himself is Deposed and Anathematised as one that destroyed the Order of the Church and disturb'd the Peace of Christian Empire and compass't the Death of a Catholique Prince and abetted a perjured Usurper and subverted the Peace of the World And the same Sentence was ratified five years after in a Council at Mentz though all in vain for they got nothing by it but the Name and the Brand of Schismatiques But what bloody work has been made in Christendom by the Principles of this Termagant Pope from that time to this will make up a Volume of it self when we come to those times But to return to the state of the Primitive Church though there are no examples of any affront or violence offer'd to the Civil Magistrate in it yet there are numberless Instances of their quiet and peaceable Submission and that too upon Principles of Duty and Obligations of Conscience Thus was it bravely said of St. Polycarp and worthy the greatness and wisdom of the Martyr to the Pro-Consul at his Tryal We are Commanded Sir to give all due and decent honour to Princes and Magistrates so far as we can do it without doing wrong to our own Consciences They were bound to comply with and submit to the Will of their Governours in all things but Sin and that by the Laws of their Religion But the most magnificent Account of this is to be seen in the Christian Apologists who in the very heat and flame of Persecutions when if ever Men should be exasperated into Passion Glory and Triumph in their great Zeal and Loyalty to those very Princes by whom they were persecuted Just in Martyr is so confident as to Petition the Emperours to punish all such as profess't Christianity and yet lived not according to the Laws of their Religion and then immediately adds As for our parts we are the most forward of any Subjects to pay Taxes and Contributions to the Emperour as we are Commanded by our Master to give unto God the things that are God's and unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's And therefore we worship God alone but cheerfully serve them in all other things as well knowing them to be Sovereign Princes over Men and withal praying for them that God would add Wisdom to their Imperial Dignity This is our Practice and Profession and if notwithstanding this you will proceed against us we shall be no losers being assured that every Man must after death give an account of his own Actions and then our Rewards shall be proportion'd to our Sufferings And after the same manner and with the same confidence does his Scholar Athenagoras conclude his Eloquent Oration to the Emperours when he had shewn the Innocence of the Christians in all other particulars when he had wip't off all Calumnies and when he had represented their Piety their Honesty their Temperance their Sobriety he adds And now great and worthy Sirs lend me your Royal Ear who think you are more likely to obtain the things that they pray for then Persons so qualified and yet we daily poure forth our Prayers for the prosperity of your Government and that the Son may according to right succeed the Father in the Empire and that your Government may ever increase and flourish in short that all things may fall out as successfully as your hearts can desire which will be a benefit also to our selves that living under your Reign a quiet and peaceable life we may readily obey your Commands That was the sum of all their Apologies and it was suited to the Nature of their Religion as it stood founded upon the Doctrine of the Cross we are obedient to all your Commands that are not contrary to the true worship of God and the Laws of our Religion there we crave leave to be excused and if that offend you we can but suffer for it which we are ready to do with all manner of meekness and submission as being assured of an â—ternal Reward for a short calamity Theophilus Antiochenus in his Address to his Friend discoursing of the Folly and Vanity of giving Divine Worship to the Emperours he tells him That it is a much greater honour to them not to worship but to pray for them I will worship that God from whom Caesar received his Authority But you will say why not Caesar too Because he was not set up to be worshipt but to be paid that proper honour that is due to Caesar for the King is not the Deity but ought to remember that he is advanced by God to that height of Dignity not to be worshipt by his Subjects but to do them Justice for this end the Divine Majesty placed him in the Imperial Throne and therefore as Caesar will not suffer any of his Subjects to usurp the Caesarean Title because it belongs to him alone neither let himself challenge that worship that is proper and peculiar to the Divine Majesty And therefore O Man honour the King honour him I say by loving him obeying him and praying for him and by so doing you will do the will of God for this is the Sum of the Divine Law my Son honour God and the King and be not disobedient or refractory to either of them This was the true state of the Case in his time to shew all manner of respect and honour to Sovereign Princes as such only in Subordination to God so as to obey them in all things but when their commands interfer'd and then indeed they choose to obey God in the first place still preserving in all other