so childish and such meer Legend that out of respect to so great a man I will not recite it All that certainly appears is this that there was at that time some misunderstanding between Justin and Theodorick for that was the Accusation upon which the Great Boëtius was then put to death that he held correspondence with Justin. And that Pope John was sent by Theodorick to treat with the Emperor but what was his particular Errand is not recorded but whatever it was it seems he managed it so as to fall into the King's displeasure and this is all that we have of that Popes Actions and this Emperor's reign § XXI For he dying after he had reign'd nine years in his extreme old Age before his death saw his Nephew Justinian fixt in the actual possession of the Imperial Throne by the choice of the Senate one of the greatest Princes in the whole Succession whether we regard the Success of his Arms the Magnificence of his Buildings or the Wisdom of his Laws the three greatest Ornaments of any Princes Reign And yet Envy and one ill-natur'd Libel of a malecontent Courtier if it be his has been able such is the ill-nature of Mankind to slur all the Miracles of his reign But I find that the ground of all the late displeasure against this great Prince was as some Men suppose his too busie intermedling in Church-Matters this is the thing that is taken unkindly by the Church-Men at Rome as an invasion of their Province But others on the contrary top him up for a Pattern to all Princes to keep the Jurisdiction of the Church in their own hands against all the pretences of Ecclesiasticks But as it falls out and ought so to do they are both equally mistaken for Justinian never attempted any thing in the Church that was not warranted by continued Precedents of his best Predecessors He only protected the Power of the Church in the exercise of its Jurisdiction as they did but never claim'd it to himself howsoever he might err as sometimes he did in the execution of his Office And whereas they load him so severely for presuming to make so many Novels or Laws of his own about Religion the whole charge is founded meerly upon ignorance and mistake they being all known Canons of the Church before ever he enacted them into Laws And therefore he is no more to be blamed than the best of his Predecessors unless it be for his too pious and watchful care to preserve the Discipline of the Christian Church So that it is no less than high ingratitude in the Clergy of Rome to requite so great a Benefactor to the Cause of Religion with nothing but unkind Censures and foul Calumnies But the ground of all their present Quarrel is his taking down the pride of one of their most haughty Popes Vigilius though by their own confession one of the worst of Men and that too was done at a time when their Holinesses had been accustom'd to trample upon the state of the Imperial Majesty it self And if in these contentions the Emperor fell into any indecencies that cannot be justified yet he ought not only in good Manners but in justice to be excused because it is evident from the Design of his whole Reign that his only aim was to resettle the long-disturb'd Peace of the Church and if at any time he fail'd in his Measures his Integrity ought by all the rules of Candor to attone for the defect of his Politicks But whether all his Acts of Government in the Church are justifiable or not I dare insure for all his Laws and for that I shall here account to finish the parallel between the Ecclesiastical and Imperial Laws in this Matter because by this Prince the Imperial Law was brought to its full Perfection And after that it will be needless to inquire into the practice of succeeding Princes who received either the Theodosian or Justinian Body of Laws as the sixt and standing rule of the Imperial Government Though of the two the Theodosian Code met with much the better Fortune for that having had ninety Years possession both in the Eastern and Western Empire it was not easily removed especially when it had been received by the barbarous People that invaded and conquer'd some Parts of the Empire as the only establisht Law of the Romans And so it was by that great wise and prosperous Prince Theodorick King of the Goths who enacted its obligation upon his own People in a compendious Edict drawn out of it consisting of 154 heads extant in Cassiodorus But Alaric his Successor and Grand-child by his Daughter Amalesuntha that greatest of Women made a new body of Institutes out of it vulgarly known by the name of the Breviary of Anianus not that Anianus composed it but because he by his Office compared and examin'd the Original Copy that was laid up among the Crown-Records and subscribed his Approbation from thence in after-Ages it came to bear his Name But after the Goths the Lombards the Franks the Burgundians and other People of Germany over-run the Western Empire and these when they came to settle blended the Theodosian Laws with their own ancient Customs from whence came the Feudal Law that to this day carries the greatest sway in the Government of all the European Nations But as for the Justinian Law that was received only in the Eastern Empire and there it had scarce reign'd 300 years when it was thrust out of Authority by the Basilica of Leo the Philosopher who added to the Justinian Collection the Novels of all the succeeding Emperors down to his own time But in the West it was never so much as heard of for 600 years after the death of Justinian there are not so much as any footsteps of it in the Capitulars of Charles the Great or any other European Laws Neither were they ever made publick to the Western World till the time of that great Prince Lotharius the second Emperor and Duke of Saxony who reign'd not till the year 1125. And he first brought it to light at the perswasion and by the assistance of Irnerius the most learned Man in that Age from which time forward it has kept possession together with the Feudal Law not only in the Schools and Universities but in the Government of the Empire But as for the Law it self it consists of two parts the Code and the Novels that is Laws made by himself after the publication of the Code and these are again to be subdivided into Laws concerning Faith and Laws concerning Discipline in both which he has behaved himself with as much decency and respect to the Church as any of his most admired Predecessors As for the Code it is a Collection of former Laws with some additions of his own Of the former Laws we have treated in order under the several Reigns in which they were enacted and therefore need say nothing of them here but only to vindicate
of our times that there is no Faith in Man as he often does in his Epistles but especially in the 79 th to Eustathius himself And all this upon no other account Good man than because he could not compass a kind Office for an unworthy and ungrateful Man and this found him work to his Dying day especially as he expresses it with the Pride and Superciliousness of the Church of Rome But among these various Transactions the great Athanasius dies about the year 371 or 372 perhaps sooner or later for I am not concerned in Chronological Niceties my Business is to trace the Tradition of Christian Truth not to turn Hour-glasses or watch the Motions of Pendulums But his Fall was the occasion of great stirs in the Church both Parties being at such a time highly concern'd for a fit Successor to so great a Man and so great a See Peter a grave and ancient Presbyter of that Church was by the dying recommendation of Athanasius unanimously chosen but Euzoius the Arian Bishop of Antioch upon the first News of the Vacancy flies to Court to move for his Friend Lucius who had been join'd in Ambassy with him to Jovian against Athanasius and by the help of the Eunuchs succeeds and is sent to Alexandria with Magnus a great Court-Trader in the Cause but before they came the Praefect of the City a zealous Heathen had driven Peter into Banishment and when they came the People were so averse to the Intruder that they were forced to place him in the See by Military Power upon which what bloody Tumults and Disorders followed may be seen in all the Historians but most accurately in Theodoret. Somewhat before this time arose the Heresie of Apollinaris consisting of a great many Prophane or rather wanton Novelties the chief whereof was That our Saviour had no other Soul than the Divinity it self and the Conceit because it was a new one began to take very much among the People who naturally run after any thing that is strange and unusual But it is soon quasht by the diligence of the Pastors of the Church and that not only by Writing though all the Learned Men of that Age appear'd against it as Athanasius Gregory Nazianzen Gregory Nyssen St. Basil and Epiphanius but much more effectually by the Discipline of the Church A Council was call'd at Rome by Damasus the active and leading Bishop of his time though he was here more particularly concern'd because he had unwarily given reputation to the Hereticks by granting them recommendatory Letters And here every particular Article is condemn'd by an Express Anathema against it and an account of their Proceedings is given by Damasus in a Synodical Epistle to the Eastern Bishops the Epistle is of a very peculiar strein and shews that the Gentleman began to have some thoughts of advancing the state of the Apostolick See and it is the first that I have observed of that stiff strein But however the Heresie was soon quasht by that unanimous Agreement of all Churches to suppress it every where by executing the effectual Discipline of the Church upon all its Followers In so much that I can not call to Mind more than one Imperial Law against them at that time and that was enacted by Arcadius in the year 397. against their secret Conventicles at Constantinople they not presuming to appear in Publick And when a Sect is brought so low as that it dares not venture to make any publick Appearance it is vanquisht and scarce worth the Notice of the Government § IV. In the year following i. e. Anno 374. a Council was held at Valentia in France for reforming some Abuses and Corruptions that had crept into that Church and restoring the force of some ancient useful Canons In the same year hapned that strange Election of St. Ambrose to the Bishoprick of Milan after this manner Upon the Death of Auxentius the Emperor Valentinian hapning to be then at Mâ—lan calls the Bishops together and Exhorts them to take care to choose a Person of eminent Abilities for so great a See They in all humility refer it to his Majestie 's own choice No says he that is a Province not proper for me to undertake but to you that are inlightned by the Divine Spirit most properly belongs the Office of choosing Bishops Upon this the Bishops take time to debate among themselves but whilst they are consulting the People of each Faction flock together into the Market-place and there as it usually happens in popular Assemblies from Disputing proceed to Tumult St. Ambrose being Governor of the Place flies according to his Office to appease the Multitude Who no sooner appears than they all cry out An Ambrose an Ambrose for their Bishop at which he being astonish't ascends the Tribunal with an austere Countenance as if he were resolved to put some of them to Death but they still cry the louder Upon that he accuses himself of such scandalous Crimes as by the Canons of the Church render him uncapable of the Episcopal Office but that is all one to them neither will they believe him And therefore in the last place he betakes himself to flight by Night and designs for Ticinum but having wandred all Night and thinking himself near his Journeys end he found in the Morning that he had walkt in a Circle and was just entring into one of the Gates of Milan at which being surprized and fearing lest there should be something of the hand of God in it he returns home and submits they acquaint the Emperor with it for his consent because by the Constitution of Constantine the Great they were forbidden to take any Officers either Civil or Military into the Clergy without it lest the Common-wealth should be left destitute of able Men. But the Emperor is highly pleased with the Election and is proud of his own choosing such Magistrates as are fit to be made Bishops and through this odd concurrence of Circumstances is he made Bishop contrary to the Canons for he was then no more than a Catechumene which Learned Men think may be excused by the miraculousness of the thing as if it had been immediately brought about by the special Interposition and Authority of God himself and for such extraordinary cases the Canon it self has provided an Exception adding this Clause at the end of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it be done by the special favour of God And that this was so done all Parties concern'd in it thought they had good reason to conclude from so great a Conjunction of Wonders Soon after this Valentinian dies of an Apoplexy or some suddain Death upon which Ammianus Marcellinus reads a Lecture with as much Gravity as if he were President of the College of Physicians as he takes all Opportunity of shewing his Knowledge in all sorts of Learning a fondness very incident to all half-learned Men. But in the mean time Valens goes on in
