the Seven first Deacons that the Apostles Establish'd in the Christian Church and who were supposed to have been all Greeks by Nation but of the Iewish Religion As Nicholas one of them being a Proselyte of Antioch 't was thought all the rest might be Proselytes of Ierusalem The Apostles being employ'd about things of greater Importance were obliged to remit to other Persons the Care of Serving the Tables which was to make it their business to relieve the Poor and buy sufficient Provisions to refresh them this they called Agapes to manage the Treasure of the Church and to distribute to each according to his Necessity The Office of Deacon answers very well to the Signification this word hath in the Heathen Authors where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a Servant whose place it was to wait on Guests at the Table or a kind of Carver Dr. Cave believes that the Charge of Deacon extended much farther and that when the Eucharist was celebrated in these Agapes the Deacons were imployed to distribute it As was practised in the Christian Church in Iustin Martyr's time which his second Apology sufficiently testifies where he says the Deacons distributed the Bread and Wine to the Assembly after it had been consecrated by the President Besides which they Preach'd Baptiz'd and Absolv'd Penitents especially when they were empower'd by the Bishop The Apostles establish'd but seven Deacons the reason is apparent without seeking for Mysteries 't was because that number was sufficient Nevertheless the Fathers of the Council of Neocesaria ordained there should never be more than seven Deacons in one City founding their Canon on this Practice of the Apostles Sozomen tells us also That in his time there was no more at Rome altho' in other Churches they observed not this Rule These Deacons made by the Apostles met with violent Opposition in performing their Office from one or other of the Synagogues whereof if the Rabbins are to be credited there was at Ierusalem to the number of 480 besides Colleges in which Dr. Cave believes young Persons were instructed in the Law St. Stephen was first set upon by those of the Synagogue of the Libertins Alexandrians the Cyrenians of Cilicia and of Asia on whom the Author makes some Remarks and particularly upon the first To understand who these Libertins were 't is necessary to know that Pompey having subdued Iudea brought from thence a great number of Slaves to Rome and the Governors of Syria and Iudea who succeeded Pompey did the like there was so many of them when the Jews sent Ambassadors to Augustus that Iosephus says there was near eight thousand of their own Nation that joyned themselves to them They continued in that Slavish Condition till by degrees they were all made Free which happened in the time of Tiberius who permitted them to live a little beyond the Tyber as Philo informs us Among these Jews were without doubt no small number of Libertins or Free-men who had their Proseuques or Chappels where they assembled together to pay their Devotions Every Year they sent a Summ of Mony to Ierusalem instead of first Fruits and deputed some among them to offer Sacrifices in the name of the rest Tacitus and Suetonius report That afterwards the Senate sent to Sardina four thousand young Men of the Jewish Nation that were Free to clear that Isle of the Thieves that were very Incommodious to it Tacitus likewise says That all the other Jews and Proselites were banished from Rome and even Italy it self Dr. Cave supposes many of these Enfranchised Jews took occasion from thence to return to Ierusalem and established a Synagogue there which was call'd The Synagogue of the Libertins Of the Members of this Society 't is that St. Luke speaks when amongst those that were at Ierusalem on the day of Pentecost he says There were Strangers from Rome Iews and Proselites The Violence of these Men was so great that they run upon St. Stephen to Stone him without observing the accustom'd Formalities in the like cases if what the Rabbins report thereof is true As thus when they brought the Delinquent to the place of Punishment a Man stood at the Door of the Sanhedrin with a Handkerchief in his Hand which he waved to an fro that some one might undertake to speak in Favour of the Criminal and by this sign to advertise a Man on Horse-back which was at some distance to ride full speed to bring back the accused Person and defer his Punishment till they had heard all that could be said in his Favour Sometimes he was brought back four or five times if he said he had any thing to represent to his Judges in defence of himself But as the Laws of the Thalmud often much resemble those of Plato it is no
to Dr. Cave in his English Life of Clement Alexandrinus which hath been very useful to us in the making this Clement in the Passage which hath been related concerning the Philosophy he approved if as Socrates who in his Phoedon applies to Philosophers this Proverb which they made use of in their Mysteries There are many who bear the Thyrse but few who are truly filled with the Spirit of Bacchus Socrates adds immediately after These are I believe only those who applied themselves as they ought to Philosophy of the number of whom I have endeavoured to be as much as I could c. As the whole Passage is in Roman Character Dr. Cave thought that these words Of the number of whom c. were Clement's whereas they are Socrates as appears in Plato and even at the bottom of the Page where Clement Cites them If all this Passage had been in Italick Dr. Cave would not have been deceived in it which ought in no wise to appear strange to those who know that to write the Life of an Author collected out of divers places Attention must be given to so many things all at a time that it is very difficult to avoid confounding ones self Besides in distinguishing the Subjects by a Line and the Citations by different Characters more Facility is given to those who have read an Author in finding such places again as they may have occasion for which is not of little use As to this Edition there are three Indexes one of the Passages cited by St. Clement the second of the Subjects and the third of the Words and Greek Phrases either worthy of Remark or such as this Author applieth to a particular Sense If these Indexes were complete and correct they would be without doubt very useful but they are neither There is an infinite sigâ—t of Faults in the Numbers and often conâ—rary to what is in Clement The Passage of Iob There is no one that is clean is related in Chap. 25. of his Books whereas it is in the 14 th There is in the Index Peccato originali infectae omnium animae corpora 488. d. On contrary Clement refutes this Opinion in this place but Sylburge or some other who hath made this Index had apparently in his mind what Clement ought to have said according to him rather than what he effectually did say There is besides a fourth Index at the beginning of the Work which contains a List of the Authors cited by Clement but the Pages where he cites them being not marked it is altogether useless It were a thing to be desired for the Republick of Letters not only that Kings were Philosophers or that Philosophers were Kings but also that Booksellers were learned or that the Learned Men were Booksellers and that they brought back the Age of the Manuces and Stephens for to give us good Editions of the Writings of the Ancients and to level the way for a Study which of it self is hard enough without making difficulties by our own Negligence Chap. 1. Our Author begins the Defini-nition of the word Church as used in the Primitive Times which since it agrees so much with the present general Definition we shall pass it over to remark what is more uncommon Afterwards he comes to treat of its Members which he distinguishes into the Clergy and Laity in which he considers these three Particulars 1. Peculiar Acts of the Clergy 2. Peculiar Acts of the Laity 3. Joint Acts of both The Clergy he considers in these three Offices Bishops Priests and Deacons He begins at Ierusalem where the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles and Disciples induing them with the Gift of Tongues working Miracles and fitting them to Preach the Gospel to all the World He assigns St. Andrew to Scythia St. Bartholomew to India St. Matthew to Parthia St. Iohn to Asia the less telling us also that the rest of the Apostles had every one their Commission and Allotment according to Clemens Romanus The Apostles went forth Preaching both in City and Country appointing the first Fruits of their Ministry for Bishops and Deacons which they left behind them whilst they planted the other Churches Thus Clemens was ordained Bishop of Rome by St. Peter and Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna by St. John as says Tertullian Our Author reconciles what the Scripture and St. Clemens Romanus says Ep. ad Cor. p. 2. about the Plurality of Bishops in one Church with the Negation of Ignatius Tertullian and St. Cyprian who affirm that there ought to be but one Bishop in a Church He says the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the Bishop by way of Eminency and Propriety tho' there might be others such as St. Cyprian reckons Bishop Pastor President Governor Superintendent and Priest 2. Our Author shews in the Second Chap. that these Bishops Jurisdiction or Ancient Diocesses appeared to him to be but one Congregation for which he brings the Authority of several of the Fathers He also shews that the word Parish is as old as Irenaeus who in his Synodical Epistle to Pope Victor calls the Bishopricks of Asia Parishes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Euseb. l. 5. c. 24. p. 193. He brings eight more Instances of the word and gives us some Examples of matter of Fact parallel hereunto which cou'd not be otherwise as to meeting all together receiving the Eucharist from the Bishop alone were Baptized only by the Bishop who was the Common Almoner all the People met at a Church Censure and when the Bishop was dead all met to choose another publick Letters were read before the whole Diocess or Parish all the Diocess met to manage Affairs c. Our Author all along cites his Authorities very plentifully in the Margent to maintain his Assertion 3. In the Third Chap. he considers the Bishops Office which he says was Preaching the Word Praying with his People Administring the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper taking care of the Poor Ordaining of Ministry Governing his Flock Excommunicating Offenders and Absolving Penitents for every one of these Offices our Author Cites a Father He proceeds a little after to shew the manner of his Electing Bishops which he shews was by the Choice of all the People who knew his Life and Conversation before-hand but the Voice of the People was not sufficient by it self for after they had Elected one they presented him to the neighbouring Bishops for their Approbation for without that the Election was not valid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Euseb. Lib. Cap. 11. Pag. 212. After a Bishop's Election he was install'd by Imposition of Hands by other Bishops he cites all along his Authorities 4. He treats of Presbyters and gives this Definition That a Presbyter is a Person in holy Orders having thereby an inherent Right to perform the whole Office of a Bishop but being possessed of no Place or Parish nor actually discharging it without the Permission and Consent
perfect and we know not what those meant who had the care of this Edition in putting in the Latin Title Opus integrum unless these words signifie only that there have been inserted in divers places additions which the Author had made 1. For to conceive well the change which happened by little and little in the Christian Church we must begin at the Original and consider the State in which it was for the first six Ages Hegesippus assures us that during the Life of the Apostles Hereticks scarcely durst appear but that as soon as these Holy men were dead a great number of them were seen openly to oppose the truth In that time divers Philosophers attacked the Christian Religion with so much the more boldness that the Christians were destitute of Persons who could refute the Pagan Religion and defend Christianity with sufficient eloquence This is what Lactantius testifies in these words Si qui sorte literatorum ad eam contulerunt defensioni ejus veritatis non suffecerunt And a little lower after having named Minucius Faelix Tertullian and Cyprian quia defuerunt apud nostros idonei peritique Doctores qui vehementer qui acriter errores publicos redarguerent qui causam omnem veritatis ornate copioseque desenderent provocavit quosdam hac ipsa penuria ut auderent scribere contra ignotam sibi veritatem This scarcity of able men made many Hereticks to slip in amongst the Christians and easily seduced the weak and ignorant who were in a very great number But as soon as there were Christian Emperours the corruption was much greater pleasures began to be introduced into the Christian Church and amongst Ecclesiasticks there appear'd Enmities and Divisions And because Bishops were rich and considerable they made use of all manner of means to attain Bishopricks and when they came to it they assumâ—d a Tyrannical Authority These disorders always encreased until they came to a great head as Vsher shews is too evident by many passages of famous Authors who have left us frightful Characters of the corruption of their Ages It encreased particularly in the time of Boniface III. who came to the Chair in Dcvi and who obtained of the Emperor Phocas the title of Ecumenick Bishop and Chief of the Church The Historians of that time describe this Phocas as the wickedest man in his Age and Cedrenus saith that a holy Monk having asked of God several times why he had made Phocas Emperour a voice from Heaven at last answered him Because I have found none worse This History true or false marks the horrour People had for the memory of Phocas Vsher believes that it was then that Antichrist came into the World and that he was during some Ages but in his Childhood Boniface according to him contributed not a little to the establishing and extending his Empire Yet there were Assemblies held and couragious Persons found that opposed the progresses of certain Tenets who have much contributed to the Grandeur of the Ecclesiasticks in general and Popes in particular amongst which our Author seeks for Antichrist as most part of the Protestants do A Council composed of cccxxxviii Bishops condemned in the year Dccliv at Constantinople the worship of Images and gave this reason for their proceeding that there is but one Image instituted by Jesus Christ to wit the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist which represent his Body and Blood Although the second Council of Nice opposed it and re-established the worship of Images in Dcclxxxvii These Canons were rejected in the West by the Churches of great Britain as our Archbishop shews by divers English Authors The Churches of Germany and France did the like in Dccxciv in the Council of Francfort the History of which may be seen as well as that oâ— Nice in a Dissertation of Mr. Alix's intituled Dissertatio de Conciliorum quorumvis definitionibus expendendis at Paris 1680 in 8 vo Charlemagne writ himself against Images and sent what he writ to Pope Adrian who had had his Legates at the Council of Nice and who had approved thereof But it is not the custom of Popes to learn Religion from any one Adrian had no respect to the remonstrances of Charlemagne whom he endeavoured even to refute the Images were adored at Rome as much then as before and his Successors did as much as he 'T was this that obliged Lewis the meek to convocate in DCCCXXV an Assembly of learned men at Paris who examined the question of Images and condemned their worship They even collected a great many passages out of the Ancients who disapproved them and sent them to Pope Eugenius II. by Ieremy Bishop oâ— Sens and Ionas Bishop of Orleance with order to treat mildly of this Affair fearing that in resisting too much they should engage him to an obstinacy whence he would not recede In DCCCXXXIII The Sons of Lewis the meek having conspired against him the rumour run in France that Gregory the fourth was onward in his way to come thither to excommunicate Lewis and those of his party but the Bishops who were engaged in the Interests of this Prince declared that they would submit in no wise to his will and that if he came to excommunicate them he would return himself excommunicated Vsher besides relates divers other examples by which it appears that the Liberty of the Churches of France and Germany was not yet quite extinguished even at the end of the tenth Age seeing it was thought strange that a Cardinal sent from Rome blessed a Chappel in the Diocess of Tours without the permission of the Bishop of that City There are also remarkable words of Arnulph Bishop of Orleance in a Council of Rheims held in DCCCCXCII where he saith speaking of the Pope If he is destitute of Charity and pufft up only with his Knowledge he is the Antichrist who is seated in the Temple of God and who shews himself as if he was a God But if he has neither Charity nor Wisdom he is in the Temple of God as a Statue or as an Idol from whom an answer can be no more expected than from a Marble Si caritate destituitur solaque scientiâ inslatur extollitur Antichristus est in Templo Dei sedens se ostendens tanquam sit Deus Si autem caritate fundatur nec scientia erigitur in Templo Dei tanquam Statua tanquam Idolum est à quo responsa petere marmora consulere est If this principle of Arnulph is true it 's requisite the Defendors of Popes discover by what wonder they are all full of Charity and Learning altho' they appear in our eyes either Ignorant or Proud and oftentimes both together Vsher then sheweth how that the Tenet of Transubstantiation was much resisted which began to be introduced in the ninth Age. He rangeth among the Defenders of the spiritual presence Rabanus Maurus Bertram Iohn Scot Erigene and several others upon which we may consult Mr. Arnauld and Claude in their dispute
who repented after having kept them some time in Prison to put upon their cloaths violet coulor'd Crosses which they thus wore all their Life not being suffered to appear with other cloaths and with this clause that the Inquisition reserved a full power of changeing the Sentence pronounced as it should be thought fit whether those who had been condemned to wear the Cross were accused anew or whether there was no accusation at all Those whom they resolv'd to mortifie by a sad imprisonment were kept between four Walls where they were constrained to go of themselves and where they were nourished only upon Bread and Water The obstinate Hereticks were put into the hands of the Secular There was at that time in Gasconny of divers sorts as well as before In this Register are Vaudois and Albigeses condemned for divers pretended Heresies as of denying Transubstantiation and the seven Sacraments of the Romish Church of maintaining that we shall not rise in spiritual Bodies c. There have been besides Baguins certain Monks of the third Order of St. Francis who thought that it was not lawful for them to possess any thing whatever who called the Pope Antichrist because he suffered the Religious of St. Francis to possess Riches and who suffer'd themselves to be burned rather than to retract these Fantastick Opinions There is also the Condemnation of divers Manicheans And the proceeding against Peter Ruffit who quite to overthrow Concupiscence had with a Woman the same commerce as some Priests had with Young Women in the time of St. Cyprian a Custom which lasted so long that the Council of Nice condemned it As being us'd in the beginning o' th' fourth Age and that St. Basil St. Chrysostome and St. Ierome employ'd all their Eloquence to cure several Ecclesiasticks of this Custom in their time an exact account hereof may be seen in Mr. Dodwel's third Dissertation upon St. Cyprian Two small pieces of James Usher Archbishop of Armagh One of the Original of Bishops and the other of Proconsulary Asia to which is added an Appendix of the Priviledges of the British Churches At London by Samuel Smith 1687. in 8vo And at Rotterdam by Renier Leers THis is another Posthume Work of the Learned Vsher Archbishop of Armagh which sufficiently testifies that profound Learning that hath rendered him so famous and makes him still respected as one of the Oracles of England The Question he starteth here has so imploy'd the wits for some years past that instead of reuniting for the common Interest they cannot without much ado calm the Agitation which this dispute hath caused tho' it only concerns Exterior Order It is therefore pretended that in this Work Episcopacy is a Divine Institution founded upon the Old and New Testament and the Imitation of the Ancient Church Vsher immediately remarks that the chief of the Levites bore a Title which was translated in Greek by that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bishop of the Levites he expounds these Words of the Apocalypse Write to the Angel of Ephesus as if the word Angel was the same thing as that of Bishop The Succession of the Bishops of Ephesus appeared evident enough at the Council of Calcedon held in 451. And there 't is likely enough that Timothy or one of his Successors was the Angel to whom the words of St. Iohn are directed St. Ireneus says that he had seen Polycarp who was established Bishop of Smyrna by the Apostles Lastly he adds that Tertullian in his Book of Prescription against Hereticks and St. Irenaeus pressed the Hereticks by the Argument of the Succession of Bishops from the Apostles unto their time and chiefly upon that of the Bishops of Rome beginning with Linus Cletus or Clement that the Apostles had placed there and continuing until Elentherius the twelfth Bishop from the Apostles And it was Eleutherius who had the Glory of receiving into the Christian Faith Lucius King of England with all his Kingdom and that there were Bishops so well established from that time that ten years before the Council of Nice held in 325. three English Bishops assisted at the Council of Arles After having proved the establishment of Bishops by the Apostles Vsher examines the origine of the Metropolitans to whom he gives the same Antiquity For supposing as we have said that St. Iohn speaking of the seven Angels understands nothing else but Bishops he extends his conjecture so far as to say that St. Iohn having written to the seven Churches of Asia without denoting them more particularly it necessarily follows that they had some Preheminence and that they were distinguished by themselves that is to say by their quality of Metropolis He confirms it by this circumstance that the Prefects of the Romans resided in these Cities as Capitals and that the Adjacent Cities came for Justice thither Whence he concludes that they were as Mothers to the other Churches He concludes in shewing it to be the Sentiment of Beza and Calvin and proceeds to the second part of his Work which treats of the Proconsulary or Lydian Asia He observeth that the Name of Asia properly belonged to Lydia for they pretend that Asia was the Name of an ancient King of the Lydians and that it was Vespasian that made a Proconsulary Province on 't After that these three Questions are resolved The first if at the time of the Council of Nice all the Bishops were subject to the three Patriarchs of Rome Alexandria and Antioch It 's proved by the very Canons of the Council of Nice and by the first Council of Constantinople assembled under Theodosius the Great that each Patriarch had Power no farther than the extent of his Territory and over the Bishops of his particular Province And to inform us where the Patriarchats were limited he saith that that o◠Alexandria comprised Egypt Lybia and Pentapolis but that Africk Thebes nor the Mareotides were not subjected to it That of Antioch had not the whole Empire of the East whereof Constantinople was the Capital But only all that extended from the Mediterranean Sea towards the East to the Frontiers of the Empire That of Rome contained ten Provinces The Islands of Sicily Corse and Sardinia were three of them and the Continent of Italy on the East-side made the other seven that the ancient Lawyers called Suburbicaries But not to leave the work imperfect upon this Subject he examines in what dependance the Churches were who set up no Patriarchs To this purpose he observes that the Roman Empire was divided into thirteen Dioceses seven on the East-side and six on the West-side in all 120. Provinces Each Diocess had a Metropolis where the Primate resided as well as the Praetor or Vicar who decided appeals in Civil Affairs as also each Province had it's Metropolis It will not be useless to add that tho' Primates had the same Authority as the Patriarchs they preceded them notwithstanding in Councils and that Rome Alexandria and Antiochia were honoured