things the same honour and duty to their Prince And after the same manner Origen answers Celsus when he asks him why the Christians cannot worship and appease the Emperours because says he there is only one God that ought to be worshipt the Lord of all and he is best appeased with devout Prayers but the favour of Princes is not to be courted by such mean and dishonourable obsequiousness as is inconsistent with true Piety or such servile Flatteries as are unworthy a generous man and one that esteems magnaâ—imity to be the greatest of Vertues but as far as our Piety to God will permit we are not so frantick that we should wilfully exafperate the displeasure of Kings to deliver us to torments and death for we are so taught in our Books let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers for there is no Power but is of God therefore he that resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God And these words are to be understood in their plain and natural sense And their Sense is so very plain that it is impossible to fasten any other Sense upon them beside their own With all these imminent Doctors of the Church agrees the Answer of that pious and resolute Prelate Dyonysius of Alexandria in his Examination before AEmilianus Prefect of Egypt that we worship one God the Maker of all things and who bestowed the Empire upon their
will be plain from that too as well as common Sence That Resistance to Authority if it were never so Lawful is such a Remedy as never bears its own Charges and that no Nation ever made use of it that did not rue its own folly The Vices of a single Person are finite and reach but to particular cases the most bloody Tyrant that ever was never cut off any great Numbers and it is truly observed by Cardan of Nero that as wanton as he was with the Lives of Men in a very few Months after his death there was abundantly more blood spilt then in all his fourteen years Reign The miseries of War are endless and universal and whatever the event is or whoever wins the Common-wealth is sure to be a loser and to pay a severe reckoning on all sides Some few of the scum of the People may by the strength of their brawny Arms signalize themselves into Clowns of Eminance whilst the Ancient Gentry and Nobility endanger all their Fortunes and great numbers even of the first beginners of disturbance lose their Lives and in short the whole Kingdom must be undone for the advancement of a Cromwel a Pride an Hewson or a Desborough and it rarely happens and it is pity but it should be so but that the first Contrivers are out-reached in their own Designs and baulkt by other Men and other Councils and live to lament their own folly in much more good earnest then they did the grievances or miscarriages of the Government But when the dispute is once raised it is not to be determin'd but by the Sword and wherever success attends that Nation is in a sweet condition when a Conquering Army comes with Swords drawn to rate the Merits of their past Services and challenge rewards equal to their present Insolence and that is to take whatever they are pleased to demand and it is a kindness in them not easily to be expected if they will stop at any violence At least it is certain That which side soever is Victor the generality of a Nation never reap any thing by a War then Repentance and a little Wisdom got by dear bought Experience But not to mention a thousand other great publick and lasting Calamities that Naturally follow Resistance and Rebellion the certain miseries of Civil War it self infinitely outweigh all the Burthens that the greatest Tyranny can lay upon the Subject What a long Succession of unexampled Tyrants must have Reign'd in England before they could have committed so many inhumanities as a few years Civil War for the Liberty of the Subject brought upon it What one mortal Man's Salvageness could ever have spilt half so much Blood as was shed in any one eminent Battel Let therefore the Patriots of Sedition cease to upbraid Loyalty with weakness of Understanding when all Men of common Sense or any Experience in the Affairs of the World cannot but see through the delusion of fighting for their Liberties against their Prince by which they hazard and for the most part lose both and at least certainly bring themselves into greater Slavery then they could have suffered had they been patient under the worst of Governments And this brings to my mind another instance of the wisdom of Submission and that is this that as no wise Man that takes a thorough account of his own interest would care to draw himself into a War against his Prince so it is generally Men of the meanest understandings that are seduced by them And they are drawn in by such poor slights and delusions that plainly shew the contempt that the Patriots have of their shallow reach and the bottom of all their Politiques is to inveagle the common People into a conceit that in all contests with the Government it is only their interest that is concerned and as for themselves were it not to assert their Liberties they would never undergo the frowns of the Court never expose themselves to the hazards of War nor venture their Lives and Fortunes for any thing less then the preservation of their Country And