there be in the Church than to take away the very Being of the Church by distinguishing between the sacred Function which they grant to be the proper office of the Church and the Power over sacred things which they annex intirely to the Civil Power by which distinction they leave the Governors of the Church no other Power than to administer the Offices of Religion without any Power of punishing Offenders against the Laws of Religion and then they have none at all for there can be no power without a Power of inflicting Penalties And there lyes the true distinguishing point between these two Jurisdictions not in the Matters about which their Power is imployed but in the Penalties by which it is inforced Thus to be short and give one example for all whereas Justinian leaves to the Church the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sins committed against the Ecclesiastical Order by the Clergy and to the State the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sins against the Laws of the State This division is so far from being true that both Powers are equally concern'd in both Crimes for if any Clergy-man disturb the Government as the Donatists did by a Contest about a Canon of the Church then though it were an Ecclesiastical sin it concern'd the Civil Government to check the Mischief by the proper Penalties of Sedition as Honorius drove them into banishment and thereby restored the long interrupted Peace of the Empire And on the other hand if any Clergy-Man let him be never so regular to the Laws and Rules of the Church shall in a state-Faction ingage in a Rebellion against his Soveraign that is properly a Political sin the Church is bound to inflict such Penalties upon him as are denounced by the Laws of their Religion against all Traitors and Rebels i. e. to cast him out of their Society and the capacity of Salvation And that is the only difference in the case that when the King cuts a Traitor off for this life the Church cuts him off â—or the next and so it is in all other Crimes where the Prince punishes for breach of the Laws of the Land the Church punishes proportionably for breach of the Laws of Religion And as by the Laws of the Land the Penalty is proportionable to the Crime so is it by the Laws of the Church for as some Offences are Capital and some only Penal in the State so in the Church some are punisht by Penance some by utter excision or cutting off from the Kingdom of Heaven which is the same thing in its kind as cutting off life in this World So that the same Crimes are so far from belonging to different Judicatures that all belong to both the only difference is that one punishes here and the other hereafter And now this one observation of the difference of Penalties in the same cause being supposed which cannot be be avoided without destroying or intrenching upon the Rights of Church or State the bounds of Jurisdiction are evident enough without splitting of Causes and it is easy enough to understand how the same Causes belong to both Jurisdictions from their different ends without setting any restraint to either Power And thus having in this short digression as briefly as I could secured this point of the Controversy which is the main Hinge upon which depends the disingenuous Contention of both the extreme Parties both Papal and Erastian I now return to the course of the History which was broke off at the year 376. At which time the Huns breaking into the Eastern Empire and Valens being extremely distrest by them and the Goths at the same time St. Jerom and Crosius say that he repented of his former severity and upon it recall'd the Orthodox Bishops from banishment but Socrates only says and that much more probably that being otherwise imployed he desisted and so the banisht Bishops particularly Peter of Alexandria had opportunity of returning home And that I doubt was all notwithstanding St. Jerom's lavish story of his Repentance which good Father partly by his boldness partly by his eagerness has occasion'd the greatest Mistakes in the story of the Church and therefore when he is a single witness his Testimony is not to be regarded in any Matter of Fact unless when he speaks of his own knowledg for he was an honest Man and would not lye yet he was so very hot-headed that it often betrayed him into false-hoods and therefore his single Authority ought not to be trusted unless in Matters of his own knowledg And by relying upon it and that contrary to the testimony of calmer Authors great darkness has been brought upon the Records of the Church and has particularly blemisht Baronius his Annals who has very often followed his Authority not only without but against all other Authors and by it run himself into a great many Mistakes against the best Records of the Church And this I take to be one though no material one that Valens repented of his Persecution and callâ—d back the banisht Bishops for which there is no proof but only his saying so and they that followed his Authority otherwise we do not find that they were solemnly recall'd till Gratian came into the East after his death when indeed all the Historians agree that they were restored In the Year 377 a Council was held at Antioch for preventing or rather curing a Schism in that Church that was first created by Julian's spiteful and treacherous toleration to all Sects for by that means 3 Bishops had been set up in one Church Meletius who was first an Acacian but afterwards revolting to the Nicene Faith Euzoius was put in his place by the Acacian Faction and Paulinus set up by that hot Man Lucifer Calaritanus who would accept of none of Meletius his repentance in opposition to both With Meletius the Arian Converts communicated with Paulinus the old Orthodox because Paulinus himself had ever been so and as for Euzoius he presided over the Acacian Party But he dying about this time a Controversy arose who should be the true and proper Bishop of the Place in which not only the People of the City made Parties but the Bishops of other Churches St. Basil was zealous for Meletius Pope Damasus for Paulinus so that it became a Controversy between the East and West But at last this expedient was found out that both during their lives should keep their own shares but when ever one of them dyed the surviver should govern the whole Church and that the Schism might not be perpetuated an Oath was administred to six of the eldest Presbyters of that Church who were the only Candidates for the Election to submit to the Decree and this for the present ended the Quarrel And yet when after this Meletius dyed Flavianus one of the six Presbyters that had sworn never to invade the Bishoprick whilst either of the present Bishops survived violently thrusts himself into the See and
Idolatry by overthrowing some of their Altars yet he enacted no Laws against it whereas this great and pious Prince is resolutely bent upon its utter Extirpation and therefore forbids all Heathen Rites whatsoever under pain of Proscription But having taken away their Sacrifices he thought good to preserve their Temples and convert them to some other publick Use and to this end he writes the next year to Palladius injoyning them to let the Temple of Edessa lye open to the common use of the People in the Nature of an Exchange or a Guildhall but to be watchful that no Sacrifices be privately offer'd in it and withal to be careful of preserving the Images wherewith it was adorn'd for the sake of their Art and Beauty like the Gyants and Judges in Guildhall In the year 385 he renews his Law against Sacrifices upon pain of Death In the year 391 Valentinian by his Advice who was then with him at Milan Publishes a Rescript both against Sacrifices Temples and Images under a great pecuniary Mulct And himself at the same time Publishes the same Decree upon Pain of Death by which was occasion'd the utter Destruction of the Famous and Ancient Temple of Serapis And in the year 392 he seals up all with a peremptory Rescript against all the particular Rites of the Gentile Worship And lastly as for the Jews he by the same Imperial Authority without the concurrence of the Church made some Laws in their favour to protect and defend them in their Privileges For all the Emperors had all along indulged them the exercise of Discipline among themselves by the Power of Excommunication which was chiefly put in Execution by their Primates or Patriarchs that presided over all the Synagogues within a Province after the same manner as Metropolitans do over all the Churches These were the Supreme Judges of Scandals and Offences and beyond them there lay no appeal to any other Courts But it seems some of the Emperors Judges and Officers and it is much more easie to bank out the Sea than the covetous Encroachments of this sort of Men had broke in upon their Privileges and usurpt a Power to themselves of commanding the restitution of ejected Persons But to restrain this disingenuous Abuse and Subversion of their Discipline the Emperor Publishes a Rescript to all his Officers commanding them not to controul the Decrees of the Primates and Patriarchs who were by the Imperial Law permitted to be the sole Judges in Matters of their Religion And this was no more than a just and reasonable Civility after the grant of Discipline and Jurisdiction among themselves for that could be of no Effect if once Offenders might gain Liberty to appeal to foreign Judicatures And because the Jews had never been forbidden the exercise of their Religion by any Law and yet were at that time disturbed in some Parts in the East by some over-zealous Christians to the spoiling and destruction of their Synagogues he writes to the Governor to restrain these Disorders with all possible severity And this was the occasion of that hot Contest between the Emperor and St. Ambrose when he enjoyn'd the Bishop of the place to rebuild the Synagogue because he had encouraged the People to pull it down In which matter I cannot but think St. Ambrose was more busie and zealous than became him as Men of great Spirits are apt to over-do For what the Emperor enacted in the case was only as Vindex disciplinae Publicae When the Imperial Laws had given the Jews Liberty who had Power to take it away but the Power that granted it And therefore if any of the Christians in a violent and tumultuary way took to themselves the liberty of demolishing them contrary to the Imperial Charter they stood guilty of a Scandalous Riot both against the Laws of the Empire and the Sovereignty of the Emperor And whether the Government did well or ill in granting the Liberty the Subjects had no Authority to controul it They might have addrest to his Imperial Majesty humbly representing the inconveniences of that liberty in that place which had they done it is not to be doubted but this great and pious Prince would have given them both a wise and an obliging Answer But when in a popular Tumult and out of intemperate zeal they shall presume to take a liberty to themselves by force to controul the gracious Concessions of their Prince I think by the good Fathers leave that they deserved a more severe correction then their Prince in his great Clemency was pleased to inflict upon them § IX Having represented in one view the Laws of this great and wise Prince in Ecclesiastical Matters we may now proceed to the remainder of the History of the Church under his Reign in the several Parts of the Empire And the most remarkable transaction next after the great Council of Constantinople in which the Arian Heresy with all its Branches and Of-sets were for ever lopt off from the Body of the Christian Church was the Council of Aquileia summon'd the same year viz. Anno Dom. 381. consisting of Italian French African and Pannonian Bishops that acted in the capacity of Legates from their several respective Provinces This Council was convened by the Emperor Gratian in the West as the Council of Constantinople was by Theodosius in the East two Months after its breaking up which was at the end of July and the meeting of this at the beginning of September The occasion of it was this Some of the Hereticks of the Arian spawn presuming upon the favor and patronage of the Empress Justina complain to the Emperor of their unjust condemnation for the Arian Heresy and petition to purge themselves in a general Council This was vehemently opposed by St. Ambrose as an unreasonable thing that all the Bishops of Christendom should be perpâ—tually forced to leave their Churches only to satify the curiosity or as he calls it the scabbedness of two or three Men. But the Queens importunity overcomes the Emperor so far as to prevail with him for a Council which yet he summons with that moderation as to leave all the foreign Bishops at their own liberty to come or not Which civility all the Bishops of the Western Church use with that respect as to send their Legates and Representatives and as for the Eastern Bishops they inform his Majesty that they had but just before assembled about the same Matter and given in their peremptory determination The Council being met Palladius and Secundianus two Bishops that had been censured for the Heresy together with Attalus a Presbyter appear and for clearing their innocence they are required to condemn the Position of Arius that the Father alone is Eternal This they refuse but this alone will satisfy they must either subscribe his condemnation or submit to it But they refuse both and appeal to a General Council but they are answer'd That it is needless that