with this dignity which gave them the Preference because they were the three chief Cities of the World The second Question is whether the Bishop of Carthage was subject to the Patriarch of Rome or Alexandria and answer is made that he was subject to neither because he was a Primaâ—e himself of one of the thirteen Dioceses whereof we have spoken As to Jurisdiction he saith that according to the Canons of the Councils the order of the differences amongst Ecclesiasticks and all that concerned the Clergy was immediately to be carried before the Metropolitan and by an appeal before the Primate without acknowledging the Superiority of the Patriarchs That which makes the difficulty is that St. Augustine said that St. Cicilian in his difference with Donatus appeals to the Bishops beyond Sea But answer is made that that ought to be understood of the Council and not of a particular Bishop as that of â—ome who would draw the honour thereof to himself and attributed that Right to himself from the time that the Vandals under their King Genserick destroy'd all Africk as the Popes have done since in regard to the Greek Church by the fall of the Eastern Empire The third Question is an enquiry whether or no England ever depended on the Patriarch of Rome and it s decided in the Negative It had it's Primate who was the Bishop of York For although London according to the Relation of Tacitus was already famous through commerce notwithstanding the City of York was the Capital the Vicar of the Empire resided there and the Emperor Constance Father of Constantine the Great died there If the Gallican Church hath it's Liberties the English Church is not wanting this is examined in a Treatise which followeth those we have already spoken of but 't is not Vshers The Author establisheth for a Foundation that under the ancient Law the Priesthood and Royalty was joyned together and that when they were separated the whole Authority always remained in the Person of the Prince Which is justified by the example of Solomon who nominated Abiathar to perform the Function of High Priest and by other Examples inserted in the request that was presented to King Philip the Fair by all his Subjects against the enterprizes of Pope Boniface VIII And he thence concludes that the outward Policy of the Church belonged always to the Prince and that it 's he alone who hath the power to convocate Councils and in particular by that of Nice and Constantinople which were assembled by the Authority of the Emperours and confirmed by Constantine the Great and Theodosius the Great For tho' the Intrinsick Authority depended on the Word of God the Extrinsick nevertheless depended on the Imperial Seal to give them the force of publick Law From whence he infers Patriarchs were not erected but by the Councils and Authority of the Emperours and chiefly that of Rome the Author evidently demonstrates this dignity was not attributed to it but by the respect that the Fathers and Councils had for the Capital of the Vniverse which was adorned with the Senate and Empire To convince these who are most prejudic'd in favour of the Court of Rome we shall relate but the terms of the last Council save one The Canon of the Council of Calcedon as it is to be seen in the Manuscripts of the Libraries of M. de Thou and M. Iustel He says that the Priviledges of Rome were granted by the Fathers because it was the Mistris of the World Quod urbs illa imperarèt Neither by Divine nor Apostolick Institution as he observes but a motive purely Temporal Therefore also the same Canon grants to Constantinople new Rome the first rank after old Rome for the same reasons because it was also honoured by the Senate and Imperial Throne After that the Author descends to the Priviledges of the English Church and maintains it did not depend on the Roman Patriarch because it was a different Diocess and that it was not in the number of the Suburbicary Provinces This Verse only is a proof on 't Ad penitùs toto divisos orbe Britannos It 's also further justified by this particular circumstance that the English celebrated the Passover according to the Custom of the East and conformed not to the West Having thus prepared the Mind he shews that the Order of Parliament under Henry the 8. who shook off the Popes Yoak was not a new Law but the re-establishment of the Ancient Laws and Maxims of the Kings of England who have maintained in all Ages that the Excommunications of the Pope were void in England and he brings many Examples to prove it He thence draws this Consequence that the Church of England cannot be aspers'd with the odious term of Schismatick because it hath not raised Altar against Altar that it hath kept it's Ancient Government and can shew a Succession of Bishops not interrupted since the beginning of Christianity and consequently it had sufficient Authority to reform it self There is added to these Treatises the advice of Iohn Barnesius a Benedictine Monk Who much disapproved these flatterers of the Court of Rome who have incens'd the Minds of men in maintaining that the Kingdom of England owes any homage to the Holy See and have caused this breach with the Pope He saith it would be very happy if the Pope for the good of Peace would again receive into his Communion the Kingdom of England without rendering it dependant on him until a Council may cure the evil But the Court of Rome never lets go its hold and it 's long since that Pope Paul the fourth answered to this Proposition of Barnesius For the Embassadors of England under Queen Mary asking him Absolution in the Name of the whole Kingdom he omitted not to demand of them if he might send an Exactor of the Tribute of St. Peter declaring unto them that they should not expect this Apostle should open them the Gate of Heaven whilst they retained his Patrimony upon Earth Barnesius confesseth it 's very hard to be submitted to the Pope who when he pleaseth Arms the Subjects against their King and adds that the Councils of Constance and Basil having declared those Hereticks who hold that the Pope was not Inferiour to General Councils the Modern Popes are in the Case of Excommunication declared by these Councils This he saith not to quarrel with his Holiness but humbly to insinuate unto him the means of bringing back so fine a Kingdom into the bosom of the Church Notwithstanding the good Intentions of this poor Monk have been very ill acknowledged for he was sent out of Paris strip'd of his habit tied like a fierce beast and uncompassionately dragg'd to Rome and there cast into the dark Dungeon of the Inquisition where he miserably expired An Extract of the Letters of Grotius I. PART The Subject Criticks and Divinity WE have not seen until now but a very small Number of the Letters of this Great Man the
of Solid Piety and very fit to remove the Abuses whereunto Superstition wou'd engage ' em The Bishop of Mysia Suffragan of Cologne the Vicar General of that City the Divines of Gant Malines and Lovain all approved it Nevertheless the Iesuite assures that That Writing scandalized the good Catholicks that the Learned of all Nations refuted it that the Holy See condemned it and that in Spain it was prohibited to be printed or read as containing Propositions suspected of Heresie and Impiety tending to destroy the particular Devotion to the Mother of God and in general the Invocation of Saints and the Worship of Images There are now near 10 Years past since M. Meaux kept us in Expectation of Mr. Noguier and M. Bastides Refutation but at length instead of an Answer in form there only appeared a second Edition of his Book bigger by half than the first by an Addition of an Advertisement in the beginning of it One may soon judge that it does not cost so much pains to compose 50 or 60 pages in Twelves as the taking of the City of Troy did But tho' the time was not very long it was too long to oblige all that time the Pope and the Court of Rome to give their Approbation to a Book so contrary to their Maxims Without doubt the Secret was communicated to them and they were assured That as soon as the Stroke was given and the Hugonots converted either by fair or foul means what seemed to be granted would be recalled Some Roman Catholicks worthy of a better Religion suffered thro' the ignorance of this Mystery A Prior of Gascogne Doctor in Divinity called M. Imbert told the People that went to the Adoration of the Cross on Good Friday in 83. That the Catholicks adored Iesus Christ crucifyed on the Cross but did not adore any thing that they saw there The Curate of the Parish said it was the Cross the Cross but M. Imbert answered No no it is Iesus Christ not the Cross. This was enough to create trouble this Prior was called before the Tribunal of the Arch-bishop of Bordeaux and when he thought to defend himself by the Authority of M. Meaux and by his Exposition what was said against that Book was objected to him that it moderated but was contrary to the Tenets of the Church After which he was suspended from Ecclesiastical Functions the Defendant provided an Appeal to the Parliament of Guienne and writ to M. de Meaux to implore his protection against the Arch-Bishop who threatned him with a perpetual Imprisonment and Irons it is not known what became of it The History of M. de Witte Priest and Dean of St. Mary's of Malines is so well known that I need not particularize upon it Our Author refers us here to what the Journals have said It is known what Persecutions he has suffered for expressing the Popes Supremacy and Infallibility according to M. de Meaux's Doctrine He did not forget to alledge that Bishops Authority and to say That his Exposition required no more of a Christian and an Orthodox but this did not hinder the University of Lovain to judge that Proposition pernicious and scandalous that intimates that the Pope is not the Chiefest of Bishops In the mean time the Reformed did not forget M. de Meaux his Advertisement did no sooner appear but it was refuted by Mr. de la Bastide and Mr. Iurieâ— a little after made his Preservative against the change of Religion in opposition to that Bishops Exposition But all these Books and those that were writ against his Treatise of the Communion under the two Kinds had no Answer this Prelate expecting booted Apologists who were to silence his Adversaries in a little time The Roman Catholicks of England notwithstanding their small number flattered themselves with hopes of the like Success having at their head a bold couragious Prince and one that would do any thing for them They had already translated M. Condom's Exposition of 1672 and 1675 into English and Irish and as soon as they saw King Iames setled on his Brothers Throne they began to dispute by small Books of a leaf or two written according to the method of the French Bishop The Titles with the Answers and the several Defences of each Party may be had in a Collection printed this present Year at London at Mr. Chiswells which is Entituled A Continuation of the present State of Controversy between the English Church and that of Rome containing a History of the printed Books that were lately published on both sides The Gentlemen of the Roman Church did begin the Battel by little Skirmishes but found themselves after the first or second firing without Powder or Ball and not able to furnish scattered Sheets against the great Volumes made against them said at last instead of all other answer that the little Book alone entituled The Papist Misrepresented and there represented a-new was sufficient to refute not only all the Dissertations which the English Divines lately published against Papists but all the Books and Sermons that they ever preached against Catholicks It is to no purpose to take the trouble of Disputing against people that have so good an Opinion of their Cause And in consequence of this the English answer to M. de Meaux's Exposition and the Reflections on his Pastoral Letter of 1686. met with no Answer as well as several other Books But Dr. Wake had no sooner published his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England but these Gentlemen which know better to assault than to defend made a Book Entituled A Vindication of the Bishop of Condom 's Exposition with a Letter of that Bishop Because we do not design to enter on the particulars of these Controversies we will only take notice as to what past That First M. de Meaux denyed that any Roman Catholick writ against or did design to write against it Secondly That Sorbonne did not refuse approving his Book Thirdly He says his Exposition was reprinted to alter those places which the Censurers had improved and maintains that it was put into the Press without his knowledge and that he had a new Edition made only to change some expressions that were not exact enough Fourthly That he neither read nor knew any thing of Father Cresset's Book Dr. Wake published the Defence of his Exposition about the middle of the same year 1686 where he shews First That the deceased Mr. Conrait a Man acknowledged by both Parties to be sincere had told many of his Friends that he saw this Answer in Manuscript and other persons of known honesty that are still living assured the Author that they had this Manuscript in their hands Dr. Wake justifies his Accusations on the 2d and 3d heads by so curious a History that it seems worthy of being believed He says that one of his Acquaintance who was very familiar with one of Marshall de Turenne's Domesticks was the first that discover'd this Mystery For this
serve him he made them considerable Gifts For this purpose he borrowed Mony of a Priest who was lately come from an Isle of the Archipelago named Thassus with order to buy at Constantinople Marble and other Materials for a Church which they designed to build in this Isle A little time after Gregory who was indisposed went out of Constantinople to take the Air and thus gave the Egyptian Bishops an opportunity to enter betimes in the Morning into his Church and there to place Maximus in the Episcopal See They could not end the Ceremony of the Ordination of this Cynick before the report of it went through the City Thereupon the Magistrates of Constantinople the Clergy and People without excepting the very Arians went in a Crowd to the Anastasia and drove these Bishops out of the Church They retired into a Play-House which was hard by where they cut his Hair and consecrated him That still irritated the People the more who heap'd all manner of Injuries upon Maximus and blamed even Gregory for having received an evil Man with too much Bounty into his House Gregory being advertised of what passed returned speedily to Constantinople and made the Speech which is the Twenty eighth in order wherein he declares he went out of the City with much Difficulty and that the short time he had been absent did but augment the Love he had for his Flock He besides represents the Perfidiousness of Maximus and of those of his Party to which he joyns the Description of a Christian Philosopher He excuseth himself for being put upon by Maximus in that good Men not being to be suspected he could not imagine that this Philosopher had an Intention to deceive him He saith at the end That he is ready to quit the Episcopal See and that he never wished for it He mingles a great many general Reflections in this Discourse and appears to prepare himself for Patience in consideration of the Miseries of this Life We see that he was Old because he saith That perhaps Maximus would upbraid him with his Old Age and Infirmity which is contrary to the Opinion of those who believe that Gregory was born towards the time of the Council of Nice The Returning of Gregory engaged the People much in his Interest and obliged Maximus to quit the City but not to renounce his Design It seemeth that he writ to the Bishops of the Italick Diocess assembled in a Synod at Aquilea whom he made acquainted with his Election which had been approved by Communicatory Letters from Peter of Alexandria which he sent then to be read in their Council He allowed that he had been ordain'd in a private House but he said it was because the Arians were in Possession of all the Churches and that he was obliged to yield to their Violence The Council not knowing the Circumstances approved of his Ordination supposing that the Promotion of Gregory was not done according to the Canons because it was not lawful for a Bishop to abandon a Church to go to establish himself in another The Approbation which they had given to the Ordination of Maximus made them also afterwards refuse to communicate with Nectaire his Successor and that they writ to the Emperor to intreat him to overlook it and to re-establish Maximus or to call a General Council at Rome to examine into this Matter Damasus Bishop of Rome also disapproved the Election of Gregory who according to the Canons ought to have staid at Sasine seeing it was not permitted to a Bishop to abandon the People which had been committed to him to go to another through Ambition which often causeth Quarrels and Schisms Thus he speaks on 't in a Letter written to some Bishops of Egypt wherein he also reprehends the Election of Maximus as contrary to the Canons He writ besides to Acholius Bishop of Thessalonica against the same and exhorted him to endeavor to establish a Catholick Bishop in Constantinople It is thereby seen that the Action of Gregory in abandoning Sasine had scandalized many People and for a Man so disinterested in the World as he testified himself to be was perhaps a thing that was a little too delicate Moreover to resolve to go to Constantinople after having despised Sasine was a thing that might produce bad Suspitions in ill-minded People It cannot be doubted but Maximus maliciously made use of all this to ruin the Reputation of Gregory and it was perhaps that which gave him the Boldness of going to Thessalonica to solicit Theodosius to establish him by an Edict But far from obtaining what he demanded the Emperor commanded him with Menaces to desist Desperate for missing his aim he went to Alexandria where having drawn some People unto his Party he threatned Peter Bishop of that City to take away his place if he did not help him to become Master of the Church of Constantinople The Governour of Alexandria being advertised of this Insolence and fearing the Cynick should cause some Troubles banished him from the City and History tells us not what became of him afterwards Gregory being thus rid of Maximus had the Arian Party upon his Hands which endeavoured to defame him in jearing his Country and Parents Besides he was accused of an ill Humour of Negligence and other Defects of this kind but as these Reproaches were either ill grounded or inconsiderable he easily justified himself as may be easily seen in his Twenty fifth Speech That which did him the most Damage was that in effect though he was a great Orator at that time and considering his Age he was not very fit to take other Cares upon him which he ought to have done to have maintained himself against the Arians He should have managed the Court and endeavoured to win the Favour of the Chief to advance the Interests of his Church and this is what he was not able to do having pass'd the greatest part of his Life in Study and Rest. Which caused the Priest who favoured Maximus as we have said to gain divers Catholicks who began to say that Gregory was not capable of fulfilling the Duties of Episcopacy where there needed no less Experience and Ability in Matters of Life than Eloquence and Knowledge The Complaints and Repulses of these People gave Gregory so much distaste that one day he undertook to take leave of his People But he had no sooner said that he would go away but all the Assembly desired him so earnestly not to Abandon them and expose the Orthodox Doctrin to fall under the efforts of the Arians by his Departure that at length he gave his consent to stay until the Bishops of the East who were to Assemble speedily as they said had Elected to fill the Episcopal Sea of Constantinople Matters remained in this State until Theodosius Arrived in this Cirty the 22 of November CCCLXXX This Emperor who had been Baptized of late at Thessalonica by Acholius an Orthodox Bishop that had