all this while the poor People must be supposed so dull and so they are as not to suspect that there is any such thing as Revenge Ambition and Discontent in the World and yet it is these that have always been the great Patrons of their Liberties And though their Seditious Artifices are known and thread-bare as often discovered as used and a thousand times over and over exposed yet because the common People have not the advantage to know or make use of the Experience of former Ages they are in every Age as ready a Prey for the Snare as if it had never been set before So that omitting divers other good reasons that might be urged against all kind of Resistance and particularly that one That if it be once allowed the common People in any case there is no stop of pretences or end of confusions And if Princes may and do abuse their Power it is much more certain that the Rabble cannot use theirs aright And therefore to prevent the vast inconvenience of their ever abusing it it must be stopt at first and without reserve else the mischiefs that follow if it be admitted at all will be infinite I know indeed that learned Men suppose some Extravagant cases in which they will allow Resistance to be Lawful Barclay and Winzet suppose two viz. When the Prince sets himself to destroy the Common-wealth or would sell the Kingdom to a Foreign Power But these wild suppositions are not to be brought into the practice of the World of which perhaps there are no Examples upon Record For what can be more incredible then that a King should be fond of destroying his Kingdom when by that he certainly in the first place destroys himself himself or of alienating it to another when by that he as certainly enslaves himself Perhaps the thing may be possible in Nature but it is so infinitely improbable that it ought not to be supposed in the practice of the World Least by supposing such an unexampled madness we let Men loose from their Duty in all other Cases for that is the constant practice of all Incendiaries to perswade the People that their present Governors take the course to destroy the Common-wealth So that by this supposition of these two Extravagancies these Learned Men utterly defeat their own Design because these are the very Cases that are pretended in all Rebellions and may be applyed to all Cases as Men please to make use of their assistance Thus when Barclay argues That if the Power of calling Sovereign Princes to account for their Government be allowed to the People or their Representatives it would be as destructive of good as of bad Princes as we may see by the insolent deportment of the Ephori against their Kings whom they chastised not only for their greater misdemeanours but for their mistakes or fancies thus as Plutarch Records in the Life
viz. that they submitted for want of strength to make resistance because it will shew that they thought themselves obliged to suffer any thing from the Government rather then resist by the most Sacred and indispensable Laws of their Religion And first as for their Patience and Submission under all kinds of Cruelties and Oppressions it is so remarkable so entire so without reserve or exception that if it were possible the height and glory of their practice exceeded the Gallantry of their Masters Precepts And though they were eminent for all other Vertues yet in this of patience cheerfulness and magnanimity under sufferings they out-did themselves It was the hight and perfection of all their goodness it was the wonder and astonishment of their Enemies and the glory and if any thing could be so the very boast of their Religion Numberless are both the Instances of this Practice in the Records of the Church and the Assertions in the Writings of the ancient Doctors of it to own and justifie their Obligation to it But to transcribe them would be an endless work and would take up the greatest part of the Records of the first three hundred years that are for the most part employed about these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eusebius stiles them these peaceable Wars of Martyrs and Confessors It is enough that in all that time there is not one instance of any Christians making any forcible defence or joyning in any Sedition against their Governors Though if there had been any miscarriages in that kind that could have been no objection against the truth of the Doctrine it self which is to be taken from the general Practice and Sense of the Church not from the irregularities of a few private persons And yet so far was it from that that to me it looks like Wonder and Miracle that among all the Primitive Christians who lived under Pagan and persecuting Emperors till the time of Constantine the Great which takes in the Interval of three hundred and forty years there should not be one instance of any one Christian that either taught or practised the Doctrine of resistance in any case whatsoever but that on the contrary they unanimously both taught and practised the Duty of Passive Obedience as one of the greatest and most indispensable Laws of their Religion And first as for the publick Records the Canons and Laws of the Church the case is the same here as that of Parricide in old Rome the Crime was so unknown and so unsuspected that