Regions with this Reserve that if they transgress't their limits they were to be punisht with all possible severity not at all as Christians but meerly as Subjects that were Factious and Seditious in the Commonwealth Qui si ingratâ pertinacià Statutum mansuetudinis nostrae egrediendum putaverit eundem non jam ut Christianum quippe quem à communione Religionis mentis inquietudo disterminat sed ut hominem factiosum perturbatoremque publicae tranquillitatis Legum Religionis inimicum juris severitas persequatur And in the same Rescript the same Decree is made against his Followers as Baronius gives it us out of his Vatican Manuscript Upon this they are quiet all the Reign of Valentinian but after this under Gratian and the young Valentinian they raise greater Stirs and Tumults So that in the year 378 they are again Condemn'd by a Council at Rome though Baronius places it in the year 381 whereas it is evident from the Inscription of the Letter of the Council to the Emperors that it was in this year of 378 for it is directed only to Gratian and Valentinian and therefore it must have been written after the Death of Valens and before the choice of Theodosius to the Empire Now Valens was kill'd in August 378 and Theodosius chosen in the January following and therefore it must have been transacted in that interval of time and no other But they having done their part they write to the Emperor Gratian to solicite him to do his who as we find by this Letter had not been negligent in the Business for that is the Contents of the first part of it to return him thanks for his former Rescript When this former Rescript that the Letter speaks of was publisht I know not neither is it that I can find any where extant Baronius that first brought the former Rescripts of Valentinian the Elder out of the Vatican Manuscript is altogether silent about it Labbé says it was in the year 374 upon what Ground or Authority he says it I know not for that Law that he refers to in the Theodosian Code is only a general Law against the Concealers of all sorts of Criminals to make them liable to the same sort of Punishment that is due to the Offender himself But whenever it was Publisht the Contents of it are evident from this Epistle viz. to drive Vrsicinus into Banishment upon the Ecclesiastical Sentence against him But for all that Vrsicinus and his Faction grow stubborn and are suffer'd through the negligence of the Governors to spread their Schism and in some places as the Council here inform the Emperor to over-awe his Judges with Tumults threatning them with no less than Death it self and for that Reason they request his Majesty to renew his former Rescript against them Upon this the Emperor writes a very chiding and threatning Letter to Aquilinus Vicarius of the City complaining of the Negligence and Dishonesty of his Officers qui privatae gratiae imperialia praecepta condonant who sacrificed the Emperor's Commands to their own private concerns and as he afterwards expresses it Hactenus stertit iners dissimulatio Judicum Notwithstanding all our Commands hitherto the Judges snore and counterfeit inadvertency And therefore he requires him under high and unusual Threatnings to put his Law in execution against them for their Banishment an Hundred miles from the City and gives him this general Rule Vt condemnati Judicio rectè sentientium Saâ—erdotum reditum postea vel ad Ecclesias quas contaminaverant non haberent vel redintegrationem Judicii frustrà à nobis impudenti pervicacià precarentur That when they were condemn'd by the regular Sentence of the Priestly Order they should not be permitted to return to their Churches that they had defiled or to move for a re-hearing in the Civil Courts And after this we hear no more of them till the Council of Aquileia in the year 381 who sent a Letter to the Emperor Gratian first Publisht by Sirmond lest whil'st he was involved in Wars he should be prevailed upon to abate of his Severity against them And to their former Crimes of Faction and Sedition they now inform him that they had joyn'd Communion with the Arians to strengthen their Party and enable them more effectually to disturb the Peace of the Catholick Church what was done upon it I find not for we hear no more of them till the Death of Damasus and the Election of Siricius in the year 385. who was violently opposed by Vrsicinus but Vrsicinus was utterly rejected by the People and condemn'd by a Rescript of Valentinian the younger extant only in Baronius out of his Vatican Manuscript and after this we never hear any more either of him or his Schism The second Schism was that of Alexandria that began immediately upon the Death of St. Athanasius by whom upon his Death-bed Peter an ancient Presbyter of that Church and the inseparable Companion of all his Troubles was recommended for his Successor and was accordingly accepted with the unanimous Suffrage both of the Clergy the Magistrates and the People But he was scarce warm in his Episcopal Throne before he is forced by the Governor of the Province to quit it to save his life and so takes Sanctuary at Rome He was scarce gone but Euzoius that had been at the beginning of the Heresie with Arius that was the only Man that stuck to him in his Banishment and had now at last by the help of his good Masters the Eunuchs thrust himself into the great See of Antioch and with him one Magnus a great Officer at Court and an eminent Instrument at that time in all the Persecutions against the Catholicks bring Lucius to Alexandria with a strong Guard and an Imperial Mandate to put him in Possession of that See This Lucius had been often catching at the Prize but could never seize it till now Upon the Death of George in the Reign of Julian he put in for it against Athanasius and in the Reign of Jovian he and his Friend Euzoius in vain preferr'd Articles against him for his Ejectment but now by the help of his Money as Peter upbraids him and the Procurement of the Eunuchs under Valens he takes violent Possession of it And being an Usurper he is forced to govern as all hated Usurpers do and outdoes his bloody Predecessor George in Cruelty and Barbarity a large Description of the unparallel'd outrage against the Catholicks by Magnus may be seen in Peter's Letter extant in Theodoret. And so things continued in the same Posture till the year 377 when Valens was terrified with the Invasion of the Goths that were come up to the very Walls of the City of Constantinople at which time say the Historians he call'd home the banisht Bishops or rather as others say he and his Courtiers being otherwise employed they take that Opportunity to return home And so Peter comes to Alexandria
Nicomedia and ever after kept on foot by the Faction For the Western Church had been all along true and faithful to the Orthodox Faith and happy in a succession of Orthodox Emperors and therefore the Easterling Merchants that hitherto made a trade of their Religion and changed their Faith with their Interest greedily seized all Opportunities of breaking with the West where the Faith was fixt and settled because such a settlement would break the Court-Exchange for Preferments upon every Turn of Affairs And such Eceboliuses were the Bishops that raised and promoted this disorder They had ever changed their Faith with the Times and as they had bought their Bishopricks of the Courtiers under Constantius and Valens so were they resolved to keep them under Theodosius And therefore finding his Resolution to stand by the Nicene Faith they readily vote with the Council for its establishment but to prevent the establishment of the Church they start this new and unseasonable Controversie about the Ordination of Paulinus to keep up the division between the East and West Their wrigling and changing of Faith and their buying and selling of Preferments is admirably described by Gregory himself in the Poem of his own Life upon his resignation from whence I have chiefly collected this whole Story You are welcome Chap-Men how often soever you may have barter'd your Faith now 't is high Fair-time let no Man depart without a good penny-worth And now let R. B. here set his Presbyterian hand as his custom is to point out this Character of this prophane Faction against all the good Catholick Bishops with his cold Exclamation Are not these lamentable descriptions of the Bishops of those happy Times and excellent Councils But no multiplying-Glass like Malice unless perhaps Ignorance Upon this Hinge all along turn'd this Controversy it was not kept up by any zeal for the Arian Heresie but the Heresie it self was only pretended to keep up divisions in the Church and by that means a good Exchange was kept up at Court for the sale of Church-Preferments upon every turn of Times And so here upon Gregory's Resignation every Man hoped for a good penny-worth but the Courtiers were grown too cunning and it being so valuable a prize instead of sharing with the Church-men by Simony seize the Bishoprick for themselves Nectarius an unlearned Man but a great Courtier I know not by what art but I am sure by too much interposition of the Emperor being against all the Canons of the Church hoisted into it And it is the great blemish of that Princes reign though it may perhaps be some excuse that he stretcht a point to serve a Friend But the Western Church is startled at these irregular Proceedings and upon them Pope Damasus a resolute Man and one of the first that valued himself upon the great Authority of the Apostolick See moves the Emperors Gratian and Theodosius to grant a General Council at Rome for the better settlement of things But the Eastern Bishops baulk their appearance upon pretence that they cannot be so long absent from their Flocks having been assembled the year before at Constantinople and therefore send only their Legates with a Copy of the Acts of the Council With which the Council at Rome were so 〈◊〉 satisfied 〈◊〉 with very little 〈…〉 adjudged the See of Antioch to Paulinus alone and yet forbore to denounce the sentence of Deposition against Flavianus for fear the Faction should take the advantage that they watcht for to break off Communion with them In order to which it is probable that they raised the Bishop of Constantinople to so great an height of dignity as to take place and precedency next to the Bishop of Rome who upon the account of the Grandeur of the Imperial City had all along held the greatest esteem in the Christian Church And by vertue of this Decree of the Council at Rome Paulinus takes and keeps possession of his Bishoprick to his dying day and is succeeded in it by Evagrius Of the legality of his Succession against the claim of Flavianus see St. Ambrose his 78 th Epistle that runs parallel so luckily with Theodoret's partial story as to discover all its particular flaws and dawbings For says Theodoret after this they would never let Flavianus be at quiet but tired the Emperor with Complaints against him till he undertook his defence himself and by it so