Inspired him with resolutions to Re-establish the Faith of Nice had already ordered being at Thessalonica by an Edict of the 27 th of February that all his Subjects should Embrace concerning the Holy Trinity the Opinion that was espoused at Rome and Alexandria that those who should profess it should be named Catholicks and the rest Hereticks that the names of Churches should not be given to the latter and that they should be obnoxious to Civil Punishments as well as to Divine Vengeance Being at Constantinople and having observed the great Multitude of Heterodox whereof this City was full he Published an Edict more Severe the Tenth of Ianuary in the Year CCCLXXXI by which he Recalls all those that might have given any Liberty to Hereticks and takes from them all the Churches they had in the Cities commanding them to deliver them to those who followed the Faith of Nice He sent word after that to Demophilus an Arian Bishop to Subscribe to this Council or resolve to quit the Churches of Constantinople Demophilus without Ballanceing took the latter Party and advertised the People that the next day they should Assemble without the City And the Arians were thus Dispossessed of the Publick Churches which they had during Forty Years After this Theodosius was Accus'd of wanting Zeal and some would have had him employ'd Violence to have reduced the Arians as Gregory reports tho he disapproves of the Heat of those who found fault with the Conduct of Theodosius because of that and declares against those that pretend to force Consciences The Emperor having sent for Gregory received him with much Affection and told him he was going to put him in Possession of Constantinople For fear the People the greatest part whereof followed the Sentiments of Arius should rise Theodosius sent Soldiers to Seize the Church of St. Sophia and made Gregory to be Conducted by others through the midst of the People which Cryed on every side and was in as much Concern and Despair as if Constantinople had been Taken which cou'd not be an acceptable Spectacle to a Wise and Moderate Bishop Tho the Sun was Risen it was so full of Clouds that it might have been said it was Night But the Sun immediately appeared when Gregory went into the Churh This Circumstance deserved not to be taken notice of if our Bishop had not related it as some extraordinary thing after having said That although he is one of those who regards not such sort of Thoughts he believes notwithstanding it is better to add Faith to all than equally to refuse to believe what is said So soon as they were in the Church Gregory was demanded for Bishop by the Cry of all the People which was there which he made to cease in telling them by a Priest that they should give God Thanks and not to Cry He was threatned with no Danger except thaat one Man drew his Sword and immediately put it into the Scabbard But although the Arians had given up their Churches they never the less Murmured amongst themselves and were enraged for their being driven away Gregory believed with a great deal of reason that the Heterodox might be drawn by Mildness and used it more willingly than the Authority of the Emperor He complains of a parcel of unhappy young People who called Mildness Cowardice gave Fury the name of Courage and would have the Arians to be irritated and inflamed with Anger The Moderation of Gregory did not displease Theodosius who some times would send for him and make him eat at his Table Notwithstanding our Bishop would very seldom be at Court though others were continually there to gain the Favour of the Emperor or of his Officers and made use of the pretence of Piety to advance themselves and ruin their Enemies As he was Old and of a weak Constitution he was often Indisposed which his Enemies attributed to too great Tenderness Being one day in Bed a Man was sent to Assassinate him who touched with Repentance confessed to him at his Beds Feet that he was set on work to have committed this Crime and obtained Forgiveness As to the Revenues of the Church Gregory saith that finding no Account out neither in the Papers of those who had been before him Bishops of Constantinople nor amongst those who had the care of gathering them he would not meddle with them and took nothing on 't that he should not render an Account for the same Theodosius at that time called a Council at Constantinople either to Condemn divers Heresies or to Establish Gregory according to the Canons in the Episcopal See of that City But before we relate what passed therein as to what concerneth Gregory it 's necessary to say somewhat of the Speeches he made whilst he was at Constantinople and which remain yet amongst us Basil Bishop of Caesarea Dyed the First day of the Year CCCLXXX Gregory made a Speech in Honour of him some time after not being able to render his Friend this last Duty as soon as he would He praiseth the Ancestors of Basil who were Persons of Quality and moreover Christians from a long time He saith that during the Persecution of Maximinus some of the Ancestors of Basil being retired into a Forest of Pontus without any Provision and Arms to go to Hunt they prayed God to send them some Game or Venison which they saw in this Wood and that in the very Moment God sent them a great number of Deers and such as were of the Fattest who shewed they were troubled not to be called for sooner Gregory is Merry enough on this Subject according to the Custom of Pagan Orators who do the like in respect to the Pagan Fables That which there is of worst consequence in it is That this renders Suspicious the other Narrations of Gregory 2. Afterwards he makes an Abridgment of the Life of Basil and insists on each Place according to his Custom with much Exaggeration Figures and Moralities Speaking of the manner he himself had passed his Life he saith that he wishes His Affairs may prosper better for the future by the Intercessions of Basil. 3. The ways whereby in his time Men advanced in Ecclesiastical Charges were no more Canonical than the ways which are imployed this day upon that account if Gregory may be Believed After having said that in other Professions Men were advanced by degrees and according to the Capacity they had he assures us that the chief Places were attain'd as much through Crimes as Vertue and that the Episcopal Sees were not for those who were the most Worthy thereof but for the most Potent c. No body takes the name of Physician nor of Painter who hath not studied the nature of Maladies that hath not well mixed Colours and Painted many things but a Bishop is easily found not after his being formed with care but out of hand as the Fable hath feigned that the Giants
Party which is that of the Semi Arians or Homoiousians The Reader will not be displeased to find here a List of these Councils which is made upon the Remarks of Mr. du Pin. Councils against Arius 1. At Alexandria composed of near a hundred Bishops in the Year 322. 2. At Nice in 325 composed of 318 or 270 or 250 Bishops 3. The Third Council of Alexandria where St. Athanasius was absolved in 340. 4. At Rome by the Bishops of Italy in 341 where Marcellus of Ancyra and St. Athanasius were justified 5. At Milan where Ursacius and Valens were received into Communion for condemning Arius in the Year 346. 6. At Sardica in 347 composed of an hundred of the Western Bishops who sent back St. Athanasius and Marcellus of Ancyra Absolved 7. At Alexandria in 362 with St. Athanasius where it was declared that the difference upon the three Hypostases were only Disputes of words It was composed of the Bishops of â—gypt 8. At Paris where the Bishops of the Gauls retracted what they had done at Rimini in 362. 9. The Bishops of Italy did as much in another Synod the same Year 10. At Antioch in 363 where the Bishops of Egypt approved the Form of Nice 11. In 370 at Rome under Damasus 12. At Aquilea in 381. 13. At Constantinople in 383. Councils for Arius 1. In Bithynia in the Year 323 Sozom. Lib. 1. Cap. 15. 2. At Antioch where Eustathius Bishop of this City was deposed in 330. 3. At Caesarea in Palestine where St. Athanasius was cited but appeared not in 334. 4. At Tyre where St. Athanasius appeared as accused in 335. It was composed of a hundred Bishops 5. At Ierusalem where Arius and his Party were received to the Communion of the Church in the same Year 6. At Constantinople against Marcellus of Ancyra which communicated with St. Athanasius and who was deposed as convicted for renewing the Errors Paul of Samosetus and of Sabellius in 336. 7. The Third Council of Constantinople where Paul Bishop of that City Defender of St. Athanasius was deposed in 338. 8. At Beziers where the Followers of Arius were reconciled to the Church in spight of Hilary of Poictiers and some other Bishops which were banished in 356. 9. The Third Council of Sirmium where the Father was declared greater than the Son in 357. 10. Another at Melitin the same Year 11. At Antioch in 358 where they condemned these Terms The same in Substance 12. At Constantinople where the Anomeans cunningly condemned Aetius their Head and deposed many Semi Arian Bishops in 360. 13. At Antioch where Melece Bishop of Antioch was deposed and where the Son was declar'd Created out of nothing in 367. 14. At Singedun in Mesia against Germinius a Semi Arian 366. 15. In Caria where they rejected the Term of Consubstantial in 368. Councils for the Semi Arians 1. The Second Council of Alexandria in 324 where nothing was determined against Arius and they treated only of the Terms Substance and Hypostasis against Sabellius where Osius presided 2 3. Two Councils at Antioch in 341 and 342 where they declared they received Arius because they believed him Orthodox where they composed three Forms of Faith in the which they Anathematize those who said there was a time when the Word was not and made a Profession of believing him like to the Father in all things This Council made XXV Canons which are inserted in the Code of the Universal Church 4. Another Council at Antioch by the Eusebians where the word Consubstantial is not found though it be Catholick as to the rest It was held in 345. 5. At Philippolis in 347. 6. The Second Council of Sirmium the Form whereof was approved by Hilary of Poictiers although the word Consubstantial be not in it In the Year 351. 7. At Arles where St. Athanasius was condemned in 353. 8. At Milan in 355 where St. Athanasius was also condemned by Violence 9. At Ancyra where those were Anathematized which held the Son Consubstantial with the Father and those who deny'd he was the same in Substance in 358. 10. The Fourth Council of Sirmium where they approved of the Forms of the Councils of Antioch and of the second Council of Sirmium 11. The fifth Council of Sirmium in 359. 12. At Rimini composed of 400 Bishops where they rejected Terms of Substance and Hypostasis as was done in the fifth Council of Sirmium Notwithstanding they held the Son to be equal to the Father in all things It was also in the Year 359. 13. At Selucia the same Year where forty Anomean Bishops or pure Arians were condemned by 105 Semi Arians 14. At Antioch in 363 where the Term Consubstantial was received in different senses 15. At Lampsaca in 365 where the Anomeans were condemn'd and where the Bishops were re-establish'd which they had deposed 16. Divers Synods in Pamphilia Isauria Lycia and Sicily in 365 and 366. 17. At Tyanes in 368 where the Anomeans were reunited with the Semi Arians In 370 a Synod was held at Gangres the Canons whereof are inserted in the Code of the universal Church and the fourth of which condemns those that say the Communion ought not to be received from the hands of a married Priest The 59th and 60th and last Canon of the Council of Laodicea which Mr. du Pin believes to have been held between the Year 360 and 370 prohibits the Reading at Church any other than Canonical Books and those that were acknowledged for such and those the Protestants receive excepting the Apocalypse The 8th Canon of the Council of Saragossa defends the Vailing of Virgins that have consecrated themselves to Jesus Christ before the Age of forty Years The Bishops of Macedonia willing to confirm a Judgment they had given against a Bishop named Bonosus by the advice of Pope Syricius he answered them That the Council of Capua having sent this Cause to them it belonged not to him to judge on 't and that 't was their business to determin it The most ancient Monument according to Mr. du Pin where the name of Mass is found to signifie publick Prayers that the Roman Church makes in offering the Eucharist is the third Canon of the second Council of Carthage held in 390. At the end of this Volume the Author makes an Abridgment of the Doctrin of the 4th Age as he did in his precedent Book in respect to the three first and he confesses that though nothing was taught in the 4th Age which was not believed in the three first nevertheless the principal Mysteries were much more clear'd and expounded in the fourth The Travels of Mars Or The Art of War divided into three parts c. With an Ample Relation of the Soldiery of the Turks both for Assaulting and Defending A Work inriched with more than 400 Cuts engraven in Copper-plates by Allaâ—n Manesson Mallet Master of the Mathematicks to the Pages of his Majesty's lesser Stable heretofore Ingenier and Serjeant-Major
were not forbidden the last 7. That there were few Disputes in the Church concerning Morality There are many Tables at the end some Chronological ones observing the times in which the Holy Writers and Ecclesiastick Authors Flourished with that of their Birth and Death others that serve to distinguish the true Works from the Supposititious There are also Alphabetical Indexes for Authors and for the Subjects they treat on De Antiqua Ecclesiae Disciplina dissertationes Historicae Autore Ludovico Ellies Du Pin Saerae Facultatis Theologiae Parisiensis Doctore An Historical Dissertation upon the Ancient Discipline of the Church by Mr. Du Pin Doctor of Divinity At Paris 1686 in 4to THE Author speaks very freely against the Ambition of the Court of Rome and for the Liberty of the French Church He vigorously maintains the Independence of Kings Superiority of Councils and other points which have a long time caus'd many Disputes between France and Rome which altho' it does not run into an actual Schism yet it does into a Virtual one but it wou'd be something very humbling to the Roman Communion if its Divines had not wholly betaken themselves to the Asylum of Providence For in fine never to agree upon the Principle of infallibity and to dispute eternally upon Pretensions of the greatest importance and by a fundamental Rule which the two Parties agree upon I mean Tradition is not this Eagle against Eagle and Rome against Rome It not this to discover its Nakedness to all Passengers And what will become of it if this last Remedy is wanting that God being willing to try our Faith permits this great diversity of Opinions about the Authority of his Vicar Indeed we must confess this is a great Latitude for a mans Faith But let us see Examin what Mr. Du Pin says in his 7 Dessertations which are in very good Latin He proposes in the I. to shew the Ancient Form of Church-Government and to this end he shews the division that was made of great Bodies into Metropolis's Iurisdictions ArchBishopricks Exarchats and Patriachates He tells us the Names and Privileges of those that possess'd these different dignities and as these things had not a beginning all at the same time nor have continued in their original terms he forgets not to observe their rise and different changes the name of Metropolitan he believes was not used in the same sense we take it now before the Council of Nice and he says that that of Arch-Bishop was not known before the Fourth Age when they some times gave it the Pope and some other Prelates of the greatest Towns but that afterwards it was given to all Metropolitans There were also Bishops amongst the Greeks which took upon 'em the Quality of Archbishops Not because they did not see very well that to do things in order theâ— ought to add a Title with the real thing signified but it depended not upon themselves to extend their Jurisdictions over other Bishops they must therefore accommodate themselves to an abuse that they desired to cure by joyning with the Word the thing it signify'd Simplicibus Episcopis says the Author Speciosum Archopiscopi Nomen sibi vindicare haud difficile fuit At subject as alijs Ecclesias sibi subere non iâ— a facile There are also at this time in Italy Archbishops who have no Suffragans What he says upon the word Patriarch is a very learned account of the Variations and Fortune of this Word and may be surprizing to those that imagine Ecclesiastick affairs have been always the same Tho' they will be yet more astonished says the Abridger when they shall know that Mr. Du Pin proves by very good reasons that the charge of Metropolitan or Patriarch was neither instituted by Iesus Christ nor his Apostles but that it proceeded from the rank that was held in certain Cities according to the division of the Provinces by those who in the Roman Empire had such a place in the Civil Government It s very Natural to suppose that those who were Pastors in Capital Towns had some Authority in the Province because it s very necessary that the People shew'd have recourse to them if any difference happen'd amongst 'em wherein they needed advice or determination This introduced a Custom that displeased not these Pastors and from whence they were very willing to deducea Title and Right to Possesiâ—n Natural Order requires it and when Nature wills a thing it s very rare that she does not accomplish it Thus from the First Ages the Archiepiscopal degree of Hierarchy began to form it self which afterwards passed by little and little into custom and then the Canons confirm'd it and thus the Ecclesiastical Government was divided according to the Form of Civil Government so that when some Cities were the chief of many Provinces their Prelates had also some Authority over the Metropolitans for that Reason the Churches of Rome Antioch and Alexandria became the Principal ones the First in the West the Second in the East and the Third in South Constantinople was rais'd to the same degree after it became the Seat of the Emperours As for the Church of Ierusalem it was the same but not for the greatness of the place but because of its Primogeniture Rome Antioch and Alexandria aquired Privileges beyond other Seats either by time Learning or the Liberality of their Synods Thus we may translate the words of Mr. Du Pin Vel sibi vindicarunt vel a Synodâ—s Concess a receperunt He gives many proofs for what he advances concerning the rise of Metropolis's after which he gives a particular account of the distribution of the Ecclesiastical Government which was regulated after the form of the Civil Government and when he comes to the division of the Gauls he forgets not the difference between the Archbishops of Arles and Vienna nor the Priviledg of Primate which some French Metropolitans enjoy He is very large upon the Authority of the Patriarchs and maintains that Rome had always the First Rank but that it's Jurisdiction extended no further than the Suburbicary Provinces since elsewhere he had no power to command the Metropolitans which is one of the particular Prerogatives belonging to the Patriarchs He confesses that the Popes have enlarged the limits of their Patriarchate more than they ought and that they have since ruined the Priviledgs of all Metropolitans He examins the Objections of the contrary Party and many difficulties which are represented about the Patriarchate of Constantinople the Sixth Canon of the Council of Nice and some other Passages One of these Two things cannot be deny'd when so many Innovations are Visible either that for some time the Popes remitted a part of their Right or that they have Usurped over other Prelates The First is much more unlikely than the Second But there is another Question which extreamly perplext those that are not used to dispute viz how so great a number of Learned Men can be so confidently accused of
Empress Named Severina so the Author pretends it it must be read Sever. Aug. whereof they made Severina He bids us not confound this Severa with her that was the Wife of Severus who applyed her self so much to Philosophy that she was called a Philosophress in this Passage of Philostratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Antoninus was Son to the Philosophress Iulia. These words have puzled the great Scaliger that Man of the World who confest the least that he was ignorant of any thing Our Author shews that we must Correct them after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and understand by 'em Antonine Caracalla Afterwards he easily overcometh all the Difficulties founded upon this that Iulia Severa was not the Wife of the Emperour Marcus Aurelius sirnam'd the Philosopher nor by consequence the Mother of Antoninus Commodus This same Passage of Philostratus is a very strong proof to M. Le Moyne that this Iulia was own Mother to Caracalla and not Mother-in-Law as is generally believed and he confirms his thoughts by a Passage of the Kynegetick of Oppian Dedicated to the Emperour Caracalla himself Hyppolitus never writ to this Iulia Severa but to Severa Daughter of Mammeus and Wife to the Emperour Philip to whom she communicated the good Sentiments she had of Christianity which she had received of her Mother The Author agrees not with the Testimony of Eusebius that it is doubtful whether this Emperour was a Christian or not but he thinks not that we ought to prove this Opinion by the Medal which those of Apamea made under their Emperor one may see 〈◊〉 on one side the Head of this Emperoâ— and on the other an Ark 4 Perso◠〈◊〉 2 Pidgeons one of which hold 〈◊〉 Branch of Olive in its Mouth Round 〈◊〉 the Figures are these Characters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and under them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all which made the Celebrated Mr. Faâ—conier judge that this Medal represented the Leluge as he endeavours to prove in a very Learned Dissertation Our Author shews here that he 's deceived and explains the Medal after this manner The Ark signified the City of Apamea which was call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was the Store-house of all the Country round about The four Persons represent two Inhabitants of Apamea and two of Alexandria The Doves and the Olive-Branch was a Representation of the good Intelligence there was between these two Cities It 's very certain that the Characters inscrib'd upon it contain'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those of Alexandria If we read the three last Letters Reverse they make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Mr. Falconier believ'd were to be seen at the bottom of the Medal And altho' it were so if we believe this Author we must not establish our Faith of the Emperour's Christianity upon this Medal but found it upon other Proofs that he alledges for it Thus having maintain'd that this Emperour was a Christian and that it was to the Empress his Wife that Hyppolitus writ Letters as well as Origen had done to the same Lady the Author shews it was not this Hyppolytus that contributed so considerably both by his Exhortations and Purse to the Works which Origen composed upon the Scripture as the Patriarch Photius has falsly affirm'd He that was at these great Expences for Origen was a very Rich Laick Named Ambrose Hyppolitus being then only Bishop was not at that time in a condition of making such Contributions It is not easie to decide what City he was Bishop of for he is sometimes call'd Bishop of Rome sometimes Bishop of Arabia The â—â—thor examins all these Difficulties after such a manner as shews he has a very penetrating Wit and is a Man of great Reading He proves by many Examples that there has been two Bishops in the same City and he does not only believe that Hyppolitus continued a long time in Arabia but also that we ought to attribute to him the Conversion of Thirty Thousand Saracens which Work others assign to Nonnus He shews that he has been confounded with this Nonnus and others of his own Name and that he never was a Monk nor long enough Deacon to bear that Title from whence he takes occasion to censure a Council held at Rome in the Year 324 which gave him the Name of Hyppolitus Deacon He confirms the Observations of some Learned Men that this Council was never held under Sylvester He afterwards makes many Remarks upon the Works of Hyppolitus that are engraved upon a Marble Chair at Rome and which is one of the finest Monuments of Antiquity It was found in the Year 1551. in the Diocese of Tivoli from whence the Author infers that Hyppolitus was not Bishop of Porto at the Mouth of the Tyber for if it had been so it is very probable this Monument would have been found there and not in the Diocese of Tivoli It cannot be doubted but that the Marble Image of the Man that is sitting in this Chair in Hyppolitus because altho' his Name is not there yet there appears all the Titles of almost all his Works that the Antients have attributed to him M. Le Moyne tells us 't was the Custom of placing these sort of Monuments in the Temples and that it was practised both amongst the Heathens and Iews They had in the middle of their Temples upon Walls and Pillars a great many Inscriptions and Historical Relations that by the Holiness of the place the memory of past things might be the better preserved 'T was from such Monuments that Sanchoniaten Contemporary with Gideon took the greatest part of his Memoirs wherewith he composed his Book He observes that he drew them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Ammonean Letters that is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Temples and Statues of the Sun that the Hebrews call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon which they writ the most remarkable things that concern'd the Eastern People The Third part of this Work which is the Notes is a distinct Volume much larger than all the Collections and Prefaces My Reader perhaps may wonder says our Abridger that I have so long neglected to tell him That the Famous Epistle of St. Chrysostom to Cesarius is one of the Pieces that M. Le Moyne has published He so religiously observes to Print it exactly according to the Manuscript that he has given it without Points and without any Distinctions but he designs in his Volume of Notes which is to follow to give it in a better form and make it the most intelligible he can He proves 't is a Work of St. Chrysostom's and he says he will discover from whence when and by whom this Rare Piece is fallen into his hands This Work is considerable because it appears contrary to the Opinion of Transubstantiation and I believe it wou'd not have made so much noise as it has done if something that feel out at Paris some few Years agoe had not given the occasion