no Provision was made against it For among all the Canonical Decrees and Censures of the Ancient Church which were all enacted to restrain some present miscarriages there is not one to be found that forbids or punishes the Sin of Resistance to Lawful Superiors The Christians of the Primitive Church were so firmly fix't in their Duty here by our Saviour's and his Apostles Precepts and by the constant Instructions and Unanimous Sense of their Pastours and Teachers that they supposed that they could not make any resistance to the most unjust violence of their Persecutors without renouncing Christianity it self And that is the reason why this Crime was then never restrained by Ecclesiastical Censures because it was then never committed And though there are scarce any other Sins for which the Church has not appointed proper Penances because they were some time or other put in practice yet the sin of Rebâ—llion was the only Crime for which it had no Penance because there never was any one instance of it to give any â—ccasion for a Law against it Nay so far was the Church from doing any thing prejudicial to the Rights of Sovereign Powers that it was careful and tender of the Interests of Families in pursuance of its Fundamental Principle that Christianity was to make no alteration in any Civil Rights whatsoever And therefore in the 82 Apostolical Canon it is provided That no Servant be admitted into Holy Orders without his Master's consent because as they give the reason of the Law that would be a subversion of Families And for that reason it was made one of the Articles framed against St. Chrysostom by his Adversaries in the Synod under the Oak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he had Ordain'd other Mens Servants before they were set at liberty And in the third Canon of the Council of Gangra it is Decreed That whoever teaches Servants to forsake their Masters upon the account of Religion be Anathematised This Synod of Gangra was assembled against a particular Sect of Fanatiques in Armenia that under the pretence of a more refin'd and spiritual Religion became perfect Ranters and Levellers and so subverted all Rights both Sacred and Civil as they are excellently described in an Epistle of the Bishops of the Synod to the Bishops of Armenia prefixt to their Canons and among the many other disorders into which these wild Enthusiasts â—an themselves this was one that they taught Servants to run away from their Masters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the pretext of Godliness which as well as all their other absurd Principles is here justly and as Zonaras observes in pursuance of the Apostolical Doctrine Anathematifed These are all the Canons that I know of in the Ancient Church that concern Mens Civil Rights so rarely were they invaded or violated among the Primitive Christians but the first Canons that I meet with against Rebellion were the three Anathema's of the Council of Toledo in the year 633 When the Romans being driven out of Spain by the Goths and they being settled in the peaceful Government of the Country after the death of Cinthilas who first obtain'd the Crown and the Peoples consent to it Sisinandus his Son summon'd this Council in the first year of his Reign to Anathematise all Persons that should any way attempt any thing against his Crown Life or Dignity But this was meerly contrived for the security of his Government against the Romans and to preserve his new Subjects from Revolting to their old Masters and was not made to condemn the Doctrine of Resistance as if it had been taught at that time but to abet their Oath of Allegiance and for that reason the Anathema upon the Offender is founded upon the sin of Perjury The next passage that I remember to provide against all Rebellion is the fragment of a Synod held by Alexius Patriarch of Constantinople under the younger Constantinus Porphyrogenneta who began his Reign in the year 975. In which all defections from or insurrections against the Emperour are Anathematised and so is the Priest that gives absolution to any Rebels before they return to their Duty and Allegiance The occasion of this Law I know not but whatever it was I know no other of the same nature till the Hildebrandine Apostacy whose barbarous proceedings against the Emperour Henry the Fourth were immediately censured and condemned by a Council of Thirty Bishops assembled at Brixia in the year 1080 and
sense of Duty towards their Superiors and of Humanity towards their Neighbours The Commissioners coming into Africa consult with the Bishops what course was fitest to be taken But the Party of Donatus Combine one and all to hinder all their endeavours of Concord and dispatch Letters and Messengers into all Parts aforehand forbiding their People to receive any thing of the Emperor's Bounty it being a scandal to the People of God to receive any Alms from Sinners And beside this the Rabble are frighted with flying Reports and Stories that the Commissioners brought along with them the Emperors Images that were to be placed upon the high Altar at the time of Celebrating the Eucharistical Sacrifice that so the People might be drawn in to give Divine Worship to the Imperial Image and so become guilty of Idolatry and