satisfied the Western Bishops that they promised reconciliation to him upon which he sent his Legates to treat the Peace which was at last agreed on in the time of Innocent the first But according to St. Ambrose his account who was an Actor in the business the Story runs thus The Emperor upon the Complaint of Siricius that succeeded Damasus against Flavianus refers the Cause to a Council at Capua but Flavianus refuses to appear and moves for an Eastern Synod But the Bishops at the Council being aware of this old device of dividing between East and West immediately vote Communion with all Bishops of the Eastern Church that own'd the Nicene Faith of whatsoever side in this Controversy to cut off that old pretence of Schism upon which Flavianus relyed Upon it he peremptorily refuses all appearance and upon that they refer it to Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria and the Egyptian Bishops but he shuns the reference and takes shelter at Court. Upon which the good Father thus expostulates Frustra ergo tantorum sacerdotum fusus labor Iterum ad hujus seculi Judicia revertendum Iterum ad Rescripta Iterum vexabuntur Sacerdotes senes transfretabunt maria Iterum invalidi corpore patriam peregrino mutabunt solo Iterum sacrosancta Altaria deserentur ut in longinquum proficiscamur Iterum pauperum turbae Episcoporum quibus ante onerosum paupertas non erat externae opis egentes compellentur inopiam gemere aut certè victum inopum itineris usurpare Interea solus exlex Flavianus ut illi videtur non venit quando omnes convenimus But soon after this Evagrius dyes and Flavianus bestirs himself that no Successor should be chosen but yet for all that the People would not be reconciled to him And St. Chrysostom coming at this time to the Throne of Constantinople he prevails with Theophilus of Alexandria to join with him in an Ambassy to Rome to reconcile Flavianus to the Western Church and by that means to remove those heart-burnings that were kept up between the Eastern and Western Bishops upon that account Which was done with some success for it abates the Schism though it does not end it And so things stood till the death of Flavianus in the year 404 who is succeeded by Porphyrius a Bishop of the Court-mould of as bad a Character and as true an Huckster as ever was bred up in the shop of the Nicomedian Eusebius He procured both the banishment of his Competitor and his own Ordination by money and when he had once got into his See
mind He loved his Subjects and loaded them with Honors Wealth and Kindnesses especially those that he had found faithful to him in any distress And yet he had so great a detestation of those Vices for which Trajan is blamed luxury and love of triumph that he never raised Wars but found them and strictly forbid all luxury and extravagance at his Table and was so tender of continence and modesty that he forbid the Marriage of Cousin-Germans as well as Sisters He was competently learned he was inquisitive and curious to know the Monuments and Actions of his Ancestors and express't an high indignation against such who by their Pride or Cruelty had attempted any thing against the publick Liberty as Cinna Marius and Sulla and all Tyrants whatsoever especially if false and ungrateful He was apt to be offended at a base Action but soon appeased and therefore in a little respite he would soften harsh Commands and he had that vertue by Nature that Augustus learnt of the Philosopher who observing him to be somewhat too passionate advised him that he might do nothing rash and cruel whenever he found himself begin to be angry to repete the Greek Alphabet that his suddain Passion being diverted it would in a short time cool But that which is more miraculous and unusual he grew better by his Prosperity and great Victories For whereas the Tyrants had rob'd the Subjects of great sums of Money he reimbursed them out of his own Exchequer whereas the most gentle Princes thought it enough to leave them their bare Estates and harrass't Lands But now as for smaller Matters and things acted within the Court which because they are more secret more invite Mens curiosity He honored his Unkle as a Father his Nephews he loved as Sons he was a Father to all his Relations he loved neat eating but hated extravagance He was facetious in his discourse but so as to keep up his gravity a kind Father and a loving Husband moderate in his exercise which was chiefly in walking at leisure times he govern'd his Appetite by his Health and so dy'd in Peace at Milan in the 50 th year of his Age. This is the Man that the rude Historian is not ashamed to accuse of destroying the Roman Common-Wealth by his Luxury Negligence and Oppression both without giving any one instance of any of those Vices and against his own history by which it is evident that he was the Saviour of the Empire But Theodosius was a true lover of his Religion and that exasperated the Zeal and Malice of this bigotted Pagan Insomuch that notwithstanding the unparallel'd success of his Arms the highest Character that he can give of him is that only that he was no ill Soldier though this civility he soon after eats again by saying that he destroyed the military Forces and brought them to nothing so that it seems he vanquisht all his Enemies without an Army or which is as likely as he reports it that he conquer'd all the Barbarians by their own Renegado's without any Order or Discipline After him succeed his two Sons Arcadius in the East and Honorius in the West who finding things so well settled by their Father it was enough for them to preserve them in the same posture in which they found them But though he had pretty well quell'd all the other Hereticks especially the Arian spawn yet the Donatists in Africk had escaped his just severity and therefore Honorius undertakes them and how they were at last reduced and utterly destroyed we have already seen in the history of that Schism So that the main Transaction of this reign is already dispatch't and what remains will not require much difficulty their other Ecclesiastical Laws being for the most part only ratifications of their Fathers Rescripts and by their persisting in the same way of Government and Theodosius the younger following in the same track they brought the Church to a better settlement than it ever attain'd in any other Age. And in the first place there are 12 Laws of Arcadius extant in the Theodosian Code against Hereticks enacted in the first five years of his Reign that were nothing but Enforcements of former Rescripts but chiefly his Fathers that had not been executed through the negligence or treachery of Officers His first Law was enacted in the year 394 in his Father's life-time and when he was absent in the War against Eugenius and the occasion of it was the connivance of the Judges as he declares in the Law it self by which all the Imperial Constitutions were defeated and in effect evacuated Against which abuse of Government this Constitution is particularly enacted and that was the Calamity of the Church in all Ages to be oppressed by the Courtiers at home and betrayed by the Judges abroad For as we have observed that after the disposal of Preferments in the Church came into the Court the Eunuchs under careless Princes turn'd the Church into an excise of Simony so 't is observable that though Laws were continually enacted against all sorts of Dissenters and Recusants yet it was the complaint of every Reign that they lost their effect by the remisness or dishonesty of the under-Officers who cared not to carry any thing thorough for the benefit of the Church but when they saw it coming to any Degree of settlement they let fall the execution of those Laws by which it might have been brought to perfection And till smart Fines and Penalties were set upon the heads of the Governors and Judges themselves the Imperial Laws in behalf of the Church lost the force of their obligation and that was the true Reason why most of the Rescripts of the former Emperors came to no more effect because their Officers cared not to put them in effectual execution And though they durst not at first and whil'st they were fresh wholly slite their Authority yet in time when ever the Emperors were diverted to other thoughts and cares they let them sink into contempt and oblivion And that was the true reason why the same Emperors were forced from time to time to renew the same Laws and of this Theodosius himself was at last sensible But from this time forward that these young Emperors made the Judges themselves Parties upon the Non-execution of any of their Laws they had their true force and did their business and by this method they vanquisht that stubborn Schism of the Donatists that had for so many years bafled all the Power of the Empire The next Law of Arcadius was made at his first entrance upon the Government by which he confirms all his Fathers Rescripts against the Hereticks and cancels all private and special Indulgences to them and particularly as to the Eunomians or Anomaeans he revives the former Law of Intestability which his Father a little before his death upon the streight of Eugenius his Rebellion had revoked And so did this Emperor himself in the very same year by
is I suppose that Trebonian has wholly left it out of the Justinian Collection Under the Title de Paganis there are three Laws of Arcadius viz. 13 14 16 and five of Honorius 15 17 18 19 20. The first Law of Arcadius was enacted at his first coming to the Empire in the year 395 and was only a Ratification of all his Royal Father's Laws both against Pagans and Hereticks with very severe comminations upon his Officers that neglected their speedy and vigorous Execution no less than death it self in supercapitali supplicio judicamus Officia i. e. Officiales coercenda quae statuta neglexerint By a second Rescript in the year following all Priviledges whatsoever heretofore granted to the Heathen Priests are utterly abolisht And by a Rescript in the year 399 all their Temples still remaining in Villages in the Province of Syria Phaenice are commanded to be pull'd down but not without Tumult many of the Monks who were usually most busie at that Work being wounded and slain by the Country People In the same year Honorius takes away their Sacrifices and Temples in France and Spain but so as to preserve their publick Ornaments after the example of his Father Theodosius in the eighth Law of this Title And in the same year also he being petition'd by the African Fathers in their fifth Council to remove all the Relicks of Idolatry that as he had already taken away their Sacrifices so he would be pleased to abolish their publick Festivals quae ab errore Gentili attracta sunt i. e. that were Customs at first derived from the old Heathenism to this he returns a peremptory denyal That though it was his Royal Pleasure that the prophane Rites should be taken away yet he would not have the People deprived of their Solemnities of mirth according to ancient and immemorial Custom And whereas the same Fathers moved that the Heathen Temples still remaining in Villages and more remote Parts of the Country might be destroyed the Emperor denies that too the Idols he will have removed but not the Buildings themselves demolisht But in the year 408 the Emperor is of another mind being inflamed to it by a particular Provocation For Stilicâ—o being slain that year both the Heathens and the Donatists as we have seen in their History grow insolent and give out that all the Laws that had been enacted against them were only Stilico's without the Emperor's Consent which being signifiâ—d to the Emperor by the African Fathers with a repetition of their former Requests he upon it grants all that they ask and more and nothing less will serve his turn than the utter extirpation of Paganism Upon it he takes away all their Revenues and settles them upon his Army destroys their Images and their Altars turns their publick Temples to other publick Uses commands the private Chappels to be demolisht by the Owners takes away the solemn Festivals and imposes the execution of this Law upon his Officers under the Penalty of a very severe Fine His last Rescript was enacted in the year 415 in which he permits the Heathen Games yearly exhibited by the Priests in their Metropoles or great Cities upon condition that the Priests return home to their own Habitations as soon as the Solemnity is ended Secondly he sequesters all Revenues belonging to the Temples to his own and to the Churches use Thirdly he removes all their Heathen Images from the Baths and all other publick Places And lastly he inflicts