heels of Nature and dived into things so far above the apprehension of the Vulgar that they have been believ'd to be Necromancers Magicians c. and what they have done to be unlawful and perform'd by Conjuration and Witchcraft although the fault lay in the Peoples Ignorance not in their Studies But to the Instances we promis'd Regiomant anus his Wooden Eagle and Iron Fly mention'd by Petrus Ramus Hakew Heylin c. must be admirably contriv'd that there was so much proportion such Wheels Springs c. as cou'd so exactly Imitate Nature The First was said to fly out of the City of Noremberg and meet the Emperor Maximilian and then return'd again waiting on him to the City Gates The Other to wit the Fly wou'd fly from the Artist's hand round the Room and return to him again This Instance proves the feasibility of doing things of great use as that Action of Proclus the Mathematician in the Reign of Anastasius Dicorus who made Burning-Glasses with that Skill and Admirable force that he therewith Burnt at a great distance the Ships of the Mysians and Thracians that Block'd up the City of Constantinople We shall pass over the Curiosities and Admirable Inventions which are mention'd in the Duke of Florences's Garden at Pratoline as also those of the Gardens of Hippolitus d' Este Cardinal of Ferrara at Tivoli near Rome because they were more design'd for Pleasure than real Use. For our design is only to shew the real Advantage that may be drawn from Mathematicks though we are also certain that the most Surprizing Pleasures in Nature depend upon it The great Clock of Copernicus was certainly a Curious Master-piece which shew'd the Circuitions of all the Celestial Orbs the distinction of Days Months Years where the Zodiack did explicate its Signs the Changes of the Moon her Conjunctions with the Sun every hour produc'd upon the Scene some Mystery of our Faith As the first Creation of Light the Powerful Separation of the Elements c. What shall we say of Cornelius Van Drebble's Organ that wou'd make an Excellent Symphony it self if set in the Sun-shine in the open Air or of Galilaeo's Imitating the Work of the First Day FIAT LUX Let there be Light Or of Granibergius his Statue that was made to speak or in fine of that Engine at Dantzick in Poland which wou'd Weave 4 or 5 Webs all at a time without any Humane help it Workt Night and Day but it was suppressed because it wou'd have ruin'd the poor people These few Instances give a Rude Prospect of what one may probably expect from a due Application of the Mind to the Study of Mathematicks of which we shall speak more particularly and first of Arithmetick Arithmetick TO Number is one of the Prerogatives that a Reasonable Creature has over Beasts 'T is said Wisdom II. God made all things in Number Weight and Measure Number is a most sensible Exemplar of the Deity of whom you can't conceive so many Perfections but you may yet add more This is onely peculiar to it that we know the least Number viz. 2. for 1 is properly the Origine of Numbers but we can find no Number so great that may not be made yet greater for if a Thousand Figures were writ down and under them a Thousand more and multiplyed the one by the other the product wou'd be more than the Sands of the Sea which multiply'd again into its self and that product us'd after the same manner and so on the number wou'd soon amount to such a Total as wou'd take up an Age to tell the length of it in words even though a Man never slept but always spoke The Antient Philosophers might well compare the Essences of things to Number since a Number is a Compleat Total and if it lose any the least part of it self 't is no longer the same Number Indeed we can't hold with the Antient Pythagoreans and Platonists that all things are Compos'd of Number even the Soul of Man but we are certain the proportions resulting from 'em are such as may claim an Agreeable Converse with our Reason To Number Add Subtract Multiply Divide and find out proportions as they are very useful in the Common Affairs of Life so they are Introductive to the highest Demonstrations that our Sences can be capable of for the bare Study of this Art VVINDGATES Arithmetick And KERSEY'S Algebra ARE Sufficient Guides the First treats the most handsomly of VVhole Numbers and Fractions both Decimal and Vulgar and the Last Explains the Doctrine of Algebra or Cossie Numbers the Nature of Roots Powers Equations c. in short every thing that may fully prepare you for the Study of Geometry Poetry THo' some have been of opinion that Nature frames a Poet yet others will contend that Nature without Art makes at best but an imperfect one or as Horace has it Natura fieret laudabile Carmen an Arte Quasitum est Ego nec studium sine divite Venâ Necrude quid prosit video ingenium Alterius sic Altera possit opem res conjungit amice Art is like a sure guide to direct Nature in an easie and uniform way which if we follow we cannot possibly err And there very often it happens that an Ignorant Person may by the happiness of his Nature produce something that is fine yet such a Nature wou'd be brought to a much greater perfection by Art The name of Poet is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is to make or feign so Poetry may be said to be the Art of feigning or imitation for imitation is the composing the Image of any thing The Latins divide the Poets into four Orders or Classes Epic or Heroic Iambographers or Writers of Iambics Tragaedians and Lyricks The chief of the first are Homer among the Greeks and Virgil among the Latins in the next Archilochus in the third Sophocles and Euripides in the last Pindar among the Greeks and Horace among the Latins Horace makes another Division of them making six Classes of them in his Art of Poetry Heroics Elegiacs Lyrics lambics Tragaedians Comedians But these divisions regarding only the subject or kind of Verse does not sufficiently distinguish betwixt the Poets Since several Poets have made use of several sorts of Verse and Subjects Upon a Judicious consideration any one will conclude there are but Three Orders of Poets that is Epic Comic and Tragick Poetry is a kind of Painting which represents the Mind as that does the Body nay it is excellent in the describing the Body too and all the Actions of Human Life as well as all the beauties of Nature in a Lively Description Poetry was at first the Foundation of Religion and Civility among the Grecians the first Philosophy the World was blest with was in Verse it had that influence on the Minds of Men then fallen from their Primitive Reason into the VVildest Barbarity that it soon brought them to
took all imaginable care that the Roman Religion should not make any progress in Ireland yet it stole in by the negligence of other Bishops insomuch that that Party which maintain'd it did sensibly increase and grow strong It was this that oblig'd King Charles the first to write a Letter to the Primate of Ireland which is to be found in page 38. wherein he authorizes him to write Letters of Exhortation to all the Bishops of Ireland that they shou'd discharge their duty better than they had done About the latter end of the year 1631. Vsher makes a Voyage into England where he publish'd a small English Treatise concerning the Antient Religion of Ireland and of the People which inhabited the North of Scotland and of England he shews in this Treatise how it was in respect to the Essential parts of the same Religion which at present is establish'd in England and which is very forreign to that of the Roman Catholicks The year following our Arch-Bishop return'd into Ireland and publish'd a Collection intituled Veterum Epistolarum Hibernicarum Sylloge whereof the first Pieces were written about the year 1590. and the last about 1180. there one may learn the Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Ireland In 1639. which was seven years after he publish'd his Book intituled Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates wherein he inserted the History of Pelagius and his Sentiments There are to be found the Antiquities of the most distant Churches of Great Britain since Christianity was Preached there that is to say since about 20 years after the death of Jesus Christ. In 1640. Vsher makes a Voyage into England with his Family with design to return very soon into Ireland but the Civil Wars hinder'd him insomuch that he cou'd never return to his Country again T is said that in the year following he brought the King to sign the death of the Earl of Strafford but as to this Dr. Parr speaks very much in his Justification he afterwards shews us after what manner he lost all that he had in Ireland except his Library which he brought into England Strangers very much envyed this great man that his Compatriots shou'd offer him divers Places of Retreat The Heads of the University of Leiden soon gave him a considerable Pension and offered him the Title of Honourable Professor if he wou'd come into Holland The Cardinal Richelieu sent him his Medal and also proffer'd to him a great Pension with the liberty of professing his Religion in France if he wou'd come thither Our Arch-Bishop thank'd him and sent him a Present of Irish Grey-Hounds and other Rarities of that Country Three years after he publish'd a small Treatise intituled A Geographical and Historical Research touching Asia Minor properly so call'd to wit Lydia whereof frequent mention is made in the New Testament and which the Ecclesiastical Writers and other Authors call'd Proconsulary Asia or the Diocess of Asia In this Treatise there is a Geographical Description of Asia Minor and of its different Provinces as that of Caria and Lydia under which the Romans comprehend Ionia and Aeolia Vsher shews there 1. That Asia whereof mention is made in the New Testament and the Seven Churches which St. Iohn spoke of in the Apocalypse were included in Lydia that every one of these Cities were the Chief of a small Province and because of this Division they were chosen to be the principal Seats of the Bishops of Asia 2. That the Roman Provinces had not always the same extension but were often contracted or enlarg'd for reasons of State thus the Empire was otherwise divided under Augustus than it was under Constantine under whom Proconsulary Asia had more narrow bounds than formerly 't is remarkable that under this last Emperor Proconsulary Asia which was govern'd by a Proconsul of the Diocess of Asia from whence the Governor was call'd Vicarius or Comes Asiae or Dioceseos Asianae but this division was afterwards chang'd under his Successors and whereas every Province had but one Metropolis to satisfie the ambition of some Bishops 't was permitted to two of 'em at the same time to take the Title of Metropolitan 3. That under Constantine Ephesus was the place where the Governors of Asia met to form a kind of Council which decided affairs of importance and 't was for this that Ephesus was then the only Metropolis of Proconsulary Asia that the Proconsul which was Governor never submitted to the Authority of the Praetorian Prefect and that there was something so like this in the Ecclesiastical Government that the Bishop of Ephesus was not only Metropolitan of Consulary Asia but also the Primate and Head of the Diocess of Asia 4. That there was a great conformity between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Government in this that the Bishops of every Province were subject to their Metropolitans as the Magistrates of every City were to the Governors of the whole Provinces This was the time wherein Vsher published in Greek and Latin the Epistles of St. Ignatius with those of St. Barnabas and St. Polycarp seven years after he added his Appendix Ignatiana where he proves that all the Epistles of Ignatius are not suppositious and explains many ecclesiastick antiquities he published the same year his Syntagma de editione 70 Interpretum where he proposes a particular Sentiment which he had upon this version 't is this that It contained but the five Books of Moses and that it was lost in the burning of the Library of Ptolomaeus Philadelphus and that Doritheus a Heretick Jew made another version of the Pentateuch and also translated the rest of the Old Testament about 177 years before the birth of Jesus Christ under the Reign of Ptolomaeus Philometor and that the Greek Church preserves this last version instead of that which was made under the Reign of Ptolomeus Philadelphus he also treats in this same work of the different editions of this version which according to him are falsly styled the version of the 70 this Book was published a year after the death of our Prelate with another De Cainane altero or the second Canaan which is found in the version of the 70. and in St. Luke between Sala and Arphaxad This last work of Vsher was the Letter which he wrote to Mr. 〈…〉 the difference he had with Mr. a friend of the Archbishops we shaâ—â— speak of it hereafter Dr. Parr informs us that in the Civil Wars of England Vsher going from Cardisse to the Castle of St. Donates which belonged to Madam Stradling he was extreamly Ill treated by the Inhabitants of Glamorganshire in Wales they took his Books and Papers from him which he had much ado to regain and whereof he lost some which contained remarks upon the Vaudois and which shou'd have serv'd to carry on his Book de Ecclesiarum Christianarum Successione where there is wanting the History of more than 200. years viz from Gregory the 11th to Leo the 10th from the year 1371 to 1513 and
from thence to the end of the Last Age. Whilst our Primate was in Wales there was published at London without his consent three works under his name 1. A Body of Divinity or the Substance of Christian Religion 2 Immanuel or the Incarnation of the Son of God 3 A Catechism Intituled The Principles of the Christian Religion The last being full of faults he corrected it and printed it himself in 1652. In the year 1647. whilst he was at the Countess of Peterborough's in London the Society of Lincolns Inn chose him for their Preacher and gave him a lodging and a handsome Pension whilst he was there he published two Books 1. Diatriba de Romanae Ecclesiae symbolo apostolico vetere aliis fidei formulis he there treats of the Creed which is commonly called the Apostles and of the different Copys which have been found in the Roman Church and of divers forms of the Confession of Faith which where proposed to the Catechumenoi and to the Youth of the Eastern and Western Churches 2. His Treatises de anno solari Macedonum Asianorum where he explains divers difficulties of Chronology and Ecclesiastical History and marks the precise time of the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp he compares the year of the Macedonians the Asiaticks c. with the Iulian Account and makes divers curious remarks upon the Motions of the Heavenly Bodies according to the opinion of the Antient Greek Astronomers Melonius Calippus Eudoxius c. In fine he gives the Ephemerides of the Macedonian and Asiatick year compar'd with the Julian year to which he adds the rising and setting of the Stars and the presages of the change Weather in Thrace Macedonia and Greece according to the observations which Antient Philosophers have left us The Parliament at that time took the King Prisoner in the Isle of Wight and wou'd have him absolutely abolish Episcopal Government so that this Prince was obliged to consent that that Government should be suspended for three years but the Presbyterian party were so eager that they would have it utterly extirpated upon this the Primate of Ireland propos'd an Expedient in which he would have had mixed a sort of of Presbyterian and Episcopal Government in lessening the power of the Bishops and bringing them to be Moderators or Presidents of the Assemblies of their Province without whose advice nothing of Importance shou'd be acted whereupon Vsher was accus'd to have been an Enemy to Hierarchy but Dr. Parr vindicates him all along He also informs us that Vsher being in the Countess of Peterboroughs House over against Charing Cross near White-hall when the King was to be beheaded and being upon the top of the house to see this bloody Tragedy the good Archbishop fainted away so that he was forc'd to be carried to bed where he said that God would not forget to punish this wickedness upon the English Nation he added that the Vsurpation of Cromwel would soon expire and that the King would be recall'd but that he himself should not see it we are assured that at another time he foretold that the Romish Religion should one day be powerful in this Kingdom and its reign should be sharp but short 'T is reported also that Preaching in a Church at London he declar'd to his Auditors that a great fire should soon consume a part of the City and when 't was asked him how he knew it he answer'd 't was a Thought which was so strangely impress'd upon his mind that he could not forbear speaking of it If that was true our Primate must be of the number of these Prophets who have sometimes foretold what was to come without knowing it About the middle of the year 1650. he finished the first part of his Annals to the year of the World 3828. unto the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes There is in this Volume all the celebrated Epochs mark'd with great exactness the times of the Reigns of the Kings of Israel and of Iudah compared with each other The succession of the Monarchies of Babylon Persia and Macâ—â—onia the years of the Olympiads the Aera of Nabanassar the most remarkable Eclipses of the Sun The second part was published in 1654. it begun at the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes and ended at the destruction of Ierusalem Usher gives there exact accounts of the Kings of Syria and Egypt with the times of their Reign which he hath put together with more care than any Chronologer hath done before him In fine there is all that can be wished in an Universal History both for exactness and Judgment 'T was after the edition of this work that Cromwell said he desired to see him Usher appear'd before him and the Protector after having received him with great Civility promised to make up part of the loss he sustain'd in Ireland but he kept not his Word to him no more than when he promis'd him the Episcopal Clergy should not be molested as they had been to that time The good Archbishop having obtain'd this promise in a visit he made to the Protector he was oblig'd to put him in mind of it by seeing him a second time where Cromwell ingenuously declar'd that he could not give Liberty of Conscience to men who were sworn Enemies to his Government and who without intermission endeavour'd to destroy him When Vsher entered this Vsurpers Chamber he found him in the hands of a Surgeon who was dressing an Ulcer in his Breast The Protector desired the Archbishop to sit down and said he would speak to him as soon as his Ulcer was dressed Whilst the Surgeon was busie about it Cromwell said that if this Ulcer was once cured he should soon have his Health Vsher replied immediately that he fear'd there was a more dangerous Vlcer in his Heart which must be cur'd before he could promise himself a perfect health 'T is true said the Protector sighing but tho' he seem'd to take this censure of the Archbishop's in good part he refus'd to keep his promise to him Vsher liv'd not long after that falling very sick on the 20th of March of a Pleurisie but the Physitians knew not his Distemper so that he died the day following at Rygate in a Countrey House of the Countess of Peterboroughs in the County of Surrey he was seventy five years old he had been fifty five years in Orders during which time he continually Preach'd fourteen years Professor in the Vniversity of Dublin four years Bishop of Meath and one and thirty years Bishop of Ardmagh he was the hundredth Bishop of that City after St. Patrick Cromwell who sought all occasions to please the people and knew that Vsher had been well belov'd ordered him to be buried with great solemnity in Westminster Abby in the Chappel of Erasmus altho' he would not be at the charge of the Funeral he did also another thing which much prejudiced his Family which was to hinder their selling the Archbishops Library without his consent there was