from this time the words Pagan and Idolator were the two most common Titles that they bestowed upon the Catholicks Nay farther then all this when the Commissioners acquaint the great Donatus with their Message he replies with his usual scorn and rage Quid est Imperatori cum Ecclesiâ reviles the Emperor himself with sawcy and taunting Language and tells them that they might give themselves if they pleased the pleasure of travelling through the African Provinces but he had taken care to save their Masters Money And another Donatus Bishop of Bagaia when the Commissioners came to his City gathers together Troops of Circumcellians from all Parts perhaps into a Malt-house to Assassinate the Commissioners But they to defend themselves upon the discovery of the Conspiracy send for a Party of the Emperor's Forces some few whereof being upon the Guard abused and affronted by the Fanatick Rabble that were Assembled in great Numbers acquaint their Fellow-Soldiers with the Indignity who do what their Officers could fall upon them with great fury kill some and disperse the rest And now the Donatists had the beloved clamour of all Schismaticks to cry out Persecution only because some of them perish'd in a Tumult of their own raising But it is no matter who began the fray the People are to be incensed against the Catholiques with the Blood of their Party And therefore what Tragical Stories do we ever after from this slight Occasion hear of the Macarian Times as if this one Accident by which they punish'd themselves had exceeded the Cruelty of the Ten Persecutions But in short the Commissioners finding there was no Peace to be settled in Africa whilst Donatus and his Associates remained in it they sent them all into Banishment and so they continued till the time of Julian the Apostate but in the mean time the Ring-leaders being removed out of the way the People were soon at quiet and betook themselves to to their Callings and kept their Parish-Churches And upon this a Council was called by Gratus Arch-Bishop of the Catholique Communion at Carthage to give God thanks for their Deliverance and to take care for the effectual settlement of the Peace of the Church that lasted till the Donatists broke loose under Julian Who designing by all ways to destroy Christianity thought nothing so effectual to that end as to encourage Schisms and Divisions and destroy the Discipline and Unity of the Church and therefore when this Schism was almost extinguisht by the care of Constantine and his Sons he took as much care by granting liberty to the Donatists to blow it up into a greater flame And yet they on the other side were forward enough to prevent the Apostates Zeal by presenting him with a flattering address so that though the other day under Christian Emperours their word was Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesiâ now under an Apostate a mortal and avowed Enemy to Christianity the whole Discipline of the Church is to be submitted to his disposal and sacrificed to his malice and he accordingly finding what eager Zeal they had to disturb the Peace of the Church gives them all the liberty that they can desire and permits them to râ—build their Conventicles at the same time that he opened the Idol Temples and as Optatus upbraids them let them and the Devil loose together And that is another ill quality of all Schismaticks that they care not what becomes of the common Christianity so the Faction thrives This Rescript of Julian to the Donatists is lost but it seems it was so very scandalous that the Emperour Honorius many years after when he was resolved upon their Extirpation caused it to be publisht in all places to let the People see the baseness and perversness of the Faction But they now finding that they had got the upper hand of the Catholiques though by the malice of this Apostate Emperor are not satisfied with their own liberty but fall soul upon the Catholiques and treat them with all manner of outrage and cruelty pull down their Churches murther their Priests at the Altar overthrow the Altars themselves and cast their Idolatrous Eucharist as they call'd it to the Dogs dig the Catholiques out of their Graves with many more outrages that may be seen in Optatus his second and sixth Books And so they go on to keep up the Faction by Tumults and Stories and making challenges of Disputes and then declining them and the like methods of Schism till the death of Donatus about the year 368 and the fifth of Valentinian and Valens To Donatus succeeds Parmenianus who publishes a vehement Book against the Catholicks stuft with the old Fables of Faelix Caecilian and the Macarian Persecution for as they first founded their Schism upon a Lye so they resolv'd to continue it to the last and perhaps by this time they were in good earnest and had lyed so long till they at length believed themselves or at least as Optatus tells him they were utterly Ignorant of the History of the Schism and to that end he wrote his Books to rebuke all their wild Fictions by publick Records and Imperial Rescripts But to what purpose do you tell the Common People of legal Proceedings No Argument so prevalent with them as a blind Story in a Corner tagg'd with dirty Reflections upon the Government And therefore notwithstanding all these checks the Ring-leaders of the Faction Lye on though we hear little of them till the tenth year of the same Reign Anno Domini 373 when Valentinian publisht a Rescript against their Re-baptising which was renewed by Gratian four years after in the year Three hundred Seventy seven §. V. The next news that we hear of them and it is very strange that we heard it no sooner is That they fall out among themselves divide and subdivide into new Factions and Animosities For upon the death of Parmenian they cannot agree upon a Successor some are for Maximianus and some for Primianus and so both being chosen they divide Communions make Decrees and throw out Anathema's against each other and which is most of all disingenuous stir up the Civil Magistrate to put the