Capital Punishments upon the Ring-leaders in their Sacrifices and superstitious Processions And thus by these several Penal Laws under these several Titles and against these several Factions he so settled the Peace of the Church and Empire that though he lived ten years after for he died not till the year 425 he had no necessity of making any more news Laws about these old Matters for when things are once settled in their right Method the World jogs on in good order of its own accord So that it was really this reign that vanquisht all the inveterate disorders of the Church that utterly rooted out the Schism of the Donatists and broke the heart of the Heresie of the Arians for it was at this time that it received its fatal blow though afterward it made some weak Essays and fainting gaspings to recover life Neither do I remember that after this time he had occasion of making any other Laws about Ecclesiastical Matters but one Law of Discipline in the year 420 to recover the obsolete force of an Ecclesiastical Canon strictly forbidding all Clergy-men to cohabit with any Women unless their own Mothers Sisters or Daughters and commanding all that had been married before they entred into Orders to retain their Wives after it The first part of which Law was made in pursuance of the Nicene Canon that had been frequently renewed both by the Ecclesiastical and Civil Law by reason of a common Abuse that was crept into the Church that Men professing Caelibacy took Women into their Houses commonly call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beloved Sisters to minister to their necessities and join with them in their Devotions by which odd kind of liberty they brought great and just Scandal upon the Church and for that reason we meet with continual Complaints in all the Ancients against them The other part of the Law against the Clergies divorce upon pretence of stricter Sanctity is taken from the sixth Apostolical Canon so that it is evident from this Law that the Caelibacy of the Clergy was not at this time injoin'd though afterward it crept into the Church by insensible degrees till it was at length imposed rather by the Authority of Custom than Law § XIV But the management of the Civil Policy of this Reign in Church-Matters as happy as it was it was not so happy as the Ecclesiastical Government that runs parallel with it was deplorable For in this very Period of time hap'ned such a fatal Revolution in the Church like those great Deluges and Conflagrations that Plato dreams of by which old Worlds are destroyed and new ones made as swept away the whole frame of the ancient Church and swallowed up all its power in the exorbitant Usurpation of one Bishop For now it was that the old Constitution of the Catholick Church as it had stood from the time of our Saviour and his Apostles divided into Provincial Jurisdictions and those again uniâ—ed into a Catholick Communion with an equality of Power among themselves was gulft up in the unlimited and universal Supremacy of one single Bishop over all This was first challenged by Innocent the first who began to reign in the year 402 and was ever after eagerly pursued by his Successors at which great change of things it might be convenient to make a stand and take a sad view of the dismal Ruins under which the Primitive Church with all its liberties lay buried for many Ages But as it
things are carried with Tumult and Violence by Dioscorus of Alexandria Juvenal of Jerusalem Thalassius of Caesarea and Barsumas a debauch't Abbot who was particularly summoned by the Emperor and his Vote made equal with the Bishops contrary both to the Canons and the Custom of the Church as appears by the Subscriptions to the late Council of Constantinople under Flavianus against Eutyches Action the 7th where the Bishops subscribe in this Form IN Bishop subscribe as Judge and the Abbots in this only IN Presbyter and Abbot subscribe the Condemnation And beside all these Irregularities Count Elpidius who was sent by the Emperor to preside and keep good order favouring Eutyches out of Complyance with Chrysaphius took the Judgment of the Council to himself so as to hinder all Canonical Proceedings and that soon run the whole matter into Tumult and Confusion Barsumas and his Monks breaking into the Council beating some imprisoning others and forcing others to subscribe a Blank for Eutyches his Absolution and so Eutyches is absolved Flavianus and Eusebius of Dorilaeum Condemned and imprisoned too together with the Popes Legates only Hilarus escaping by Flight And to confirm all these unpriestly and unchristian Enormities Chrysaphius procures an Imperial Rescript which we shall find afterwards reverst by the Emperor Marcian But within three days after the Scuffle Flavianus dies in Goal of the Wounds given him by Barsumas and his Mirmidons and to him succeeds Anatolius though he cannot pass at Rome without absolute submission to Pope Leo his Epistles and the Catholick Church as if they were the same thing But Dioscorus having carried things with so high an hand and bold success returns home flusht and drunk with Victory and in one of his Fits excommunicates Pope Leo himself But the only effect of all these disorders and disturbances in the Church at that time was the advancement of the Papal Greatness for as this Pope never failed to exert his Power to the utmost so every success raised his Throne to a greater height and he so managed this advantage as to bring the design of the Papal Supremacy as it was laid by Innocent the First to its full perfection For though the Title of Head of the Universal Church was not gain'd till Boniface the Third yet Pope Leo went away with the Power and as will appear by the Event exercised a real Supremacy over the Catholick Church For being informed of these wild disorders he immediately calls a Council and writes to the Emperor to Conjure him by the Holy Trinity and as he will answer it at the Divine Tribunal to null all the Acts of that Prophane Council and by Vertue of an Appeal that Flavianus made to himself before his death demands a General Council to be held in Italy And this he seconds with another to his Sister Pulcheria begging her intercession with the Emperor And the Emperor Valentinian with his Mother Placidia and his Queen Eudoxia hapning to visit Rome at that time Leo so plyes them with ruful Stories of the late Ephesine Persecution that he dissolves the Women into Tears and engages all their Zeal to intercede with Theodosius for an Italian Council and this they all do out of that dutiful respect to the Supremacy of St. Peter to whom Leo tells them that our Saviour and all Antiquity had ever given the Sacerdotii Principatus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they express it in their several Epistles But the Emperor was so prepossest by his Eunuchs and his Zeal against Nestorius that no importunity could prevail upon him the thing being already Canonically determined as he replyes to the Empress in answer to her Letrer of Intercession and by an Imperial Rescript ratifies the deposition of Flavianus as guilty of the Nestorian Heresie and justifies all the Proceedings against him at Ephesus but if we may relye upon the Crude Reports of Nicephorus and some later Writers which I never do he repented before his death and sent Chrysaphius into Banishment however that was no publick satisfaction was made to the Church till after his death when Marcian reverst all the Acts of the Council together with the Rescript of Theodosius by which it was confirmed restored the banish'd Bishops and removed the Body of Flavianus to Constantinople and for the complete settlement of the Church summoned a Council of 630 Bishops in the Year 451 first at Nice and afterward at the request of the Fathers at Calcedon For these being sensible of the Abuses that had been put upon the Church by the Imperial Delegates in several Councils they were desirous that the Emperor himself might if there hap'ned any Contest about their Proceedings interpose by his own immediate Authority he being then detein'd by urgent Affairs of State at Constantinople and Calcedon being no more then a Miles distance on the other side the Thracian Bosphorus And by this putting themselves into his Imperial Majesties own Protection they in a great measure secured the Liberties of the Church and rescued it from the long continued Abuses of the Court-Debauchees insomuch that though the Emperor sent many of his Chief Officers of State to manage and moderate in Council yet they never presumed to conclude any thing till himself was present at the 6th Session But the Council being met at the Emperor's Summons Pope Leo sends his Legates and his Letters in which he is pleased to take notice of his Majesties particular Respect to the Apostolick See in that he did not Summon but only invite him to the Council when he was not obliged to appear in Person or as Hilarus one of his Delegates afterwards pleads in the Council it self that it was without Precedent and against all Prescription for a Pope of Rome to appear in Council But his Holiness not being obliged to execute the Office of Supremacy in Person he sends his Legates or Curates as his Representatives to preside over and manage the Council And the Council being opened Paschasinus that was the Fore-man of the Ambassy moves in his Masters name the Bishop of Rome the head of all Churches that Dioscorus of Alexandria may be call'd to the Bar and not suffer'd to sit as Judg in Council otherwise himself and his Brethren were commanded by their Commission to remonstrate Here the Judges require his Accusation To this Lucentius another Legate replys That his Crime was too evident in that he had presumed to assume to himself the Authority of a Judg and pass't sentence not only without but against the judgment of the Apostolick See which as it never ought to be done so it never had been done and for this reason he is not admitted to sit upon the Bench but is turn'd down to the Bar and his Indictment is exhibited by Eusebius of Dorilaeum But its Prosecution was at present superseded by Theodoret's appearing in Council that occasion'd a Tumult of the Egyptian Illyrican and Palestine Bishop against him and the Eastern Pontick
poison'd himself upon Zeno's recovering the Empire Peter Moggus was chosen his Successor by the Eutychian Faction but is deposed by the Emperor 's own Command and Timotheus Salophasiolus their Lawful Bishop is restored This Timotheus was chosen to the See of Alexandria upon the deposition of Timotheus Aelurus by the Emperor Leo was ejected by Basiliscus restored by Zeno and after 23 years from the date of his Election dyes And his keeping that See so long did not a little contribute to the Disorders of that Church he being a softly and unactive Man that would never put the Discipline of the Church nor the Imperial Laws in execution against the Hereticks and though Complaints of his remisness were carried to the Emperor and though the Emperor sent him particular Orders to break up their Conventicles he could not be prevail'd upon to act but instead of that suffer'd himself to be prevail'd with upon pretence of Peace and reconciling to put Dioscorus himself into the Dyptichs and by this gentleness he became very popular among the factious Alexandrians insomuch that as he at any time passed through the Streets the Rabble were wont to salute him with this out-cry viz. That though we cannot communicate with thee yet we cannot but love thee And the silly Man was so charmed with this childish Rattle that he parted with his Episcopal Authority to purchase it and by this means it was that the Faction grew so great in that City And certain it is that the Courtiers of Popularity are of all Men most unfit for Government in the Church they will certainly betray their Trust and their Duty to the applause of the People But upon his death in the year 482 the Clergy of Alexandria elect Joannes Talaia who is rejected by the Emperor's Command and who but Petrus Moggus put in his stead This the Historians say was done by the instigation of Acacius out of a private picque against Talaia for neglecting to send Synodical Epistles according to custom to signifie his election to him as he had done to the other great Sees But however outed he was upon pretence of enormous Crimes Perjury and Simony in that he had obliged himself under Oath never to accept of that Bishoprick and yet for all that had purchased it with Money as Evagrius reports from Zacharias Rhetor the Eutychian Historian And Liberatus says that he was Treasurer of the Church of Alexandria