his Adversaries which have taken no great care to propose clearly their accusations nor to comprehend well the Sentiments of those they accused as appeareth by the obscurity of the Heads which we have read Celestius saith amongst other things that as to what regards the Propagation of Sin he heard several Catholick Priests and particularly Rufinus deny it He presented a Petition to the Council where he confessed the Children were redeemed by Baptism but he was condemned nevertheless and being obliged to depart ouâ— of Africk he retired into Sicily where hâ— writ some works in his Defence It was from thence that he sent to St. Augustine short questions which he had composed to prove that man of his Nature inevitably is not carried to do evil These Interrogations are in fourteen Articles that Vsher hath related at length We shall mention here one or two of them by which the rest may be judged of First of all saith he we must ask of those who say that man cannot be without sin what sin is in general If it is a thing that may be avoided or not If it cannot be avoided there is no hurt in committing it If man can avoid it he may be without Sin But neither reason nor Justice permit that that should be called a Sin which cannot be any way avoided We must again ask if Man ought to be without Sin 'T will be undoubtedly answered that he ought If he ought he can if he cannot he is not obliged Besides that if man ought not to be without Sin he ought to be a Sinner and 't will be no more his fault if it be supposed that he is necessarily such In the same time Pelagius that was at Ierusalem published divers pieces where he expounded more at length his Sentiments and where he particularly granted that no man excepting Jesus Christ had ever been without sin it did not follow that that was impossible He affirm'd that he disputed not of the Fact but of the Possibility and that yet it was not possible but by the Grace or the Assistance of God St. Augustine hath undertaken to refute one of these pieces of Pelagius in his Book of Nature and Grace He accuseth him on the one side of confounding the Graces that God gives us in Creation with those by which he regenerates us and on the other side to say that God gives his Graces according to merit and that these Graces are but outward but it shall be seen in the sequel how Pelagius expounded his Opinion Three years after that Celestius was condemned at Carthage his Master was accused at Ierusalem of holding the same opinions Iohn Bishop of this City called an Assembly of some Priests to examine Pelagius and to see if really he held the Opinions that were attributed to him For to know what was done in Africk against Celestius Into this Assembly were called three Latine Priests Avitus Vitalis and Oros. This last was then at Bethlehem studying as he saith himself at the feet of St. Ierome to whom St. Augustine had recommended him Whilst he was in Africk in the time of the Condemnation of Celestius he related to this Assembly at Ierusalem with what zeal those of Carthage had condemned that Heretick and said that St. Augustine had made a Book against Pelagius and had besides in a Letter written into Sicily refuted the questions of Celestius Having this Letter about him he offered to read it and did so at the entreaty of the Assembly After this reading the Bishop Iohn desired that Pelagius should be introduced It was permitted by connivance saith Orose whether for the respect they had for the Bishop or that it was believed fit that this Prelate should refute him in his presence He was asked if he acknowledged to have taught what Augustine Bishop of Hippona had refuted He instantly answered who is this Augustine and as all cryed out that a man who blasphemed against a Bishop by the mouth of whom the Lord had kept an Vnion in all Africk ought not only to be banished from this Assembly but from all the Church John ordered him to sit in the midst of the Catholick Priests tho' a Laick and guilty of Heresie After that he said to him 'T is I that am Augustine that acting in the name of this offended Bishop can more freely pardon Pelagius and appease enraged Minds We then said to him continueth Orose If you represent here the person of Augustine follow his Opinions He replied by asking us if we believed that what was read was against some other or against Pelagius If it be against Pelagius added he what have you to propose against him I answered by the permission of the Assembly that Pelagius had told me he maintained man could be without sin and could easily observe the Commandments of God if he pleased Pelagius confessed it was his opinion Thereupon I said this that 't was that which the Bishops of Africk had condemned in Celestius which Augustine declared in his writings to be a horrible Doctrine and that which Ierome had rejected in his Epistle to Câ—esiphon and which he refuted in the Dialogues that he then composed But the Bishop of Ierusalem without hearing any thing of all that would have us to bring parties before him against Pelagius We are not answered We the Accusers of this man but we declare unto you what the Brethren and our Fathers have judged and decreed touching this Heresie that a Laick publisheth now lest he should trouble you the Church into the bosom of which we are come Then to engage us in some sort to declare our selves parties he begun to instruct us in what the Lord saith to Abraham Walk before me and be thou upright and what is said of Zacharia and Elizabeth that both of them were just before God and walked bamleless in all the Commandments of the Lord. Many amongst us knew that that was a remark of Origen and I answered him We are Children of the Catholick Church Exact not from us O Father that we should undertake to raise our selves into Doctors above the Doctors nor into Iudges above the Iudges Our Fathers whose Conduct is approved by the Vniversal Church and in whose Communion you rejoice to see us have declared these Maxims damnable It 's just that we should obey their decrees Why do you ask the Children what they think after having learned the Sentiments of their Fathers The Bishop said after that if Pelagius maintain'd that man could be without sin without the help of God it would be a damnable Doctrine but that he did not exclude the help of God and asked what we had to say to that If he denied the necessity of this assistance We answered Anathema to those that did deny it and we cryed out that he was a Latin Heretick that we were Latins that he was to be judged by Latins and that it was almost an impudence in him to pretend to
the Pope grew obstinate in his Sentiment they would rather quit the Priesthood than Marriage and that Gregory who despised men should take the care of providing himself with Angels to govern the Church These good men without doubt spake with much sincerity and it may be if those who have endeavoured to blacken the conduct of the Reformers in that they have introduced anew the Marriage of Priests would let nature speak they would not say less But it is a great unhappiness and a great prejudice at the same time against the deluders of Virginity to live in a Church whereof they are constrained to defend all the Sentiments unless they would dishonour and destroy themselves In fine the Authors of the time of Hildebrand and those who have written since give him several times the name of Antichrist and it cannot be denied at least but that it is he who hath established the excessive authority of Popes and who the first durst to maintain that they have the power of deposing Kings and to change what they please in the Canons It is no more than may be seen in the Decretals of the Edition of Rome whereof Vsher cites divers scandalous articles He also gives the History of the quarrels which this Pope had with the Emperor Henry IV. and relates all the evil that hath been said of the first And with this he ends the first part of his work which was to have extended to the time in which the Devil hath been let loose II. As it is in the Apocalypse that a thousand years being past the Dragon was to be unloos'd for a little time Vsher begins his second part by the explication of this place and remarks that according to the maxim of Aristotle nothing being called great or little but by relation to another thing the time in which the Dragon was to be unchain'd should be short in comparison of the time during which he had ravaged the World before he had been put in Chains Roman Catholicks demand of Protestants where the Church was then if the Pope was Antichrist Vsher answers that the Church was then in the state in which some Antients and divers Catholick Authors have said that it would be under the Reign of Antichrist St. Augustin in his XX Letter which is directed to Hesychius saith that the Church appear'd not because of the excessive cruelty of the Persecutors Ecclesiam non apparituram impiis tunc Persecutoribus ultra modum saevientibus Several ancient and modern Authors have spoken to the same effect Vsher takes occasion from hence to make a parallel of the State of the Churches which followed the Council of Nice in the times that the Arians were the strongest with that wherein the West was found in these corrupt Ages The Arians reproached others with their small Number and their Poverty as it appears by these words of Gregory of Nazianza Where are those who upbraid us with our Poverty who say that the greatest Number forms the Church and who jeer the smalness of our Flock But as there lived in the Roman Empire several People who were not Arians Vsher conceives that under the Government of the Pope there was a pretty great number of Persons who were not of these opinions To shew that he doth not advance a simple conjecture he gives the History of the Original Opinions of the Vaudois who have rejected several of the Sentiments of the Church of Rome But he speaks more of them in the sequel as being a place wherein he should properly speak of them which obligeth us to pass to the vii Chapter and afterwards we will return to the Vaudois Vsher divides the time during which the Dragon hath been delivered from his Prison into three Periods the first reacheth to the time of Innocent III. The second unto Gregory XI And the third unto Leo X. The first comprehends two Ages taking it's beginning from the year 1000. The State the Western Church hath been in during the first of these two Ages and the complaints that the Authors of that time made against Corruptions which were equally seen in the Ecclesiasticks and People There have been no less complaints made of the Disorders of the twelfth Age as is plain in our Author who relates a great number thereof amongst which is this famous distich of Hildebert Bishop of Mans who saith in speaking of Rome Vrbs foelix si vel Dominis Vrbs illa careret Vel Dominis esset turpe carere fide Happy City if it had no Masters or if those who possess it believed it a shameful thing to want Faith The Popes took great care in that Age to have paid to them from England a kind of Tribute that they called St. Peters pence which Alexander II. in a Letter written to William the Norman saith had been paid by the English ever since they had embraced Christianity It appears by this Letter that the English sent this Money at first to Rome only thro' Liberality but this Liberality becoming a Necessity because the Kings commanded absolutely to do it the Authors of those times looked upon it as a Tribute Therefore Bertold of Constance who lived towards the latter end of the eleventh Age saith that it was then that the Prophecy of the Apocalypse was accomplished which saith That no Person could sell or buy without having the Mark or Name of the Beast or the Number of its Name The Reason of this is that according to the Relation of this Author in his Appendix of Hermannus Contractus towards the year Mlxxxiv William the first King of England rendred his whole Kingdom Tributary to the Pope and suffered none to sell or buy but such as submitted himself to the Apostolick See that is to say before he paid the Rome-scot or penny of St. Peter Notwithstanding this same William refused to swear an Oath of Fealty to Hildebrand and punished Bishops and other Ecclesiasticks who had offended him as he thought fit without having any regard to the Prayers and Exhortations of this Pope Some other Kings of England resisted the Popes likewise with the same vigour and we have proofs that the opinions of Rome were not yet spread every where Here is one that is pretty remarkable which is that Frederick Barbarousse being gone into the Holy Land to fight the Infidels in Mclxxxix Niaetas Choniates observes that the Germans were welcomed by the Armenians because the adoration of the Images of Saints was equally prohibited with the Armenians and Germans Hereby it appears that they had not as yet forgotten in Germany the Council of Francfort It is also remarked that several English Authors who have written after the arrival of the Normans said that the Church had in abhorrence the worship of Images The Doctrine even of Lanfranc concerning the Eucharist which the Normans brought into this Island was contrary to divers ancient Forms and Writings of the English And this is the cause that a long time after the Condemnation of
of falshood as also by Leo and by Innocent 4. That there are several proofs of the submission of the Bishops of Africk to that of Rome as the Letter of Stephen Bishop of Mauritania Written to Damasus in the name of three Synods of Africk where after several high Titles which this Prelate gives to the Pope he tells him That the Decrees of all the Fathers of these Synods have reserved every Sentence Iudgment of Bishops and Determination of Ecclesiastical Affairs to his See in honour of blessed Peter 5. That it is not true that this 6th Council hath prohibited to Appeal from Africk to the Pope seeing that in the Letter which the Bishops Writ to him they only desire him not to hearken slightly to the Ecclesiasticks of Africk who shall have recourse to him To refute the first Objection Episcopius relates the very words of the Canon of the Council of Millan viz. It was ordered that when Priests Deacons and other inferior Clerks shall complain of the Iudgment of their Bishops they shall be heard by the Neighbouring Bishops who with the consent of their Bishop and joyntly with him shall pronounce a definitive Sentence upon his Affair That if they would appeal from this Iudgment of Bishops they shall carry their appeal but before the Councils of Africk or before the Primate of their Province so as it hath been often ordered in affairs which respect Bishops If any one would appeal to the other side the Sea that is to say to Rome or without the Diocess let him be excluded from the Communion of Africk The Letter which the Bishops of the 6th Council of Carthage Assembled to the number of 207 Writ to Pope Celestin after they had received the Original of the Council of Nice and seen that the Canons alledged by the Deputies of the Bishop of Rome were not in it deserveth to be related We pray you say they that for the future you give no more so slightly Audience to those who shall go hence to you and that you no more receive into Communion those who are excluded from ours seeing you may easily mark that this hath been thus ordered by the Council of Nice For if it seems that this Council was willing to prohibit from such Appeals the inferior Clerks and Laicks by how much more would it have this Prohibition to give place in the affairs which regard Bishops whence it followeth that those who are suspended from the Communion amongst us ought not to be re-established precipitatly or unlawfully by your Holiness Let therefore all Refugé be taken away from bad Priests seeing there is no Canon which hath deprived the Church of Africk of this priviledge and that those of Nice have as well submitted the inferior Clerks as Bishops to their Metropolitans The Fathers of this Council have prudently and justly judged that every Affair ought to be judged in the place where it happeneth assuring themselves that the Grace of the Holy Ghost would not fail to be poured into each Province where there are Priests of Iesus Christ capable of examining wisely the equity of an Affair and of constantly maintaining it especially since that it is lawful for every one who thinks he hath reason to complain of his ordinary Judges to Appeal to the Provincial Councils or to the General If it be not as some imagine that God may sufficiently inspire every one of us to judge of the equity of an Affair but that he will refuse his Grace to a great number of Bishops Assembled in Council It is a vain conjecture to say That the Council of Nice which was kept at Constantinople the Copies of the Patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria and all those that 207 Bishops had were defective But we cannot believe that the Pope knowing that some Canons were missing in Copies of Particulars imbraced this occasion to make three Canons of a Synod of Sardis to pass for Decrees of the Council of Nice which were in his favour 3. It 's true that Iulius Writ a Letter to the Eastern Bishops to get Athanasius and some other Bishops re-establish'd in their Sees but it 's also true that when these Bishops had received it they looked upon it as an outragious Letter assembled themselves into a Synod at Antioch and made him unanimously a civil Answer in appearance but full of Ironies and Menaces saith Sozomene to which Socrates adds That they severely reprehended Julius letting him know That it was not necessary that they should take Laws from him in banishing some Persons from their Churches and that they had not opposed him when he had banished Novatus from his As to the Letter of Stephen to Pope Damasus most of the Learned do take it to be suppositious because it 's only to be found in Isidonus Mercator who hath attributed several other Letters to Damasus and one to Aurelius Bishop of Carthage which Baronius acknowledgeth false But though it was true What can be concluded from the Letter of a particular Bishop but that he was one of these Ecclesiasticks who having been Excommunicated because of their Crimes in Africk flattered the Bishops of Rome to re-establish them again by their means To this unknown Stephen are opposed famous St. Cyprian and Firmilian Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia who treated Pope Stephen with contempt enough upon the occasion of the dispute touching the Baptism of Hereticks 5. The terms of not receiving slightly and unlawfully the Communion the African Ecclesiasticks who fled to Rome mark not according to Episcopius and that the Bishop of the City had a right to admit them to the Peace of the Church provided this was done with the necessary Formalities He pretends that the Fathers of Carthage expressed themselves thus to shew that not only the Pope violated the Canons but that he often did with much temerity and without any specious pretence as when he received the Appeal of the Priest Apiarius and admitted him to the Communion though this very thing is expresly prohibited by the Canons of Sardis which the Deputies of Zozime would suggest as Decrees of the Council of Nice III. The third Fact which Episcopius alledgeth is the Erection of the Bishoprick of Constantinople into the Patriarchship to whom equal Priviledges were given with him of Rome in Ecclesiastical Affairs with this only difference That the Patriarch of ancient Rome would have the precedency in Councils before him The Bishop of Bizantium was in times past but a Suffragan of the Metropolitan of Heraclea but after that Constantine had transported thither the Imperial Seat it was considered as new Rome and erected into a Patriarchiate by the Third Canon of the Council of Constantinople composed of 150 Bishops and confirmed by the 28 th Canon of the 4 th Ecumenick Council which is that of Calcedonia The objections that our Catholicks make against these Canons are so weak that we think them not worthy of being related especially seeing Mr. du Pin hath cleared this fact
Gregory had spent Thirty Years in learning or teaching Rhetorick as he witnesseth himself to wit that he quitted Athens about the Year Three hundred fifty four or Three hundred fifty five It is hard to believe that having a very ancient Father and Mother he did not think of going to them sooner and did not undertake to do the Christian Church some other Service than to study or teach Rhetorick If all the rest of his Life did not shew it as may be easily perceived by reading the remainder of this History Iulian who was afterwards made Emperor resided also there rather as Gregory saith to consult the Soothsayers concerning his Fortune than to study Philosophy From that time Gregory began to hope for no good from him as may be seen in the Speeches which he made against him When Basil was gon he particularly applied himself to Eloquence and declaimed with such Applauses that every one esteemed him the greatest Orator of those times His Inclination as he witnesseth him self was not for that kind of Life and he left Athens soon after without taking leave of any He had a natural love for Retirement and this hindred him from any way of Living where there was much business Those that live thus and acquit themselves well of their Employments appeared to him to be profitable only to others and those that live quite retir'd seem to him profitable only to themselves He wished he could keep in the middle of these two Extremes and to lead a kind of a Monastical Life in the midst of Men without taking any Occupation upon him but such as he would willingly choose and without being Subject to troublesome Regularities which give a distaste to the finest Employments He left Athens with these Thoughts and took the way of Constantinople by Land he found their his Brother Cesaire who was arrived by Sea from Alexandria where he had studied Physick He had acquired so much Reputation during his stay at Constantinople that the Emperor would have kept him for his Physitian made him Burgess of Constantinople and give him the Dignity of Senator and a considerable Interest What Inclination soever Cesaire had to yield to his Solicitations the desire of his Parents and Exhortations of his Brother made him omit all this and take his Journy with him to Nazianze but having lived there some time he returned to Constantinople in which it was far more pleasing to live than in a desert City of Cappadocia As for Gregory he got himself Baptized at Nazianze and his Father soon after engaged him to give himself up to a studious Life and to take the Orders of Priesthood Gregory a long while after could not but call this Action of his Father Tyranny But the Respect he had for him and the Incumbrance wherein honest Men laboured about the Controversies of Arianism where even his Father was entangled obliged him patiently to bear the Yoak that was put upon him Basil had got a Promise of him that when he should quit Athens he would come to live with him but Gregory could not be as good as his Word being obliged to live with his Parents He invited Basil to come to see him sometimes but we find not that they ever were a long while together Several were desirous that he would get himself ordained Priest and then frequented no more the Church of Nazianze for that reason as he upbraids them in one of his Speeches in which notwithstanding he praiseth the Concord and Orthodoxy of this Church He gives them also a remarkable Praise viz. That they made Piety consist not in speaking much of God but in keeping silence and obeying him If the ancient or modern Divines had endeavor'd to deserve this Praise Christianity would not have been torn by so many Disputes nor be as it now is Constans to appease if it were possible the Contentions of Arianism call'd an Ecumenick Council in CCCLIX which was divided into two Assemblies The Eastern Bishops were to hold theirs in Selucia in Isauria and those of the Western at Rimini a City of Romain The Arians which were at Selucia made a Confession of Faith in which supposing they should make use of no term which was not in Holy Writ and that consequently that of Consubstantial was not to be used they contented themselves to say That the Son was like to the Father according to the Apostle who saith that the Son is the Image of the Invisible God There they also condemned those who did say That the Son was not like the Father It was Acacius Bishop of Cesarea in Palestine who had compos'd this Confession of Faith The same Acacius and those of his Party approved of the Confession of Rimini which was conceived in such like terms They added only that mention should not be made in this occasion neither of Substance nor Hypostasis because these terms which had caused so many Disputes were not found in Holy Writ Notwithstanding the Arians being pressed by the Orthodox to give their Opinion in what consisted this resemblance of the Son with the Father made it consist in Will only whereas the others maintained that the Substance of the Son tho' distinct was altogether like the Substance of the Father But upon each side they used equivocal terms so that unhappy Inferences were made by those which were not well acquainted with these kinds of Subtleties in equivocating and confounding their different Sentiments The Father of Gregory was one of those which fell into this Ambuscade he subscribed the Confessions of Faith of Seleucia and Rimini The marvelous light which appeared at his Baptism nor the Studies he since made had not cleared his mind so as to give him a true Intelligence of the Arian Controversies This Action of the Bishop of Nazianze alarum'd the Monks of Cappadocia who full of Zeal for Consubstantiality refused to communicate with this good Man and drew a part of the People after them It seems that Gregory the Son was not then at Nazianze seeing he would have hindred his Father from committing a Fault which he afterwards obliged him to repair by a publick Retraction Having thus appeased the Monks Gregory the Son ascended into the Pulpit and made a Discourse concerning Peace which is the Twelfth of his Speeches in presence of his Father who was not to be compared to him in Eloquence and Ability 1. He saith That the Joy he had to see Peace return into the Church of Nazianze had induced him to make this Discourse whilst nothing before had obliged him to speak 2. That he was extremely concern'd at the Separation which was made before chiefly when he considered the Austere and Holy Life of the Monks which he describes by the bye with much Rhetorick 3. That Divisions are the cause of all sorts of Evils and that they had reason to praise God because that which arose in the Church of Nazianze was appeased 4. That