measure of Peace and Unity Insomuch that great numbers of the Circumoellians themselves as St. Austin tells us were reduced Epist. 48. to Sobriety and here it is that he professes that though hitherto he had been an enemy to all Penal Laws in matters of Religion yet now he was quite baffled out of that Opinion not so much by Arguments as Examples and particularly of his own City that though it had been almost swallowed up with the Faction yet it was now so reduced to the Catholick Unity by the fear of these Imperial Laws that in a short time it so universally detested the Schism as if it had never had any footing or entertainment there How many says he that were engaged in the Party by Education and never consider'd upon what grounds they separated from the Church being awakened by these Laws to examine into the Nature of the Schism found nothing of moment enough in it for which they should expose themselves to so great Damages these were without difficulty made Catholicks How many that only followed the Authority of their Guides and understood not the difference between the Church and the Donatists How many that had been abused with Stories and false Reports of the Catholicks how many that thought it indifferent with which Party they sided give God and the Emperor thanks for frighting them out of their sloath and stupidity And that says he is the most proper use of Penal Laws to awaken men to a sight of their Error in which they have been detain'd by meer carelesness or wantonness and in all Schisms an affected Petulancy is ever the strongest Ingredient And so things continued in a quiet posture till the death of Stilicho in the year 408 but upon that the Heathens and Donatists that were all along one Party against the Catholicks raise a Report that the Laws against them were made and contrived Aâ—gust Ep. 129 ad Olimpium Comitem A Courtier whom he informs of the whole Business purely by the design of Stilicho without the Emperors consent and therefore as if their Authority had dyed together with their Author they break out into their old Out-rages against the Catholicks Which coming to the Emperors knowledge he immediately dispaches a Rescript to Curtius the Prefect of Rome De Hareticis leg 43. declaring that it was his Imperial Will that all the Laws against the Donatists Heathens and Hereticks should continue in full force strictly requiring him and all his Officers to put them in effectual Execution And this was followed by another Rescript to Donatus Prefect of Africa who obey'd it with that rigour that St. Austin was forced out of his meer good nature to write to him to spare their lives Ex occasione terribilium Judiâ—um ac legum ne aeterni judicii paenas Epist. 129. incidant corrigi eos cupimus non necari nec disciplinam circa eos negligi volumus nec suppliciis quibus digni sunt exerceri Sic ergo eorum peccata compesce ut sint quos paeniteat peccavisse Quaesumus igitur ut cum Ecclesiae causas audis quamlibet nefariis injuriis appetitam vel afflictam esse cognoveris potestatem occidendi te habere obliviscaris Upon occasion of the dreadful Laws and Executions against them we cannot but desire lest they should fall into everlasting punishment that they may be chastised but not kill'd that Discipline may be exercised upon them but that they may not be punish't with the utmost Justice that they deserve and therefore so correct their sins that they may not be past the State of Repentance And we beseech you that when you hear the causes of the Church though you will find it assaulted and oppressed with intolerable injuries forget then that you have the power of life and death But still the Emperour De bâ—reticis legib 45 46. proceeds with more vigour and the year following injoins the strict Execution of these Laws to his Officers and Judges under severe Penalties to themselves of loss of Place Fines and Banishment with a farther reserve of his displeasure And here he comes so close to the Schismaticks as not only to banish their Preachers but every one that shall but talk or dispute in behalf of the Schism And so by this means things continued quiet once more till the Invasion of the Empire and sacking of Rome by the Goths when Attalus sent an Army against Heraclian the Praefect for the Conquest of Africa and if he had Succeeded in it he had been compleat Master of the Western Empire In this streight either for fear that they should join with the Enemy or because they grew insolent in