and out of the Churches Treasure purchased the Bishoprick of Count Illus at that time a powerful Man at Court It is certain that that was the occasion of the miscarriage of his Synodical Letters to Acacius they being inclosed in others directed to his Patron Illus who hapning to be absent at that time as far as Antioch the Messenger thought himself obliged to continue his Journey forward for the safe delivery of his Letters in which Interval of time Acacius being a very proud man was pleased to conceive his Jealousy against Joannes Talaia and procure his deposition upon the fore-mention'd Articles and then treats with Petrus Moggus and his Court-Patrons and receives him to communion upon his acceptance of the Emperor's instrument of Union but that was to please the Emperour for in private he obliged him to receive the faith and authority of the Council of Calcedon as himself like a time-rigling Knave as the Historian calls him declares over and over in his Apologetical Epistle to Acacius to vindicate himself from the calumny of his having contrary to his Faith renounced the Council And the same shuffling Arts are observed of him by Liberatus that he prevaricated with both Parties pretending to Acacius to communicate with the Synod and to the Alexandrians to defy it And the Emperour Zeno himself assures Pope Foelix that he was not admitted to his Bishoprick but upon his owning the Council of Calcedon in an Epistle extant in Liberatus But when the wicked man had gain'd his point he forswears all his subscriptions anathematises the Council and Leo's Epistle blots Proterius and Salophasiolus out of the Dypticks and puts in Dioscorus and Timotheus Aelurus And now here do we find by vertue of this Imperial Instrument of Union the whole Christian World involved in a Civil Warr one Party asserting the Council of Calcedon another anathematising it a third despising both and trampling upon all the Discipline of the Church in defence of a Court-irregularity But the quarrel run highest between the two powerful Bishops of Rome and Constantinople for Acacius Bishop of Constantinople having the Court and the Emperour to back him bids defyance not only to the Pope but to the Catholique Church and all its Laws For though himself was the first man that had appear'd against Petrus Moggus and convicted him of manifest Heresy and certified his conviction to Pope Simplicius yet now without any due satisfaction receives him not only to Communion but prefers him to one of the highest dignities in the Christian Church And thô after all these obliging streins of Courtesie Moggus discover'd his obstinacy by anathematising the Council and changing the Dypticks Acacius winks hard and will not see it but stands by him to the last drop of blood calls all the Power of the Court into his assistance to support him against the Discipline and Authority of the Church slites he admonitions of the greatest Bishops in it Imprisons their Legates defies their Sentence lives and dyes excommunicate and all this for a Man that himself could not but know to be a sâ—ubborn Heretick The full account of all these transactions beside the Relations of the Historians Liberatus and Evagrius is to be seen in the Letters of Pope Simplicius and Foelix the Breviculus Histâ—riae Eutychianistarum and the Acts produced in the Cause of Acacius at the Council at Rome all which are printed together in their proper place and order of time in Labbe's Councils The first correspondence about this matter against Petrus Moggus was as I have already intimated opened by Acacius himself in his Epistle to Simplicius informing him that upon the death of Timotheus Aelurus one Petrus Moggus an excommunicate Person being a Thief and a Son of Darkness had at midnight stoln into the Throne of Alexandria having only one Companion to attend him by which Act of madness he made himself obnoxious to greater Punishments than had been hitherto pronounced against him but however he was defeated of his Design for Timotheus Salophasiolus being restored to his Throne this foolish thief durst never shew his head more In answer to this Simplicius returns divers congratulatory Letters not only to Acacius but the Emperor Zeno exhorting him to banish Moggus out of the City But in the next Letters he complains of the neglect of his Advice and suspects warping and luke warmness in Acacius and the next news we hear is that upon the death of Timotheus Petrus Moggus is by the power of Acacius advanced
he was really of their Communion but desires that it may be kept secret and that they would seem to suspect him more than ever that he might have the better opportunity of doing effectual service to the Cause This is the substance of the Letter but Baronius and the Roman Writers suspect it to have been forged because in all his following scuffles about the tria capitula he was never upbraided with it But what wonder is that when the thing was to be kept secret though it might and it seems did come to the knowledg of some as appears by Liberatus an Actor in the business who procured and publisht a Copy of it But he having secured possession of his Throne by the death of Silverius he now writes a flattering Epistle to the Emperor for the Council of Calcedon damns all the Hereticks disclaims all correspondence with the Acephali assures him that he will live and dye by the Council and requests him not to believe any Information whatsoever against him to the contrary But after all he is so crafty as to send his main Message about the best means for settlement of the Church by word of Mouth to baulk as much as it was possible the full discovery of himself All which atheistical hypocrisie Baronius takes great pains to impute to his miraculous Conversion only by vertue of St. Peter's Chair But the Emperor having publisht his Rescript against the tria capitula and finding storms gathering upon it sends to Vigilius whoâ—e private sense he understood to repair to Constantinople with his advice and thither he comes being ready to sieze any opportunity to shew his Power but instead of joining in free Council with the Bishops in effect takes the whole judgment to himself Of his fraudulent behavior in that whole transaction Facundus who was an Eye-witness and indeed the chief Transactor in it has given us a particular account viz. That when he dissembled ignorance of the whole Controversie and Facundus offerd his service to give him full information he having afore-hand obliged himself by promise to give sentence against the Capitula and designing to excuse himself with pretence of Ignorance shamelesly refuses the proffer cuts off all farther proceedings and desires the Bishops that sat with him to give in their Answers singly in writing For they being newly come to Constantinople to consult with his Holiness and being not pre-engaged by any subscription were by this Artifice over-reacht to give in their Answer against the Capitula and the Council And to prevent their drawing back they are obliged to do it not by Vote but by Writing And when he had received their several Answers away he carries them to Court and there delivers them into the hands of the Acephali to be laid up among the former subscriptions that had been made against the Council And that he might not be thought a Traitor by his own Party for he hitherto pretended to side with the Orthodox he pretends that he would not keep them himself lest hereafter there should be found in the Registry of the Church of Rome so many Subscriptions against the Council As if says Facundus he could not as well have torn or burnt them or return'd them back to the Authors from whom he ought never to have received much less to have extorted them if he had been at all concern'd that nothing should be done in prejudice of the Council And thus says he by this his customary dissimulation counterfeiting a zeal in behalf of the Council he effectually promotes the designs of its Enemies And what could do it more than that 70 Bishops sitting in Council with the great Bishop of Rome should beside those many more that had before subscribed prejudg the Controversie All this prevarication Baronius out of his infinite zeal to the Apostolick See endeavors to excuse because before Vigilius heard the Cause he supposed that the condemnation of the tria capitula reflected upon the Authority of the Council but now upon hearing the reasons on both sides and being satisfied that it was unconcern'd in the Controversie he grew more moderate and indifferent and for Peace sake inclined to comply with the Emperor and the Eastern Bishops But what ever Apology this may be for his change of mind it is no excuse for his jugling and underhand dealing and withal as for his change of mind by the Cardinals good leave to condemn writings of Heresie by an Imperial Rescript that had been clear'd of the Charge by the Sentence of a General Council is plainly to subvert not the Authority of that Council alone but of the whole Catholick Church This was the blot of Justinian's Reign that no Candor can cover nor Excuse wipe off And his Holiness by his time-serving complyance with it did but give a cast of his old dishonesty when by the Cardinal 's own account he exceeded all Mankind in Wickedness and proves that he was still acted by his six-fold Female Devil Theodora as he calls her who was the great stickler in the design in favor of the Eutychians because whether the condemnation of the tria capitula were in it self any direct reflection upon the Council or not those that promoted it were resolved to make that use of it And that was the true ground of the zeal of the African Bishops against it as Facundus himself declared to Vigilius at the Conference Ego enim fateor simpliciter beatitudini vestrae non pro Theoâ—ori Mopâ—suesteni damnatione me à contradicentiae communione subtraxisse hoc enim vel si approbandum non sit ferendum tamen existimo nec tantam esse causam judico pro quâ deberemus à communione multiplici segregari sed quòd ex Personâ Theodori Epistolam Ibae Nestorianianam probare conati sunt quòd ex Epistolâ Ibae Synodum Calcedonensem à quâ suscepta est improbare nam quae alia causa fuisse dicenda est ut post centum viginti suae defunctionis annos damnaretur cum dogmatibus suis Episcopus in Ecclesiae pace defunctus I confess freely to your Holiness that I am not concern'd about the Condemnation of Theodorus for though it be not to be approved yet it may be born neither do I think the thing of that weight that we need to divide Communion about it but because from a Sentence against the Person of Theodorus they endeavour to charge the Epistle of Ibas with Nestorianism in which his Writings are commended and then from the Epistle of Ibas to strike at the Council it self by whom it was allowed for what other Cause can be imagined of all this stir that a Bishop who died in the Peace of the Churchâ— shoud be brought to Judgment above one Hundred and Twenty Years after his death And that was the reason that the Africans were so resty which Vigilius finding and withal his own Clergy offended he again shrinks back and in a Consult with Theodorus and Mennas