very People who make use of it are ashamed thereof when Superstition and Cruelty leave them any interval to think with a little more calmness on what they do This is so true that most of those which have abondoned themselves to the blind Zeal of Superstition have made use of the same artifices Our Age hath seen an illustrious Example of it and if we compare what Gregory saith hereof and the evil Crafts of Iulian with what hath been done not long since in a great Kingdom there will be a great Similitude found betwixt them We shall pass it by here fearing lest it should be thought that we have a mind to stop at a Parallel so Odious as this 6. Amongst the Reasons whereof Gregory makes use to shew that Iulian could not succeed in his Design he thus describes the power of the Saints which Christians honoured Have you not feared those to whom so great Honor is done and for whom solemn Feasts have been established by which Devils have been driven away and Diseases cured whose Apparitions and Predictions are known whose very Bodies have as much Virtue as their holy Souls whether they are touched or honoured of whom some drops of Blood only have the same Virtue as their Bodie We see by these Words and divers places of Gregory and other Fathers of his time that there was then a great deal of Respect had to the Relicks of Saints and that a great many Miracles were said to be done at their Graves It is astonishing that Gregory who loved inlarging hath not said even that the Bodies of Saints had more Virtue after their Death than during their Life for there is no comparison between the multitude of Miracles which were said to be done at the Graves of Martyrs and those which they did whilst alive Many People believe that the Falshood of some Christians and the Credulity of some others contributed much to hold up Paganism 7. Our Author makes a Panegyrick upon the Monks in the sequel after having despised Socrates and Plato and all the Pagan Philosophers Gregory reproacheth Iulian that he did not love Virtue in his Enemies but certainly Zeal made him commit here some such thing and it is very certain that he had infinitely learned more out of Plato and the Discourses of Socrates than in the Conversation of all the Monks that he had seen As to their Lives the endless Seditions of those Pious Hermits and their implacable Humor shew sufficiently that they were infinitely beneath these great Models of Pagan Antiquity 8. He remarketh very well that to be desirous to ruin the Christian Religion in a time wherein the Roman Empire was full of Christians was to undertake to ruin the very Empire When they were in a small number they could not be ill treated without Prejudice to the State but when they were numerous they could not be engaged without causing great Convulsions and too much disorder It were to be desired that the Imitators of Iulian had well weighed this Advertisement of Gregory who despiseth most justly all the good that could accrew from the Government of Iulian in comparison with the evil that so detestable a Design would have caused if he had been able to put it in Execution It were yet to be wished that our Age had been well instructed in the Horror which the Snares that Iulian by his Officers and Soldiers laid for Christians Gregory saith that some Christian Soldiers having one day when Iulian gave some Liberality to his Army cast Incense in his Presence into the fire according to an ancient Custom usually interpreted as if they had burned Incense to the Idols Nevertheless many others had done it without any Reflection and being admonished of their Fault as they invocated Iesus Christ making the sign of the Cross after their Meal by some one that told them they had renounced him they went immediately crying out in the Market-place and in the Ears of the Emperor that they had been surprized and that they were Christians Iulian provoked at the mistake banished them 9. Gregory describes some horrid Cruelties against the Christians which Iulian had authoris'd in Egypt and Syria He saith that the Inhabitants of Arethusa a City of Syria after having made Young-Women consecrated to God suffer a thousand Indignities killed them eat their Livers all raw and gave their Flesh to Swine to feed on covering it with Barly These People treated with an abominable Barbarity the Bishop of this City who notwithstanding appeared almost insensible in his Torments and Gregory marks that this Bishop in the time of Constantius exercis'd having liberty from the Emperor an Habitation of Devils to wit a Pagan Church This Action of Mark of Arethusa had drawn upon him the Hatred of the People as a Pagan would have been detested by the Christians if he had destroyed one of their Churches Notwithstanding Gregory a little lower saith not only that the Christians did not Treat the Pagans as they had been Treated by them But he asketh of them What Liberty Christians had taken from them As if it were nothing to pull down their Temples as was done since the Reign of Constantine They continued with the same Rigor under the following Emperors and that they might be Reproacht with nothing of Paganism it was Prohibited on pain of Death to Sacrifice to Idols with the Applause of all the Christians if St. Augustin can be believed We must not forget to Remark here another effect of the Rhetorick of Gregory It is that in speaking of the Christian Young Women of Aretâ—usa who had been so Abused he Accuses not only the Pagans but also makes an Apostrophe to our Lord thus O Iesus Christ how shall I suffer the pain which you had then 10. Iulian added Insults also to his ill Treatments and in taking away the Christians Goods he said he only assisted them to observe the Gospel which commanded 'em to despise the things of this Life This Railery is in the forty third Letter of Iulian where he saith that the Church of the Arians at Edessa having done some Violence to the Valentinians he had Confiscated all their Mony to distribute it to the Soldiers and kept their Goods to himself fearing lest the Arians being too Rich could not get into the Kingdom of Heaven Gregory Answers to this amongst other things that Iulian acting thus made as if he imagin'd that the Gods of the Heathens thought it necessary that People should be deprived of their Goods without deserving it and that they approved of Injustice He might have been satisfied with this Answer but he adds that there are things which Iesus Christ hath commanded as necessary and others which he hath simply proposed for those that would observe them without indispensibly obliging any one to do it Such is according to Gregory the Commandment of abandoning the Wealth of this World 11. One thing for which they abused
Cesairia died This was a little after the Earth-quake which happened in Bithynia in the Month October the Year CCCLXVIII He was then at Nice where he exercised the Employment of Treasurer to the Emperor This City was almost totally ruined and he was the only Officer of Valens that escaped this Danger Gregory made a Funeral Oration in his Honor which is the Tenth of those which are in being He makes there an Abridgment of his Life whose principal Circumstances have been related and describeth the Vanity of all we enjoy here below and makes divers Reflections upon Death and of the manner of comforting ones self for that of Relations He wisheth that his Brother may be in the Bosom of Abraham where-ever it may be and towards the end describing the Happiness of good Men after Death he saith that according to wise Men their Souls are full of Joy in the Contemplation of the Happiness that attends them till after their Resurrection they are received into Celestial Glory Cesairia dying left his Goods to the Poor and yet there was much Difficulty in getting them those that were at his Death having seiz'd on the greatest part as Gregory complains in his eighteenth Letter where he prayeth Sophronius Governor of Bithynia to order that Business Basil Friend to Gregory being made Bishop of Cesarea in the Year CCCLXX had some Disputes with Valens of which we shall not speak here because it signifieth nothing to the Life of his Friend It was perhaps for that reason that this Emperor divided Cappadocia into two Provinces and made Tyanus Metropolis in the second Cappadocia As the Jurisdiction of Metropolitans was regulated upon the Extent of the Province divers Bishops who were before Suffragans of Cesarea became so to Tyanus so that Basil found himself the Head of a fewer Number of Bishops than before The new Metropolitan drew to him the Provincial Assemblies seized of the Revenues of his Diocess and omitted nothing to diminish the Authority and Revenues of Basil. Anthimus for that was the Name of the Bishop of Tyane who was an Arian concealed it under the pretence of Piety and said he would not abandon the Flocks to the Instruction of Basil whose Sentiments concerning the Son of God were not upright nor suffer that any Tribute should be paid to Hereticks Gregory assures us that he would send Soldiers to stop the Mules of Basil to hinder him from getting his Rents Basil found no other Remedy to that than the creating new Bishops which would have more care of the Flocks than he could have and by means of whom each City should bring him in what was his due Sasime being one of these Cities in which he had resolved to send Bishops he cast his Eyes upon his Friend Gregory to send him there 3 without considering that this place was altogether unworthy of a Man of his desert It was a Village without Water and Greens and full of Dust a passage for Soldiers and inhabited only by a few Ignorant People The Revenues that could be drawn from this Bishoprick were very small and besides all that he must be resolved to defend them by force against Anthime or to be subject to this new Metropolitan Gregory refused this Employ but at length the Importunities and Addresses of Basil which gained Gregory the Father obliged him to accept thereof It seemeth he composed at that time his seventh Speech wherein he speaks to his Father and Basil and desire their help and Instructions for the Conduct of his new Church of Sasime He saith notwithstanding to Basil that the Episcopal Throne had extreamly changed him and that he had much more mildness whilst he was amongst the Sheep than since he was become Pastor The next day he made another Speech upon the arrival of Gregory of Nysse Brother to Basil to whom he complains of the Violence that had been done him by his Brother and as it was the Feast of some Martyr he adds divers things on that occasion upon the manner of celebrating Feasts not by profane Rejoycings but by exercises of Piety He saith amongst other things That then was the time to raise one's self and to become God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it be admitted to speak thus and that in that Martyrs do the Office of Mediators 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Expression to become God that is to say to become a good Man and to despise earthly things is frequent enough in the Writings of Gregory He saith elsewhere that Priests are Gods and deifie others that Solitude deifieth Introducing Basil who refused to embrace Arianism he makes him say that he could not adore a Creature he who also was a Creature of God and had received Commandment to be God We must remark that this Expression was us'd amongst the Pythagorists as may be seen by the last of the golden Verses of Pythagoras upon which we may consult Hyerocles When Gregory was at Sasime he thought he perceived by the misery of this Place that Basil did despise him and abused his Friendship Though he kept the Government thereof for a little while he made no other Episcopal in it he prayed not there in publick with the People not imposed his hands on any As he went to it against his will and without obliging himself to tarry there he thought he might leave this Church and return into the Solitude from whence they had drawn him when he returned to Nazianze He complained very much of the Pride of Basil whom the Episcopal Throne of Cesarea had so blinded that he had no longer any Consideration for his Friends These Complaints as Just as they were yet passed for Attempts in the Mind of the Metropolitan who seemed to have forgotten the Esteem he had for Gregory and the Services which the latter had rendred him in his Promotion to the See of Cesarea Yet Gregory discovered not the unworthy manner wherewith his Friend had treated him neither then nor since Gregory having abandoned Sasime retired into a Hospital of the Sick whom he took care to comfort and in vain his Father entreated him to return to Sasime he would never be resolved to do it nor digest the hard usage of Basil who of fifty Bishopricks which were in his Diocess had given him the least All that Gregery the Father could obtain of his Son was that he would take the Care of the Bishoprick of Nazianze during his Life without engaging himself to succeed him In that time it seems that a Commissary of the Emperor's to Tax the Inhabitants of Nazianze and who had been a particular Friend to Gregory gave some suspicion to his Flock that he would not Tax them very lightly they thereupon forc'd Gregory to make that Discourse which is the Ninth of his Speeches where he exhorts all Conditions to Piety and speaks to Iulian who was the Commissioner of the Emperor to induce him to settle this Tax
Chatechumenes consisted in shewing them what there was that was good in the Heathen Philosophy and so insensibly conducted them to Christianity which they were in a much better way of embracing after having received several of his Maxims drawn from Natural Light and distributed through the Writings of Philosophers for whom they saw all the World had a respect If they were immediately told that they must renounce all their Opinions and look upon all the rest of Mankind not only as Men who were in an Error but such a had said nothing that was true As Labourers cast Seed into the Earth but not 'till after they have water'd it So saith Clement We take from the writings of the Greeks that which is necessary to water what we final Earthy in those we Instruct that they may afterwards receive the Spiritual Seed and that they may be in a mâ—re likely way to make it spring up more easily In effect the light of the Gospel supposes that of Nature and destroys it not We do not see that Iesus Christ and his Apostles have undertaken to give us a compleat System of all the Doctrins that have any reference to Religion they supposed that we were already prevented with divers thoughts established amongst all Nations upon which they Reasoned otherwise it would have been requisite for example that they should have exactly defined all the Vertues which they have not done because in respect to this they found Idea's in the minds of Men which tho imperfect were yet very true so they were satisfied to add what was lâ—cking or to cut off what evil Customs might have injuriously established therein Besides the Office of Catechist Clement was raised to the Priesthood at the beginning as 't is believ'd of the Empire of Severus because Eusebius in his History of the Events of CXCV gives to Clement the title of Priest It was about that time that he undertook to defend the Christian Religion against Heathens and Hereticks by a Work which he Entituled Stromates which we shall afterwards speak something of because in this Work in making a Chronological Computation he descends not lower than the Death of Commodus whence Eusebius concludes that he compos'd it under the Empire of Severus who succeeded this Emperour Severus enraged against the Christians because perhaps of a Rebellion of the Iews with whom the Heathens confounded those that professed Christianity began to Persecute them violently This Persecution arising at Antioch reached unto Egypt and obliged several Christians to withdraw from their Habitations where they were too well known to escape the Violence of the Persecution This seems to have given occasion to Clement of proving it was lawful to fly in time of Persecution After having said that Martyrdom purified them from all Sins and exhorting them to suffer if they were called to it he says that Persons ought to testifie that they are perswaded of the Truth of the Christian Religion as much by their Manners as Words After that he Expounds this Passage of the Gospel When you are Persecuted in one City flee into another The Lord saith he commands us not to flee as if it were an Evil to be Persecuted and bids us not to shun Death by flight as if we should fear it He will have us neither ingage in or assist any one to do Evil c. Those who obey not are Rash and throw themselves without reason into manifest Dangers If he who kills a Man of God Sinneth he also is guilty of his own Death he who presents himself to the Tribunal of the Jugde c. he assists as much as is capable the Wickedness of him by whom he is Persecuted If he exasperates him he is effectually the cause of his own Death as much as if he endeavoured to vex a wild Beast who afterwards devoured him A little while after the Apostles Persons were observ'd to covet Martyrdom but some after desiring the Executioners scandalously falling from Christianity at the sight of the Torments this Conduct was thought dangerous and those were condemned for it who offered themselves freely to be Martyr'd as appears by divers Passages of the Ancients and by that of Clement which we have related As Men ought not to shun Martyrdom when it cannot be avoided except by renouncing Christianity or a good Conscience so they ought to preserve their Lives as much as they can whilst there is any likelihood of serving the Christians rather to prolong it by flight than lose it by staying in Places where the Persecution is so violent and whence they may get away without ceasing to make Profession of Truth Those who blame or make some difficulty of absolving some Protestant Pastors because they came from a Kingdom where they could not tarry without an eminent Danger should first prove that another Conduct would have been more advantageous to Christianity than their Retreat hath been Here depends the Solution of this Question which hath been disputed of late If they have done well in withdrawing Clement seems then to have quitted Alexandria seeing we find that he made some Abode at Ierusalem with Alexander who was soon after Bishop of this City and to whom he dedicated his Book Entituled The Ecclesiastical Rules against those who follow the Opinions of the Jews During his Abode there he was very useful to this Church as appears by a Letter to Alexander to the Church of Antioch whereof Clement was bearer where this Bishop saith that he was a Man of great Virtue as the Church of Anitoch knew and would still acknowledge him so and that he being at Ierusalem by an effect of Divine Providence had confirmed and encreased the Church of the Lord. From Antioch Clement returned to Alexandria where it is not known how long he lived All that can be said is that he survived at least some Years after Pantenus and that he was not old when he composed his Stromates seeing he saith himself that he did them to serve him for a Collection in his old Age when his Memory should fail him History teacheth us nothing concerning his Death but it may be believed his Memory was blessed at Alexandria if these words of the Bishop of Ierusalem be considered which we have spoken of who in another Letter to Origen saith That they both acknowledged for Fathers these blessed Men who had quitted this Life before them and with whom they would soon be to wit blessed Pantenus and pious Clement from whom they had drawn great Succours Amongst several Works which Clement compos'd we have but Three remaining which are considerable The First is An Exhortation to Pagans where he refutes their Religion and endeavours to induce them to imbrace Christianity The Second is Entituled The Paedagogue where he forms the Manners of Youth and gives them Rules to behave themselves Christianly where he mixeth Maxims very severe and far from the Customs of this day The Third are the Stromates that is to say Tapistries which he