their demands as they did to Constantine in the time of the Licinian War the Emperor grants them liberty of Conscience for some time But being quit of the danger by the speedy Overthrow of the Goths in Africk he immediately dispatches a Rescript at the Request of the African Fathers who were already highly sensible of the mischiefs of this Liberty to the same Proconsul to reverse De hereticis l. 51. his former Decree that had been extorted from him by the necessity of the times and now probably being afresh incensed by their fawcy behaviour in his affliction makes the Schism it self Capital or to be punished paenâ proscriptionis sanguinis For before this time none were to be put to death but those that had deserved it by their Tumults Disorders and Infurrections but now the very frequenting their Meetings was forbidden under no less Penalty §. VI. But being now resolved to put an end to the trouble that they had given him from the beginning of his Reign he resolved in the first place to try if it were possible to do any good upon them by a friendly Conference which as himself says he did by the perswasion of the African Bishops and it was chiefly devised by St. Austin to undeceive the People For their Leaders still persisted to abuse them with old Tales and Stories notwithstanding that they had been so shamefully exposed an hundred years since but that was beyond the memory and by consequence the knowledge of the People and therefore St. Austin concluded that the most effectual way to reduce them was to let the People know what was done in Constantine's time in the Synods of Rome and Arles and before the Emperour himself at Milan and the shameful discoveries of their Forgeries about Caecilian and Faelix of Aptung by Ingentius the Notary and Nundinarius the Deacon And this he doubted not would make them see through the whole Cheat that had been put upon them from the beginning and forever expose the impudence and dishonesty of their Leaders Quod verò ante centum fermè annos Majores nostri cum iis Donatistis egerant jam populorum memoria non tenebat haec igitur necessitas compulit at saltem Gestis nostrâ Collatione confectis eorum contunderemus inverecundiam
nothing But at the third Meeting Marcellinus keeps them close to the point and after long strugling and much patience with them causes all the Records relating to the whole matter to be read especially concerning the Cause of Caecilian and Faelix of Aptung And here the Donatists were quite undone at the first shock and had no shift to escape only to the Absolution of Caecilian by Melckiades they have the Impudence now to say that Melchiades himself was a Traditor Which as it was a new lye invented at so great a distance of time so was it utterly groundless and without any pretence of Authority then only their own Report and therefore could not pass In short the Schismaticks having nothing to except against the unquestionable Evidence of publick Records but repeating the same Cavils and Calumnies the Verdict is given against them and themselves are brought to subscribe the truth of all the Acts of the Conference as we now have them which otherwise they would afterward have pleaded to be false so that they had now no shifâ— left but their old one to complain of the Partiality of Marcellinus Unless it were to Appeal from the Emperor to whom themselves first appealed to the Scriptures Thus upon this shameful overthrow Primianus a chief Man among them cryes out Illi port ant muliorum Imperaâ—orum Sacras nos sola portamus Evangelid And they were then the two Tribes that continued Loyal to the true Religion whilst the Catholicks by whom they were so much over-voted were the other Ten Tribes that followed Jeroboam into his Idolatry But so it was that things were managed with that clearness of Conviction that though theÌ„ Ring-leaders went on in their old stubbornness yet the greatest part of the People hereby understanding the true merits of the Cause forsook them forever and as St. Austin says great Numbers of the Circumcellians return'd to their Callings and Parish Churches and as for the Number of the more sober People of all States and Conditions that were reduced he says it was so great that it was not to be numbred And to settle the business more effectually St. Austin prevails with Marcellinus to publish the Acts of the Conference the truth whereof was subscribed by both Parties that all the World after that might be satisfied of the foulness and disingenuity of the Schismaticks And then the African Bishops agree among themselves for keeping up the memory of the thing fresh against them to have them publickly read in all Churches on the last Sunday in Lent And because the Acts themselves were too long for the People St. Austin drew up his Breviculum for that use Upon this great overthrow the Emperor resolves to push on the Victory and immediately publisht such a severe Rescript against the Party that soon broke their Obstinacy and vanquisht the Schism strictly commanding them to return to the Catholick Church first under the Penalty of an high Fine according to every mans Estate and Quality Secondly Inflicting the same punishments upon all Persons that should conceal them Thirdly Requiring all diligence in all