willful Malice and apparent Forgery In the same undertaking he is followed 〈◊〉 Eichelius Professor at Heltusted in Franconia in the Year 1654 who has after the German Fashion of writing for Marts improved the little Treatise into a great Book by transcribing those Quotations at length which the other only referred to And though both the substance and the wit of his Book are too grosly borrowed and that sometimes in the very same words without owning his Author yet he was a Learned man and has added a great many useful Remarks of History from his own observation has prosecuted the design more at large and demonstrated the disingenuity of the Procopian Author from these 11 Topicks 1. That he writes many things impossible in themselves 2. Many things contradicted by Co-Temperary Writers 3. By himself 4. That what he vehemently commends in his other Writings he here as vehemently inveighs against 5. That what came to pass by chance or by other mens default he imputes to Justinian 6. That he blames many commendable Actions 7. That he praises what he ought to blame 8. That he exaggerates things indifferent to the disadvantage of Justinian 9. That he wrests many of Justinians bravest Actions to an ill sense 10. That he picks up all trifling Reports of the Vulgar against him 11. That he writes divers things of great moment that are no where attested by any Co-Temporary Writers All which are I think sufficient to over-whelm the Reputation of any Writer and yet they are all so visible through the whole Vein of this Libel as to expose themselves to every mans view without searching for them But though this Author has quitted himself in the Historical Part of his Book as became a Learned Man yet he being an Erastian by principle he has all along failed in his observations upon Matter of Fact proceeding every where in that Fundamental mistake about Justinian as if he had pretended to give not only his Ratification but the first Validity to the Laws of the Church And therefore though I shall gratefully accept and acknowledge any assistance that thâ—se Learned Men have given me I shall be forced to make my own observations especially as to those things that concern Religion in which they are both mistaken And as for the Historical Part I shall not trouble my self or the Reader with any later Writers as they have done such as Zonaras Nicephorus Cedrenus c. but shall meerly relye upon Co-temporaries or such as lived upon the next Confines of the Age that they write of as I have carefully done through this whole History And such are in the Age that we are now treating of Procopius himself Agathius Marcellinus Comes Facundus Hermianensis Liberatus Diaconus Cassiodorus Jornandes Victor Tunonensis Gregorius Turonensis Evagrius Scholasticus under Mauritius and the Chronicon Alexandrinum under Heraclius And from them though the greatest part of them were either enemies or disobliged Persons I doubt not but to shew the falshood of the Libel it self and the Malice of its Abettors In the first place we have all the reason in the World to reject the Book it self as a spurious Pamphlet dishonestly fathered upon Procopius when we find it never so much as mention'd by any of the Ancients or by any Writer whatsoever for many Ages after his own time And yet it is next to impossible but that they must have taken notice of a work of such a peculiar streâ—n if it had been extant in their time especially when his other Writings were so well known in his own and all following Ages Evagrius who writ in the same Age though some time after viz. under Mauritius commends his other Histories without any mention of this Agathias Scholasticus that both Epitomised and continued his History and Johannes Scholasticus that writ not long after the death of Justinian knew nothing of this work though both were so well acquainted with his other Writings Photius that diligent and judicious Critick gives an high Character of his other works but is utterly silent about this In short the first Author that makes any mention of it is that crude and injudicious Rhapsodist Suidas who lived not till the 11th Century 500 Years after Procopius but he comes too late not being vouch't by any more Ancient Testimony and then his own can be of no Credâ—t especially considering the humour of the man who was a meer Collector without choice or judgment setting down whatsoever came to his hands without examining into the truth of the Record so that it seems this Libel being forged before his time he imbraces it contrary to the fundamental Law of the Criticks without any ancient Testimony to certifie its legitimacy Alemannus pleads that the reason why it was so long unknown was because Procopius was forced to suppress it for the security of his own life That might be a good reason for Procopius his own time but certainly not for the long interval of so many Ages as from the sixth Century to the eleventh And to give any credit to a Book that never appear'd once in the World till 500 years after the death of its pretended Author is a Civility that the Criticks would never allow in any Case neither do I know it ever challenged unless in this I know indeed Books may have been buried five hundred or a thousand years but then they have always had some ancient Testimonies that there were once such Books written by such Authors and upon no other terms were they ever received and this was the case of St. Clement's Epistle But however this Vatican Plea for suppressing Procopius his Book for his own safety may be consistent with it self I am sure it is very inconsistent with the pretence that he has undertaken to make good viz. that it may be all proved out of Procopius his other Writings in which he tells many more and many worse Stories than in this little Epitome And yet they were not only seen but approved by the Emperor himself But if so he ought either to have suppress't all or none and not to have publisht the sharper Invective to gain the Emperor's favor and keep back the milder to avoid his displeasure These are pretty consistent Dreams that could never have come into any Man's head but in a Vatican Nap. But beside the want of sufficient Certificates to warrant the reception of the Book the thing is so very unlikely in it self that Procopius should write so dirty a Libel both against Justinian and Belizarius that it would require very strong proof only to make it a thing credible For when he had through his whole life been so infinitely obliged by both when he had been raised by Justinian from a low Condition to the highest Preferments in the Empire when he had ever kept the most entire and intimate friendship with Belizarius and lastly when he made it the great work of his life both before and after the writing of this Book to
common ruin And again Justinian and Theodora seemâ—d to me and all othâ—rs of the Senatorian Order not of the race of Mankind but the worst breed of Devils and the very Plagues of Humane kind that consulted together how they might destroy the Universe with most expedition and for that reason assumed Humane shapes being as it were half-Man half Devil and so over-turn'd the whole World And this may be proved by the great enormity of their Wickedness in which these Devils infinitely out-stript all the villainy that Mankind is capable of acting For thô there have been divers Tyrants in former Ages that were cruel beyond all bounds of Barbarity that dispeopled whole Cities Provinces and Kingdoms yet these were the first that utterly destroyed the Race of Mankind and laid wast the universal World And once more not to be too tedious this Story of mowing down the Inhabitants of the whole World being the Subject of every Page That Justinian was in reality no Man but the Devil in the shape of a Man is evident from those unparallell'd Mischiefs that he brought upon Mankind for the height of all Wickedness is to be taken from the depth of it Authors Villainy But for that it were more easie to compute the Sand upon the Sea-shore then all the Nations destroyed by Justinian And as for my own part I am able to reckon up two hundred and ten Millions of Men that were offer'd Victims to his Barbarity A very fair reckoning this were the particulars well cast up for by the summ total one could expect to hear of no less than the old Pranks of Caligula Nero and Commodus of Phalaris his ten thousand bulls and Pharaohs ten millions of Brick-Kills of the out-rages of the thirty Tyrants and the fury of the ten persecutions of firing the City assassinating the Senate putting whole Provinces to the Sword but what do I speak of all these trifles of Cruelty if compared to the destruction of the whole habitable World for that is the Chorus to all our Tragedies that he did not only cut the throats of all the Inhabitants of the Roman Empire but buried the whole World in one common ruin What not one Man left alive the whole Race at once destroyed How then came the face of the Earth to be peopled again by Deucalion's Stones or Cadmus's Teeth Oh no says Alemannus these are only certain Schemes of Speech that the learned call hyperbolical Expressions It may be so but we that are unlearned cannot distinguish them from impudent Lies and Impossibilities For if every Man living were not destroyed then the tale as it is told is all fable but if the destruction were universal then the question returns how the Earth ever came to be re-inhabited without those Absurdities that we commonly call poetical Hyperboles But not to be too severe upon the licence of Lampoons we will grant that possibly the Hydra or the Dragon might spare some few alive but in compensation let us compute how many millions of his Subjects he devoured at every meal Where lay the Cities where the Provinces where the Nations that he so universally dispeopled How great a part of the Empire he recover'd we know from his Wars with the Goths and Vandals in Italy and Africk but that he ever destroyed any one Province is news to this very day How many stately Cities he built is recorded by Procopius but if he ever reduced either any of them or any other to Ashes he would have done well to have told us in his own defence if he could but have alledged any one Example What strange way of writing history is this to tell us of such vast numbers of Cities Provinces and Nations destroyed without specifying but one Village But though he might not mow down whole Cities and Provinces at a stroak yet he might commit such vast numbers of out-rages at divers times and in divers places as might amount to the two hundred and ten millions of lives That may be but as vast as the Empire was I doubt it would scarce afford pasture enough for so great a Butchery But if it would I would only know where when and by whom these vast Oceans of blood were shed He reign'd 39 years by himself and govern'd nine years more under his Unkle Justin in all which time if we inquire of our Libeller the Catalogue of his Executions Why to be short Amantius and Vitalvanus were put to death They were so but what are two Men above two hundred millions of Men This is the priviledg of hyperbolical Historians But seeing this is all our Martyrology let us inquire into the merits of the Cause for it is that they say and not the suffering that makes the Martyr and by that we shall easily discern that these unheard of Cruelties were so far from that that they were not only necessary Acts of Government but of common Justice too Amantius had been the Author of all the Severities against the Catholicks under Anastasius insomuch that at the Coronation of the Emperor Justin the People cryed out for his blood But that was not the cause of his death but his endeavor to set up Theocritus against him in the Empire for which as they were both justly put to death so was it an Action necessary to the preservation of the Government it self But as the Author of the Libel tells the Story he discovers himself to be no true Procopius for first he says that Amantius was put to death by Justinian whereas he was immediately executed by Justin at his first coming to the Crown as appears not only from all the co-temporary Historians Marcellinus Comes Jornandes Evagrius Victor Tunonensis but from the matter of Fact it self he being taken off for setting up Theocritus for the title of the Crown against Justin. But when he farther adds the Cause of his death he utterly betrays the Imposture of the whole Libel viz. that he had been too saucy in his language to John Bishop of Constantinople whereas there was no such Bishop of that name in all the long Reign of Justinian till the last year of his life But here for a Reconciler commend me to the Apostolical Librarian that when there were two Patriarchs of Constantinople one that dyed in the first year of Justin surnamed Cappadox and another that came to that See in the last year of Justinian surnamed Scholasticus to make sure of a John in his reign he pieces up one Bishop of these two Men and says that Procopius meant Johannes Scholasticus Cappadox though Cappadox was dead near 50 years before Scholasticus was consecrated and four Bishops of other Names were ranged in the Dypticks between them Epiphanius Anthimus Mennas and Eutychius And yet the learned Librarian is so strangely or rather so wilfully ignorant as to make that the grand Article against Justinian that he was the Man who first granted the Title of Oeâ—umenical Bishop to this Joannes Scholasticus