the Twenty fifth of December some the Twenty sixth of December some the Twentieth of April some the Seventeenth of April and some the Sixteenth of May. There was yet another Feast amongst them called by us Epiphany mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus The Author observes they kept no other Saints days nor did they call 〈◊〉 Apostles Saints but plain Matthew 〈◊〉 c. only they celebrated the Anniversaâ—â— of their own Martyrs praising their Actions and exhorting one another to Imitation the Place of their Meeting was at their Graves and Tombs Lastly our Author observes that their Festivals were not times of Revelling Drunkenness Gluttony c. but in Acts of Piety Charity and Religious Employments X. In the Tenth and last Chapter our Author comes to consider the Ceremonies of the Primitive Church for instance when they Baptized in some Churches the new Member had Milk and Hony given to him and in some Places before they prayed they washed their Hands they had Exorcism before Baptism and Unction after and innumerable more such Ceremonies which crept in partly by a Misunderstanding some Texts and partly by being amongst the Superstitious Heathens Yet the Churches retain'd their own Liberty and Customs without imposing or being impos'd upon by one another I shall give only one of those many Instances that our Author has brought for his Purpose 't is out of a Fragment of an Epistle written by Irenaeus and other Bishops of France wherein they affirm that Victor was in the right with respect to the time of Easter that it ought to be celebrated as he said on the Lords Day but that yet he had done very ill to cut off from the Unity of the Church those that observed it otherwise that it had never been known that any Churches were Excommunicated for a disagreement in Rites an Instance of which there was not only in the time of Easter its self but in the Fast that preceded it Some fasted one day others more some forty hours which variety of Observations began not first in our Age but long before us in the times of our Ancestors who yet preserved Peace and Unity amongst themselves as we now do for the Diversity of Fasts commended the Unity of Faith And as for this Controversie concerning the time of Easter the Bishops which governed the Church of Rome before Soter viz. Anicetus Pius Higynus Telesphorus and Xystus they never celebrated it the same time with the Asiaticks neither would they permit any of their People so to do but yet they were kind and peaceable to those who came to them from those Parishes where they did otherwise observe it and never any for this Cause were thrown out of the Church even their Predecessors though they did not keep it yet they sent the Eucharist to those that did keep it and when in the times of Anicetus blessed Polycarp came to Rome and there were some Controversies between them they did not separate from one another but still maintained Peace and Love And though Anicetus could never perswade Polycarp nor Polycarp Anicetus to be of each others mind yet they Communicated one with another and Anicetus in Honour to Polycarpus permitted him to Consecrate the Sacrament in his Church and so they departed in mutual Love and Kindness and all the Churches whether observing or not observing 〈◊〉 same Day retained Peace and Unity amongst themselves Apud Euseb. Lib. 5. Cap. 24. Pag. 192 193. After all our Author concludes with a most passionate Exhortation to Love and Peace amongst our selves protesting that in this Treatise he has not been byass'd by any Party or Faction whatever but has endeavour'd a plain full and impartial discovery of Truth leaving every one to their Liberty as to the Judgment they shall make of it He says he has left out many Ancient things and handled mostly those Points that are now in dispute amongst us He has taken a great deal of pains in citing his Authorities all along In short he has out-done all that ever have Wrote in this kind before him and yet with a Spirit of so much Modesty and Humility that every Party may see their Errors without having any cause to be angry withe their Exposer He has given a Table of the Fathers Names which he has made use of as also their Ages and Countries that we may thereby be able to ghess at the Original of some Customs amongst them and the Places where they were chiefly practised St. Clementis Epistolae duae ad Corinthâ—os Interpretibus Patricio Iunio Gottifredo Vendelino Iohan. Bapt. Cotelerio Recensuit Notarum Spicilegium adjecit Paulus Colemesius Bibliothecae Lambethanae Curator Accedit Thomae Brunonis Canonici Windesoriensis Dissertatio de Therapeutis Philonis His subnexae sunt Epistolae aliquot singulares vel nunc primum Editae vel non ita facile obviae London Impensis Jacobi Adamson 1687. in 120. Pag. 377. 1. THese Epistles of St. Clement which were known only by some Citations of the Ancients were published the first time more than forty Years ago by Patricius Iunius who found them joined to the end of the New Testament in the famous MS. of Alexandria This Learned Man added to them a Latin Version and Notes William Burton Translated them into English in 1677 and added likewise Remarks of his own much larger than those of Iunius The Edition of the latter being soon become scarce it was imitated at Helmstadt in 1654 and Iochim Iohn Maderus added to it a new Preface since that time the Edition hath appear'd in Twelves by Dr Fell Bishop of Oxford and that of Mr. Cotelier in Folio Here is a fifth which we owe to the Care of Mr. Colomies who hath compared the precedent Editions with the MS. whence they have taken them and hath shew'd that the Learned Iunius was some times mistaken and had in the Reading this MS. put a wrong Sense upon many things we shall give an Example hereof after we have made some little mention of a small Dissertation which Mr. Colomies placed before St. Clement Entituled De Clementis ejus Epistolarum tempore Vandelini Divinatio This Vandelin was Tutor to the famous Gassendus and died Chanon of Ghent He believes that St. Clement was near the Age of St. Iohn the Evangelist and lived as long as he dying the third Year of the Reign of Trajan at Chersone in Pontus whither he was banished The Ancients all agree that St. Clement was Bishop of Rome but they do not agree upon the time he was so nor upon the Order which ought to be given him in the List of the first Bishops of this City Baronius himself confessed that he was not well assured of the order of the Succession of these Bishops until the Year CLXXIX Vandelin undertakes in this Dissertation to resolve the Difficulties by the means of the old Breviaries and Martyrologies after which he speaks of the time in which the Epistles of St. Clement were written As his
Gregory of Nyssa in his Discourses against those that defer Baptism distinguisheth three sorts of Persons with Relation to the other Life The first Order is that of the Saints and Righteous which will be happy the second those that shall be neither happy nor unhappy and the third those that shall be punished for their Sins He puts in the second Rank those that cause themselves to be Baptized at the point of Death There is a Letter of this Father concerning Voyages made to Ierusalem where he diverts the Faithful from undergoing slightly these sort of Pilgrimages by reason of the Abuses that proceed from thence Some Catholicks have been willing to make it pass as Supposititious but Mr. du Pin believes it to be true Here Priscillian and his Disciples are placed in the Rank of Ecclesiastical Authors after St. Ierom who speaks thus of them Priscillian Bishop of Avila was put to death in the City of Treves by the Command of the Tyrant Maximus having been oppressed by the Faction of Itharius He hath written several Works whereof some are come to us Some accuse him this day of the Heresie of the Gnosticks of Basilide and Marcion But others defend him and maintain that he was not Guilty of the Errors that are imputed to him It 's true pursues Mr. du Pin that the same St. Ierom in his Letter to Ctesiphon speaks of Priscillian as of a notable Heretick which hath made Mr. du Quesnel believe that this place of the Ecclesiastical Writers was corrupted This Conjecture which is grounded upon the Authority of a Manuscript would be of Consequence if we knew not that St. Ierom hath often spoke differently of the same Man besides it 's apparently the manner that St. Ierom speaks in his Catalogue which placed Priscillian and Matronian his Disciple in some Martyrologies amongst the Holy Martyrs The second Letter of Pope Syricius furnisheth us with a fine Example Saith Mr. du Pin of the Ancient manner of the Holy Patriarchs Iudging He writes in it to the Church of Milan that having Assembled all his Clergy he had condemned Jovinian and all his Sectators by the advice of the Priests Deacons and the whole Clergy Baronius Bellarmin and some others pretend that part of the second Letter of St. Epiphanius is Supposititious because he there relates a History which is not favourable to the Worship of their Church Being entred saith this Bishop into a Church of a Village in Palestine call'd Anablatha and having found a Vail that hung at the Door which was Painted where there was an Image of Iesus Christ or some Saint for I do not remember whose it was but since against the Authority of Holy Scripture there was in the Church of Iesus Christ the Image of a Man I rent it and gave order to those that had the Care of this Church to bury a dead Body with this Vail Mr. du Pin after having proved that all this Letter is St. Epiphanius's adds That though it be true that there were placed in some Churches Pictures that represented the Histories of the Scriptures and the Actions of the Saints and Martyrs it cannot be said that this use was general and that it must be granted that St. Epiphanius hath disapproved it although without reason according to him for I believe continueth he that it would be contrary to the Candor and Sincerity that Religion demands of us to give another Sense to these words After the Extracts of the Writings of the Fathers are found those of the Councils held in the Fourth Age. The Canons of that which is called the Council of Elvira are an old Code or an ancient Collection of the Councils of Spain and it cannot be doubted but these Canons are of great Antiquity and very Authentick The XXXIV Canon and the XXXVI have given much Exercise to the Roman Catholick Divines The one forbiding to light Wax-Candles in the Church-yard because the Spirits of Saints must not be troubled and the other Paintings in Churches lest the Object of our Adorations should be painted on the Walls They have endeavoured to give several Expositions on these Passages but it seems to me saith Mr. du Pin that it is better to understand them simply and to allow that the Fathers of this Council have not approved the use of Images no more than of Wax-Candles lighted in open day But continueth he these things are of Discipline and may or may not be in use and do no Prejudice to the Faith of the Church The XXXV Canon prohibits Women to pass in the Night in Church-yards because often under pretence of Praying they in secret committed great Crimes The LX deprives such of the quality of Martyrs as are killed in pulling down Idols publickly because the Gospel commands it not nor is it read that it was practised by the Christians in the time of the Apostles The same Spirit of Parties which wrested the Canons of the Council of Elvira hath caused Men to doubt of the History of Paphnusius related by Socrates lib. 1. c. 9. This Egyptian Bishop opposed the new Law that was going to be made in the Council of Nice to oblige Bishops Priests and Deacons to keep unmarried and abstain from Women that they had espoused before their Ordination Although he himself had never been married he maintained that this Yoke was not to be imposed upon the Clergy and that it was to bring the Chastity of Women in danger I believe saith Mr. du Pin upon this speaking of the Roman Catholick Doctors that this doubt proceeds rather from the fear they are in that this act should do some hurt to the present Disciplin than of any solid proof But these Persons should consider that this Regulation is purely a Disciplin which the Disciplin of the Church may change according to the times and that to maintain it it is not necessary to prove it hath always been uniform in all places The Author shews that it was Osius Bishop of Cordova who presided in the Council of Nice and not the Legats of the Pope He only acknowledges for Authentick Monuments of this Council the Form of Faith the Letter to the Egyptians the Decree touching Easter and the two first Canons He consequently rejects as Supposititious pieces the Latin Letter of this Council to St. Sylvester the Answer of this Bishop and the Canons of a pretended Synod held at Rome for the Confirmation of that of Nice The Christians of that time who were not perfectly instructed by the holy Scripture in what they ought to believe touching the Mystery of the blessed Trinity were in great uncertainty for neither the Tradition nor Authority of the Church were then infallible marks of the Truth of a Tenet since the Ecclesiastical Assemblies that the most reasonable Catholicks make the Depositaries of these Traditions and Authority some time declare for the Arians some time for the Orthodox and another for a third
Triumphant Hyman upon Iulians being cut off which Israel Sang when the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea Naz. Orat. 3 p. 54. Iraeneus when some Hereticks made an Argument from the Conclusion of the Form of a Doxology says they alledge also that we in our thanksgiving do say World without End Iren. adv Heres lib. 1 â— 1. This Form is mentioned in Tertullian de Spect. p. 83. And the Gloria Patri was a Form both in the Gallican and African Church Tertul. speaking de Basil c. 13. says Christ had not only imposed the Law of Baptism but prescribed the Form of it The same Father Apol. c. 39. says after having washed their hands and brought in lights they called for some to sing Psalms or somewhat of their own Composing In the Third Century Hyppolitus the Martyr de Consum Mundi Tom 2. p. 357. speaking in his discourse of the end of the World and the coming of Christ says expresly That Liturgies shall be extinguished singing of Psalms shall cease and reading of Scripture shall not be heard Origen in Anno 230. is so full in his Homily on Ieremy that the Centuriators were convinced that Set Forms of Prayer were used in his time It is say they without Question that they had some Set Forms of Prayer in that Age c. The same Father adds on this Subject in Cels. lib. p. 302. They who serve God thro' Iesus in a Christian way and live according to the Gospel use frequently as becomes them night and day the Enjoyed Prayer which is as full as can be to the purpose St. Cyprian de Orat. Sect. 5. p. 310. says That Christians had a publick and Common Prayer wherein all agreed Anno 253. Gregory Thaumaturgus Bishop of Neocesarea was contemperary with St. Cyprian St. Basil an unquestionable Witness says concerning him that he appointed a Form of Prayer for that Church of Neocesarea from which they wou'd not vary in one Ceremony or in a Word nor wou'd they add any one Mystical Form in the Church to those which he had left them c. Paulus Samosatenus was offended at some Hymns and Composed others Euseb. lib. 7. cap. 24. In the Fourth Century Arnobius lib. 2. p 65. says To venerate this Supream King is the end and design of these Divine Offices Constantin's Form of Prayer is well known Euseb. vit Constant. lib. 4. Athanasius in his Apol. ad Constant. p. 156 157. says The People Mourned and Groaned to God in the Church all of 'em crying to the Lord and saying Spare thy People good Lord spare them give not their Heritage for a reproach to thine Enemies Which is an Original piece of Littany and a known Form prescribed in Scripture Athanasius de interp Psalm p. 303. Orders the People to sing the Psalms in the very words wherein they were written Flavianus was intreated to come back to the church and perform the same Liturgy there Theodor. lib. 2. c. 24. St. Cyril says to his Auditors in the Eucharistical Office Lift up your hearts Answer We lift 'em up unto the Lord. P. Let us give thanks unto the Lord. A. As it is meet and just Cyril Catechis Mystag 5. Iulian the Apostate devised to to make a Form of Prayer in parts for the Heathen Worship to be set up in Schools c. which things saith Nazianzen in Iul. Orat. 3. p. 102 are clearly agreeable to our Good Order And Sozomen Hist. lib. 5. cap. 15. speaking of the same thing says that Iulian designed to adorn his Gentile Temples with the Order of Christian Worship appointing prescribed Prayers upon set days and hours The Ingenious Apostat in one of his Epistles Iulian Fragment Epist. in Oper. p. 552. yet extant advises his Pagan Priests to pray thrice a day if possible or however Morning and Evening both in private and publick and to learn the Hymns of the Gods which were made in Old and Latter Times Adding that there was a Liturgy for these Priests and a Law directing 'em what to do in their Temples from which they might not vary The Council of Laodicea which is one of the Earliest Synods and has been always received by the Church says Canon 18. Bev. Tom. 1 p. 461. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That the very same Liturgy of Prayers which the Fathers had appointed for Three in the Afternoon c. In the Council of Sardica Anno 347. A Bishop coming to a strange City is Ordered to Assemble and Perform his Liturgy there Can. 12. There are other Testimonies in this Century of Gregory Nazianzen St. Basil Dionysius Areopagita St. Ambrose St. Ierom Chrysostom the Third Canon Carth. the 70 African Canon And here we come to the time that Mr. Clarkson confesses the uses of the Liturgies So that we need go no further We might run down the 5 th 6 th 7 th 8 th c. Centuries if there was occasion for it but what we have brought does sufficiently answer Dr. Combers end viz. To shew the palpable Errors of Mr. Clarkson about the Innovation of Liturgies Dr. Comber has Written a Second Part wherein he has followed his Antagonist down thro' these latter Ages and does not only shew from the beginning of Christianity till of late that Liturgies and Set Forms of Prayer were used publickly but that Extempâ—re publick Prayer was never suffered in the Christian Church whatever it might be in Private Families The use of the whole Discourse cann't miss this Effect amongst all considering and unpreâ—udic'd Presbyterians that it will either convince 'em that our practice is more agreeable to that of the Primitive Christians than theirs or at least that ours was used as well as theirs Besides it will take off the common Objection against us viz. That our Practices have taken their Original from the Papists since here aâ—e the most clear and convincing Eâ—idences in the World that the Papal Authority was not settled for many Hundreds of Years alter some very considerable Instances which are here brought against Liturgies and Set Forms of Prayers Hymns c. I had almost forgot to do the Author this Justice that he has not only brought his Authorities for the Practices of the Church of England but has also fully answered Mr. Clarksons Arguments against it with that Mildness Perspicuity Judgment and Learning as have not given him a little Repute amongst the Learned Such as wou'd be better acquainted with the Knowledg and Worth of the Author or are any way dissatisfied with this Subject if they please to consult the Author himself they cann't fail to meet with an ample Satisfaction A New Bibliotheque of Ecclesiastick Authors Containing the History of their Lives the Catalogue of their Writings and the Chronology of their Works the Sum of what they Contain a Iudgment on their Stile and Doctrâ—n with an Enumeration of the Different Editions of their Works Tom. the First of the Authors of the Three First Ages with a Preliminary