Cappadox and this he affirms not only without any Testimony from Records but against the most obvious and known story of those times by which it is evident that this Title was first challenged and granted to another Johannes surnamed Jejunator or John the mortified under Mauritius But however when it is certain not only from Record but from matter of Fact it self that Amantius was put to death for endeavoring to depose the Emperor if Procopius himself imputed it to a little foul Language it argued great malice but if it were done by any other counterfeit Author it argues great ignorance in the Affairs of those Times And indeed the Author has every where betrayed so much of that as plainly discovers himself to be no true Procopius And such is his story in his 6 th Chapter of Justin's being analphabetus void of all Learning not able to write his own name which he proves from the invention of the Printing Plate with his name in it that he stampt upon all his Commissions because he could not write This is all the Authority for this wild Story and we never hear any thing of it till Suidas transcribed it hence and yet it is strange that none of the Historians of that Time should ever take notice of a thing so very strange in the Empire had it been true But however this story of the printing Plate is a very unlucky discovery of the asses ears under Procopius his skin when it is so well known that it was the custom of all the Roman Emperors to stamp their names to their Commissions for expedition And this Alemannus himself confesses was the ancient usage and describes the forms of it out of Plutaâ—ch and Ausonius and shews that it was used by Justinian himself though it was in after-times disused by the Grecian â—mperors Now for any Man to go about to prove that Justin could not write his own Name because he had it engraven on a printing Plate when all other Emperors used the same Instrument it clearly demonstrates his ignorance of the Customs of those times and proves him some unlearned Greek that lived after the disusage of that Custom in that Empire And as for Justin's acting so little and Justinian's acting so much in the publick Affairs Procopius himself in his first Book de Bello Vandalico imputes it to no other cause then his extreme old age and not to any want either of natural Parts or ingenuous Education as this malicious and ignorant Libeller has done who sticks not to call him a fool and a blockhead And it was no doubt a sign of his being so when he raised himself from so low a fortune into the Imperial Throne and when he was in it govern'd so well as we have seen in the History of his Reign But here again commend me to the Ingenuity of Alemannus that cites the very passage in the Book de bello Vandalico which imputes Justin's inability for business to nothing but his extreme old Age to confirm this passage that lays it wholly upon his natural incapacity and blockishness But having convicted this story of the Murder of Amantius for an unmannerly word of extreme malice and ignorance let us now examine the other hundred Millions of instance in the death of Vitalian and there we shall find as strong streins of the same malice and ignorance as in the Amantian Fable For first he is so miserably inform'd as to place this transaction immediately after the death of Amantius whereas he was for a good time one of the greatest Favourites of the Emperor Justin and kept up an intimate Friendship with Justinian and joyn'd with him in transacting that great Business of uniting the Eastern and Western Churches with Pope Hormisdas as appears by Justinian's Epistles to that Pope and therefore the death of Vitalian did not follow the Execution of Amantius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a short time after as if it were the next Action as this Author expresses it for it was not done till the third year of Justin's Reign and for that reason Evagrius when he tells this Story immediately after that of Amantius he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but this was done afterwards by which it is evident that this Author was utterly ignorant of the right order of the Transactions of that time But the true Story of Vitalian is this That he had often stein'd himself with Rebellion against his Master Anastasius and had caused the slaughter of many Thousands of Citizens for his own Ambition but the Emperor was at last too hard for him so that whil'st he reign'd the Rebel lived in Exile but was restored by Justin taken into great favour advanced to great honour first made Master of the Militia and afterward Consul but he seising all opportunities of encouraging Faction and Sedition and heading the Tumults of the Scythian Monks at Constantinople he perish't some way or other in the Attempt but the manner of his death is not certainly known Marcellinus Comes only says that he was stabb'd within the Palace with sixteen wounds Evagrius says from Zacharias the Eutychian that he was trapan'd by Justin and Justinian and if it were so yet that Partial Historian against those Emperors has set down two very good reasons to justifie it first that it was to cure his insatiable Thirst after the Crown which they saw nothing but his own Blood could quench and secondly to punish him for all that Train of Mischief and Treason that he had practised against the Roman Empire But Victor Tunensis both a co-temporary and a disobliged Writer â—â—ing one of those African Bishops that were banished for their Zeal against the Tria Capitula only says that it was reported that his Throat was cut within the Palace by the Faction of Justinian so that it seems he could get no certain knowledge of it whether it were done by the Emperors command or by a Tumult of the Guards and that is most likely for Souldiers of Loyal Principles are never wont to forgive as indeed they never ought revolting Rebels But which way soever it was brought about it was a just Execution of one of the vilest men living that had often embroiled the Empire in bloody Wars that had called in the barbarous People to invade it that had besieged Constantinople it self and had utterly destroyed it had not Proclus fired his Fleet as Archimedes did that of Marcellus with burning Glasses These two just and unavoidable Executions are the only too bloody Actions by which this Prince outstript the cruelty of all the Tyrants that ever were in any Age or Nation and destroyed more People then an Universal Plague not only cutting the Throats of all the Inhabitants of the Roman Empire but dispeopling the whole Creation § XXVI But what were there no Acts of Mercy in his Reign nay what if there were nothing but Acts of Mercy what if no other Reign can vie Acts of Clemency with it And
he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 occasion'd by a false Translation of Suidas against the Greek Copy it self putting Justinian for Justin of whom Suidas relates it and with what probability I have shewn above but as for Justinian there is not so much as the shadow of any ground to lay it to his Charge beside that dull and evident mistake of a Translator But on the contrary he carried away the Title of Doctissimus in his own time that is frequently given him by Theodatus King of the Goths and the Fathers of the 5th General Council all these are pregnant Proofs of a natural Fool. But what shall we say to his Administration of publick Affairs when the Empire never flourished more under any Prince then his Government when he not only preserved and emproved what he was possest of but recovered all that had been lost and secured it to his Successors by fortifying it on all sides against the Incursions of all Enemies If these are the sports and projects of a Fool I would be inform'd by our worthy Historian what undertakings are becoming a wise man But as for the Learned Librarian whil'st he goes about to stop this hole of his Author he has made a much wider mistake of his own by excusing it that the Author only intends this Character not of the vigour of Justinian's Age but of his Dotage This excuse if it were true is very key-cold but it is enough that the Comment contradicts the Text for the Author speaks plainly of the Emperors natural Constitution and habitual course of his life and therefore to Apologize for such a false Character by applying it to the time of dotage is to confess his Author a false Calumniator for dotage is no natural folly But if he had doted what then Is it not base and disingenious to upbraid a Great Man with the natural infirmities of extreme old Age He lived to the utmost bounds of Nature and if he out-lived himself can any man of sense or manners think it decent or ingenuous to brand him to all Posterity with the mark of a Fool and an Ass But then beside this the excuse is false for the Anecdota are pretended to have been written Seven Years before Justinian's death in which Interval of Time he perform'd many great Actions as may be seen at large in Agathias de rebus Justiniani Procopius de Aedificiis And yet Alemannus after hâ—s rate of pertinent Quotation cites Agathias on his side for relating that the Emperor in his extreme old Age chose to quit the designs of War and betake himself to Artifice and stratagem not to destroy the Enemies of the Empire by hazardous Battels but by dividing them among themselves by which Wisdom he destroyed the Nation of the Huns only by making and enflaming dissensions among themselves and so free'd the Empire of one of its greatest Plagues forever This great reach of Policy is the last Act that we hear of in his life and that was no Act of Folly though Alemannus is so great a Fool himself as to alledge it to prove the Emperor one nay worse than this he has suffer'd his passion to be transported to that degree of Malice as to alledge it in confirmation of the Anecdota as an instance of the Emperors Craft and Treachery beyond the common Capacity of Humane Nature De illius fraudibus atque fallaciis uberius quà m Procopius scripsit Agathias Myrrhinaeus nam artes Epistolarum exempla profert quibus Hunnorum ducibus ad invidiam odia excitatis ad civilia bella crudelissimo dissidio inflammatis eam gentem penitùs abolevit This it is to have a good Will to a Cause every thing will serve for a weapon to strike an Enemy What he did afterward and how he died is unknown to us all the Ancients which is strange being utterly silent in it Some Modern Writers say he died mad but they mistake him for his Nephew and Successor Justin who run mad with the ill Success of his Wars against the Persians but as for Justinian there is nothing certain concerning him after the end of Agathias his History and that is about two years before his death unless it be that he retired from the Affairs of this Life to prepare himself for the next as Corippus informs us Nulla fuit jam cura senis jam frigidus omnis Alterius vitae solo fervebat amore In coelum mens omnis erat jam corporis hujus Immemor hanc mundi faciem transisse putabat This is spoken in the Person of his Successor Justin to excuse the Miscarriages of his Uncles Reign that they were the defects of his old Age when he gave over his Care of the Publick And yet Baronius and Alemannus make use of the Authority of Coâ—ippus to prove that Justinian run his Exchequer deep in debt to his Subjects when this was not done till Justinian had resigned the Government into other mens hands But Alemannus is so ingenuous as to leave this Note upon this passage how dully the Poet endeavours to turn his stupidity into devotion Ex quibus intelligas quà m frigidè Corippus eam stoliditatâ—â— in sanctimoniam accipiat ac interpretetur but if the Text be dull the Comment is much more so without any ground or pretext to conclude his Devotion to have been nothing but Dotage and Folly § XXX The next Link in this Emperors long Chain of Vertues is twisted up of the most oppressive Covetousness and the most profuse Prodigality and it is the second part of the Character of Don John a man made up of nothing but Contradictions a natural Fool and a crafty Knave a griping Extortioner and a careless Prodigal But the Libeller it seems is resolved to say all the ill things of him that are to be said of all the ill men in the World and therefore has in his crude and indigested way amass'd together all the Common-Places of Rudeness and Calumny But though profuseness be inconsistent with Covetousness yet because it is not so with oppression but is rather supported by it being a bottomless-pit that devours all things therefore we will consider these Vices apart and examine what instances of either are to be found in the Reign of Justinian First then as for Prodigality it is a Childish kind of Vice that wasts it self in wanton and unnecessary expences Now I pray what were the trifles upon which this Emperor laid out the publick Revenues What! he exhausted it in Presents to the Barbarians and in putting shackles upon the Ocean But was this all If it were not then is it a malicious slander in the Author of the Anecdota to over-look all his other magnificent works and insist so impetuously upon it as if these two had been the only sinks of all these immense expences And this thing alone lays open both the Malice and the Folly of the Man for no man of any Sense or Modesty could