in quibus Carmelitana Religio perseveravit ad haec usque tempora pervenit quamvis post modum insignes viri surrexerunt qui servatis principalioribus observantiis Carmelitanae Religionis maximè tribus votis cum quibus etiam in antiqua lege sed non adeò perfectè stetit illa nostra Religio adjunctisque aliis novas Religiones tam in Oriente quà m in Oâ—cidente fundaverunt Dicti sunt Patres nostri in illa veluti secunda Religionis atate Therapeutae Eremitae Anachoretae Solitarii Ascetae Philosophi ac Coenobitae Et sicut in monte Carmelo singulari Dei providentia etiam tempore Iudaicarum captivitatum cùm totus pene populus in Assyrios fuit translatus Carmelitae natali Religionis solo potiti sunt ita etiam in primis Ecclesiae saeculis usque ad annum 1290. quo scilicet à Saracenis è Carmelo expulsi sunt quem tandem nostri Discalceati anno 1631. recuperarunt Interdum floruerunt Carmelitae quâ—mplurimi ut Ioannes Vigesimus quarâ—us Patriarcha Hierosolymitanus Praesul sanae Orthodoxae fidei Author libri de Institutione Monachoâ—um qui habetur in Bibliotheca Patrum tom 〈◊〉 quicquid in contrarium dicant antiquitatis nostrae aemuli qut etiam Monachisâ—um Cyrilli fabellam malè arbitrantur fuit enim verè Carmelita inde assumptus in Patriarcham Alexandrinum in Ephesiono Concilio Caelestini primi legatus S. Anastasius Martyr Petrus Eremita S. Antonius Abbas S. Hilarion S. Basilius S. Pachomius S. Simplicianus Magister S. Augustini S. Romanus Monachus Director S. Benedicti V. F. Gerardus Institutor Hospitaliorum S. Iohannis Baptistae S. Hieronymus Ecclesiae Doctor S. Honoratus Fundâ—â—or Monasterii Lirinensis in Gallo-Provincia S. Cassianus Fundator Monasterii Massiliensis S. Victoris S. Palladius Scotorâ—â— Apostolus Cyrillus Constantinopolitanus alii pene innumeri Sed omitâ—erenoâ— possum Simonem Stochium cui Beata Virgo sacrum Scapulare concessit cujus dovotae gâ—â—â—atiani deinde privilegium Buâ—lae Sabbatinae voluit annexum ut devotum sibi Ordinem se specialiter tueri demonstraret per innumeros Carmelitanae Propheticae Elianae vitae Professores ad finem usque mundi duratures osâ—enderet Patriarcham nostrum Eliam esse qui Prophetas facit successores 〈◊〉 se. Has Theses Deo dante auspice Deiparâ Ordinis Patronâ tuâ—bitur in Comitiis Provincialibus Provinciae Tholosae Bitteris congregatis die Mensis Aprilis anni 1682. hora secunda pomerâ—diana apud Carmelitas R. P. Philippus Teissier Carmelita Sacrae Theologiae Doctor Sunt autem defensae hae Theses per triduum The Printed Copies of this Thesis are so very scarce says our Abridger I cou'd not get any of 'em so that he was forced to make use of some Manuscript Copies two of which he confesses were very defective and as ill Decyphered but happily one supplyed what the other wanted so that with the help of a Book that he sometimes consulted he says he thinks he has avoided any considerable faults that might have slipt into this Edition either in respect to proper Names or any thing else He says that the Carmelite Fathers cannot complain that he has falsified there Positions for if it is not exactly conformable to the Original it is only in respect to a word or so which signifies nothing to the Affair it self The Book that assisted him was Intituled Elias Thesbites sive de rebus Eliae Prophetae Commentarius in Quarto Printed at Paris 1631. It is full of Learning Reading and Curious Enquiries but there are many Fancies and Chimera's in it as well as in the Thesis of Beziers They ought not to permit that such things be publickly maintained as constant Truths for the least Advantage that the Protestants wou'd draw from thence is that it plainly appears that under the Benefit of Tradition they maintain and deny what they please The Incredulous take a great advantage from thence to insult over Faith and it is certainly Pernicious to Religion to introduce so many Fabulous Stories Permit me says our Abridger to cite here a Thought of Mr. Rohault's that Celebrated Philosopher whose Posthumous Works were Printed by the care of his Father in Law who lived but a little after this Edition He says in the Preface to his Treatise of Phisicks that nothing has prodoced more unhappy Dispositions in Scholars than to see Those who publickly maintain any Doctrin whatsoever always Triumphing over those that endeavour to prove the contrary so that upon their Accounts all things pass only for probabilities They look not on Study as a means to discover new Truths but as a Sport for them to Exercise their Wits upâ—n the end of all which is only so to confound Truth with Falshood by some subtility that they may equally maintain both without ever appearing to be convinced by any Argument how unreasonable soever the Opinion may be that they maintain And it is in effect the general Success of all Publick Actions where often in the same Pulpit Opinions are Alternatively deliver'd perfectly contrary and equally triumphing without any Tenet being the better clear'd or Truth the more Establish'd I don't think continues he that such Persons as wou'd defend all the Propositions maintain'd by the Carmelite Friers as true are very proper to Convert Socinians Isaaci Vossii Variarum Observationum Liber at London 1685. in Quarto MR. Vossius begins this Book with a Discourse upon the greatness of the Antient Roman City upon which he has several Thoughts which appear incredible to many Men for he says That in the time of Augustus the Walls were above thirty thousand Paces round altho ' they enclosed not that part of the City that was situated upon the Confines of Tyber which contain'd twenty thousand Paces And if so the Circumference of Rome wou'd be above fifty thousand Paces without the Suburbs Our Author in taking them into the Computation found that the whole contain'd 72 thousand Paces in so much that its Area or Content was greater by 3 11 than that of Babylon which was a square City of sixty thousand Paces about Rome appears to us already of an excessive greatness but what wou'd it be if we added to it that part beyond the Tyber which has not yet been counted Because they did not formerly look upon it as a part of the City The Palace of Nero encompassed Rome on that side and it was of so prodigious an extent that Mr. Vossius did not believe that there was then any City in Europe so large He durst not say positively that the Quarter on that side the River extended even to the Ocriculum for the space of 36 thousand Paces but he shews that it took up much Land upon the Ianicule the neighbouring Mountains and along the way of Flaminius which being that whereby Men entred in Triumph into the City 't was necessarily full of Houses He proposes some considerable Difficulties and answers them very learnedly He says amongst other things that the Walls
of Rome must be distinguished from the Pomaerium which being at first without the City was afterwards one part of it within the Walls and the other without because that those that enlarged the Walls was also obliged at the same time to enlarge the Pomaerium the Augures so managed the matter that all which had this quality before preserved it self He also says That when they made their City bigger they proportionably removed certain places without taking from them their Ancient Names For Example the Grove of the Muses and the Cave of Egeria or Numa was often removed being once but a little distance from the Gate of Capena which in the time of this King was not very far from the middle of Rome But after a while this Grove and this Cave were found at Aricia near the outmost parts of the City fifteen thousand Paces from the place where the Gate of Capena anciently stood This Observation may serve for an Answer to a Passage in Pliny where it is said That Rome was limited at the East by the Caprice of Tarquin the Proud for if any wou'd infer from thence That the Limits of the Town were only distant from the Center about two thousand Paces he may be answer'd That this distance which was effectively so once is so encreased in proportion to the enlargement of Rome because the Monument which bears the Name of Tarquin was always extended to the utmost bounds of the City Our Author adds That 't is vainly alledg'd that there 's no Trace left at this Day of the prodigious Bulk of Rome for says he if one wou'd find any Marks of it he must dig sixty foot deep and to find any of the Ruins of Nineveh or Babylon which were built upon soft Foundations he must dig two hundred foot deep What he says afterwards is not less common viz. He brings a long List of the numberings of the Roman People from the time of Servius Tullius to the Year of Rome 667. The first Account gives 130000 Citizens that of the Year 667 affords above 46000. In respect of the Inhabitants 't is hard to give a positive determination because they were never reckoned but our Author affirms they were of a far greater number than Lipsus believed for if the proportion between the Slaves and Citizens was the same as betwixt those of Rome and Athens where for 20000 Burgesses there were 400000 Slaves it wou'd follow that Rome contain'd 8000000 of Slaves a greater number than any Kingdom of Europe whatsoever has in it He assures us in another place That before the Tyranny of Sylla the City of Rome by it self had as many Inhabitants in it as the Moiety of Europe has at this day But to the Computation he brings he supposes that the City of Paris and that of London joyn'd together would fill an Area of six thousand Paces Square And that the City of Rome with its Suburbs and that Quarter beyond Tyber wou'd take up twenty times a greater Square than those six thousand Paces He supposes also that Rome was at least as well Peopled as Paris and London and grounds his Opinion upon the Prodigious height of the Houses as appears by Augustus taxing them at 70 foot apiece Now we may well suppose here with those who are not carry'd away with the Multitude in their Computation that there are not more than six hundred thousand Inhabitants in each of those Cities that I have named In another place he is not so liberal he allows only that number to two Cities joyn'd together he concludes this following Proposition That there was in Rome fourteen Millions of Inhabitants a Number says he that the three most Populous Cities of Europe will not supply us with For after having related many fine things upon the manner how Rome fell to decay upon the greatness of Babylon Nineveh Thebes in Egypt Alexandria Carthage Cairo and some Cities of China thus he divides the different Nations of Europe he gives to Spain two Millions of Inhabitants to France five Millions to Italy to the three Isles of Sicily Corsica and to Sardinia two Millions to Great Britain and Ireland two Millions to the Low Countries two Millions to Germany Bohemia and Hungary five Millions to the Estates of the King of Denmark excepting Norway four hundred thousand to the Estates of Sweedland and Norway 600000 to the Estates of Poland a Million and an half to Turkey c. five Millions and an half adding as he goes along all Muscovia to Europe and supposing 3000000 of Inhabitants in Muscovia from whence it follows That all Europe has not above thirty thousand persons Inhabitants He does not believe that if we shou'd joyn the Inhabitants of Africa to America they wou'd amount to an hundred Millions but that Asia is more populous for altho' the War with the Tartars hath destroyed at least an hundred Millions of the Chinese yet there remains above three hundred Millions of Inhabitants tho principal part whereof are in the Eastern Regions and in the Isles He cannot determine of the Southern parts but supposes that all the persons in the World do not exceed 500000000. He adds that one might place 'em all standing on a Superficies which contain'd a German League in length and as much in breadth giving to each person a Foot square from whence he concludes that Lucan had great reason to say that Rome wou'd contain all Mankind Urbem Populis victisque frequentem Gentibus generis si coeat turba capacem Humani For according to his Calculation the Ground of this City contain'd at least twenty German Leagues square which divided between five hundred Millions of Men wou'd allow to each person twenty Foot square Mr. Vossius is of opinion that the World is much diminished and has lost a great part of her Inhabitants he believes there were formerly more Men in Sicily than there are now in Sicily and Italy too and that the number of Persons was greater in Athens only than now it is in all Greece which is probable enough and therefore we cannot dispute it But when he allows Paris but Three hundred thousand persons and to Holland but Five hundred and fifty thousand Four hundred and fifty to the Cities and an Hundred thousand to the Country he is very far from multiplying upon the matter And when he speaks of China he thinks he cannot number too many He believes that in the last breaking in of the Tartars there were in China an Hundred and seventy Millions of Inhabitants He supposes the Town of Hancheu for so it ought to be call'd and not Quinzai as in some corrupted Copies was inhabited with near twenty Millions of people without reckoning the Suburbs and with taking them in with more than all Europe besides and that it was larger without the Suburbs than Rome was with them When he speaks of that Country the Men cost him nothing but he is afraid that all the Europeans will complain of his
watch what is the cause of it v. 2. n. 16 q. 2 Dying persons why they fold the Sheets v. 2. n. 16 q 8 Debauchery and ruine of youth how prevented v. 2. n. 16. q 19 Dream why of things we never thought of v. 2. n. 17. q. 3 Delightful what is most so to any Man v. 2. n. 17. q. 4. Debt whether a Man may Marry then v. 2. n. 20. q. 3. Deceive the Deceiver is it a sin v. 2. n. 20. q. 10 Die of Conceit whether possible v. 2. n. 21. q. 1 Dancing-master or School-master which preferable v. 2. n. 24. q. 13. Divine Idea's the Notion of Omniformity c. v. 2. n. 26. q. 1 Devil of Mascon v. 2. n. 26. q. 3 Deity acknowledg'd and prov'd v. 2. n. 26. q. 9 Devil does he know our thoughts v. 2. n. 26. q. 11 Democritus or Heraclitus which in the right v. 2. n. 27. q. 13 Die why must in the Night your reason v. 2. n. 29. q. 1 Duelling how far lawful v. 3 n. 2. q. 1 Dream whether obliging to Marry v. 3. n. 4. q. 17 Drunken Man whether capable of Marriage v. 3. n. 5. q. 2 Discourses vain and absurd v. 3 n. 12. q. 8 Drunken man how far obnoxious to the Law v. 3. n. 14. q. 2 Despair caused by unkindress of Relations v. 3. n. 14. q. 9 Drunken man how brought to his Senses v. 3. n. 15. q. 9 Divines whether Preaching against all vice v. 3. n. 18 q. 3 Dew of Hermon how it descends on Mount Sion v. 3. n. 18. q. 6 Die than live is it not better v. 3. n. 19. q. 2 Dreams of commit a grievous sin v. 3. n 20. q. 7 Dreams do we think then v. 3. n. 21. q. 3 Devotion how hinder'd by Ignor. v. 3 n. 21. q 10 Drown'd Bodies why they float v. 3. n. 22. q. Devils can they generate v. 3. n. 24. q. 12 Defrauding whether pardon'd without restitution v 3. n. 24 q 14 Devotion what Book you advise me to v. 3. n. 25 q 4 Dan. 5.23 Why Daniel leaves out a word v. 3. n. 25. q. 9 David's heart why it smote him for Saul's garment v. 3. n. 26. q. 1. David's Sin in numbring the People where consists v. 3. n. 27. q. 6 David's speaking in Scripture is it the word of God v. 3. n. 30. q. 4 Debtor and Creditors what a brother must do v. 4. n. 1. q. 3 Dissenters are they Schismaticks v. 4. n. 2. q. 2 Discourse to cry out O God is it sins v. 4. n. 2. q. 9. Dragon is there any such creature v 4. n. 6. q. 5 Dissenters that freely communicate with the Ch. of England v. 4. n. 7. q 4 Delivery of a Gate c. Town of Lymerick c. v. 4. n. 8. q. 1 Dizziness in the Head v. 4. n. 8 q. 8 Dreaming of a Text Preach't on v. 4. n. 16. q 3. Dealing with a secret reserve whether sinful v. 4. n. 16. q. 5 Divines why they begin their Prayers so low v 4. n 19 q. 11 Death if the cause be in the Body onely v. 4. n. 25. q. 2 Death is the cause of it in the Soul or in the Body v. 4. n. 28. q. 7 Dramatique Writers who the best v. 5. n 1 q. 3 Dramatique Professor who the best v 5. n. 2 q. 1 Disciples how come they to know Moses and Elias v. 5. n 4. q. 3 Devils generating a relation of one v. 5. n. 9. q. 3. Defrauding and over-reaching our Brother v. 5. n. 10 q. 1. Different Colours in Clouds the reason for it v. 5. n. 11 q 5 ‖ DIssertation on a State of Virginity 1 Suppl p. 18 Dispute about the Grandeur of Great Britain 1 Suppl p. 21. Description of the City of Rome 2 Suppl p. 3 Dine or to sup whether better 2 Suppl p. 30 †DIssertations of Mr. Burman p. 107 Darmonseus Philosophical Conferences p. 179 Dodwell's Dissertations on St. Irenaeus p. 356 Du Pin's new Bibliotheque of Ecclesiastical Authors containing the History of their Lives the Catalogue Crisis and Chronology of their Works the sum of what they contain a Iudgment upon their Stile and Doctrine with an Enumeration of the different Editions of their Works Tom. 1. of the Authors of the 3 First Ages p. 445. Tom. 2. Of the Authors of the Fourth Age of the Church p. 391. Dury's Treatise of Church Discipline p. 454 Discourses upon the Sciences in which beside the Method of Studying it is taught how we ought to make use of Sciences for the good of the Church with Advice to such as live in Holy Orders p. 411 Discourse of the French Academy p. 420 E. * EArth its Circumference and Thickness v. 1. n. 2. q. 10 Earth whether destroy'd or refin'd v. 1. n. 3. q 4 Earthquakes their causes v. 1. n. 10. q. 5 Experiment about perpetual motion v. 1. n. 10. q. 7 Eels how produced v. 1. n. 17. q. 9 England be happy v. 1. n. 22. q. 9 Essence be really distinguish'd from Existence v. 1. n. 22. q. 13 Estates whether an ensuring office for 'em v. 1. n. 26. q. 4 Exodus 7.33 comp with Ver. 20 v. 1. n. 29. q. 7 Egyptian Magicians Miracles whether real v. 2. n. 1. q. 16 Earth or Sun which moves v. 2. n. 6. q. 9 Eye-sight how best preserved v. 2. n. 14. q. 1 Eunuchs why never troubled with the Gout v. 2. n. 20. q. 7. East-India and African Company one who has a stock v. 2. n. 24. q. 3 Eve did she lose her Beauty by the Fall v. 2. n. 26. q. 13 Eyes shut under water v. 3. n. 9. q. 8 English Nation why the Finest People and yet Ill Singers v. 3. n. 13. q. 12 Earth are its Foundations to continue for ever v. 3. n. 18. q. 5 Experiment about finding out a Thief whether lawful v. 3. n. 22. q. 1 Errors whether they will be tolerated at Iudgment v. 3. n. 24. q. 13 England the most devout why delight no more in singing Psalms v. 3. n. 29 q. 5 English what Language is it v. 3. n. 30 q 3 Empyreal Heaven had it no Begin v. 3. n. 30. q. 11 Eccho its nature v. 4. n. 17. q. 5 Experiment about artificial wind v. 4. n. 22. q. 7 English Satyrist who is the best v. 5. n. 1. q. 2 Eve what she spun v. 5. n. 5. q. 4 Egyptian Talisman their Force and Vertue v. 5. n. 7. q. 1 Epithalamium on a Wedding v. 5. n. 11. q. 7 Eyes of Beans in the Kid why grow downward some years v. 5. n. 14. q. 6 Ephes. 6.12.5 Whether these words are referr'd to all Christians v. 5. n. 17. q. 1 Evil Spirits in what sence do we wrestle with 'em v. 5. n. 17. q. 2. Evil Spirits in what sence the Rulers of darkness v. 5. n. 17. q. 3 Evil Spirits in what sence they are in High Places v. 5. n. 17. q. 4 Evil Spirits how reconcile some Phrases about ' em v.
the most displeasing Tenets of his Sect to put their grosser abuses in Oblivion and finally to bury the most part of School Disputes It was hard to think that a Man supported by all that is great in his Communion whereof he seemed the Oracle should Write to deceive his Fellow-Citizens or that he should think that a bare Exposition of the Doctrin of his Church should be capable to bring back into its Bosom them that had quitted it with so much reluctancy and remained in it in spight of what could be inflicted upon them The Tenets of Rome are not taught in the Indies nor in America nor are we to learn from the uncertain relations of some ignorant Travellers We see its Practices and Devotions before our Eyes The Books of their Doctors are told in every place and most part of our Reformers were either Bishops Priests or Fryars so that neither they nor their Disciples can be ignorant neither of what the Romish Church Believes nor of what it Practises besides the Ministers have no reason to dissemble in their Opinions because the Clergy of it gain far more than those of any other Communion This Reflexion might make M. de Meaux's sincerity very doubtful who declares at the very beginning That he Designs to render the Tenets of the Catholick Church more clear than they are and to distinguish them from such as are falsly imputed to it Nevetheless the Reformed being brought up in a Religion which inspires true Faith and being otherwise moved to desire a Re-union in hopes to see the end of their Miseries fancy'd that the Accusation of this Bishop was but a pretext he used to cast out of his Creed what is troublesom and hard to believe Besides the noise of an Agreement between the Two Religions which was a long time sown among the People and whereof divers ' Ministers were made to draw the Project M. de Meaux and his followers slipt many words which were general Promises of a Reformation upon condition of Re-union If it appears now that there was not the least shadow of sincerity in all the Promises that the Roman Catholicks made and that at that very time the clear-sighted could soon discover that it was but a pure cheat the Reformed cannot be praised enough for not trusting to them nor can the others be blamed enough that make nothing of playing with what is most sacred when they have a design to cheat the simple To know whether M. de Meaux be of this Number as several Protestants pretend and endeavour to prove in shewing the opposition of his Sentiments with those of the other Doctors of his Communion it will not be unprofitable to know the History of his Book because it may be commonly perceived by the way that a design is managed which is the end proposed M. Turenne who saw a long time that his Religion was a hinderance to his Fortune would have been very glad if he could accommodate himself to the Romish Religion But the vile Practices of this Church seem so strange to those who are brought up in other Principles that he could not persuade himself to join with a Society that imposed such ridiculous Superstitions upon its Votaries to cure him of this Scruple M. de Meaux published a small Writing wherein he strained himself to shew That these small Devotions were not of the Essence of the Catholick Doctrine and that one might live and die in its Communion without practicing them This Work or rather the King's Caresses and Liberalities having had Success which all People know our Prelate was of Opinion That he could work the same effect upon others and resolved to print this Manuscript that remained written four years before and to add to it divers Sections as that of the Lord's Supper of Tradition of the Authority of the Church and Pope and obtained the approbation of the Bishop of Rheims and of some other Bishops Sorbonne these several Ages has been looked upon as the source of the French Divinity it 's therefore that not only the Doctors of this University but also Bishops and other Clergy are glad to have the approbation of that famous House at the beginning of what Books they write of Religion M. of Condom had that design but he did not speed for having sent his Exposition as soon as it came from the Press to some of the Doctors of Sorbonne instead of approving the Work they marked several Places either contrary to or favouring but in a very little the Doctrine of their Church So that Edition was presently suppressed and another was composed wherein the Passages were changed that were marked by the Censurers This could not be managed so secretly but the Reformed came to know it Mr. Noguier and M. de la Bastide who knew the Edition that was published and this last did not fail to remark the Alteration that the Author made in the Manuscript and in the suppressed Edition They also reproached him that the true Roman Catholicks were but little pleased at his Moderation and one of them finish'd the Refutation of his Book before any Protestant had Printed his but he was not forbidden to publish it M. de Meaux's Credit was great enough to stifle the direct Answer that those of his own Party made to him But he could not hinder them that were dissatisfy'd from taking an indirect course and to say what they thought and even to refute him The Iesuites and the Friars sharp maintainers of the Superstitions that enrich them could not forgive him at all Father Maimbourg in his History of Lutheranism drew this Prelates Character and criticiz'd on his Book under the Name of Cardinal Contarini and of one of his Works and says well That these Agreements and Managements of Religion in these pretended Expositions of Faith which either suppress or do express in doubtful terms a part of the Doctrine of the Church neither satisfie one side nor the other who equally complain of swerving in a matter so momentous as that of Faith Father Cresset gave this Bishop a more sensible stroke in his Book of the true Devotion to the Blessed Virgin printed at Paris in 4to in the Year 79. with priviledge from the King and the Arch-bishops leave and the consent of his own Provincial and of three Iesuites that are the Censurers of all the Works of that Society The Dauphins Tutor was too powerful an Adversary to be opposed directly But a Writer of lesser Authority that adopted the Opinion of this Prelate touching the Invocation of Saints and Worship of Images felt the weight of Father Cresset's Anger This Author was a German Gentleman called M Widenfelt intendant of the Prince of Suarzemberg and his Book was Entituled Monita Salutaria B. Virginis wholsom Advices of the Blessed Virgin to her indiscreet Votaries This Book made much noise in the World especially after the Pastoral Letter of the Bishop of Tournay wherein he recommends this Book to his People as full