Officers to discover them Fourthly If notwithstanding they continued stubborn all their Goods were to be seized and sold. Fifthly All Landlords and Masters are to see that their Servants and Tenants conform to the Catholick Church under the same Penalties Sixthly All their Preachers are to be banisht into distant places Clerici vero ministrique corum ac perniciosissimi sacerdotales ablati de Africano solo quod ritu sacrilego polluerunt in exilium viritim ad singulas quasque regiones sub idoneâ prosecutione mittantur And lastly Their Churches and all Profits and Revenues belonging to them are to be delivered up to the Catholicks Here are all the severities that can be inflicted except death it self for though the Emperor had threatned them with that immediately after his Conquest of the Barbarians upon some rude Provocation that they had given him in his distress yet now in his cooler and more deliberate thoughts he resolves to spare their blood but resolves to spare nothing else And what milder course could be taken with such men that out of meer extravagance and wantonness had put off all sense of their natural humanity And so upon this those few that would not be reduced betook themselves to the Fields and the Woods and wandred up and down the Country in Arm'd Troops doing all manner of mischief and violence in all places usually having one of their Teachers for the Captain of each Rout such an one was Macrobius one of their Bishops that St. Austin says roved up and down in his Neighbourhood Stipatus cuneis perditorum utriusque sexûs guarded or followed with Troops of desperate People of both Sexes But it hap'ned that the year following Heraclian the Emperor's Vice-Roy in Africk that had done the good service to Conquer the Goths breaks out into Rebellion and Invades Italy with the greatest Navy that perhaps ever was consisting of 3700 Ships whereas Xerxes his so samed Navy had no more then 1200. But he being surprised and overthrown by Marinus at his first landing and by him pursued into Africk the Donatists inform Marinus at his very first coming that Marcellinus was one of those that had sided with Heraclian in the Rebellion him therefore in his rage or hast or upon some worse account he puts to death among the other Rebels upon which instead of a Triumph for so great a Victory he is immediately commanded home put out of all employment banisht the Emperor's presence and only not put to death because of his late great service Now the design of these wicked Donatists in murthering Marcellinus was not only to be revenged of him for his acting in the Conference but to kill the credit of his Acts because all the Acts of Rebels were by the Roman Law null and void and therefore as the Emperor had already null'd the Acts of Heraclian upon his Rebellion so they hoped that the Acts of Marcellinus who was in the same case should undergo the same Fate But the Emperor on the contrary writes to Julianus his Pro-Consul to lay them carefully up among the publick Records that they might be secure from being ever imbezel'd and not only so but he renews his former severe Law with the addition of some new Penalties and more then that though he had damn'd all the other Acts of Government under Heraclian â—uch was his just fury against these treacherous and bloody Saints that he renews the Rescript of punishing them with death that he had sent in his rage to Heraclian in the year 311 and that is the reason why this Law bears Heraclian's name though it were not publisht till after his death Though it was never put in Execution but the other of banishing the Preachers was vigorously prosecuted and the Emperor sent Dulcitius into Africa with a new Office for that very purpose viz. Of Executor of
surprised and withal confounded with his venerable look cries out so loud of the abuse and force put upon her as made a disturbance in the Court and so the whole business came to light and Stephen is found guilty of the Contrivance and is by the Emperour 's own special Command thrust out of his Bishoprick And this was the first thing that opened his Eyes though they soon closed again for by this says Athanasius he was induced to suspect the like Villanies against my self and the other abufed Bishops and so recalled us all from banifhment Though the Historians say he was compelled to it by his Brother Constans who threatned War upon him at a time when his Affairs were in a low condition and his Empire in danger to be lost to the Persians This might and no doubt did quicken him but the first thing that set his thoughts awork was this discovery if we may believe Athanasius who was in a little time restored to his favour and familiar Conversation and had opportunity to understand his mind For Gregory that was thrust into the See of Alexandria dying within Ten Months after the Sardican Council Athanasius is importun'd by Letter upon Letter from Constantius to come to Court in order to his restitution and it is a great while before he will trust him after the Experience of so many Treacheries but having all the Security that the Word or the Oath of a Prince could give him he at length repairs to Antioch where the Emperor then lay in attendance upon his Persian War and where he is entertain'd by him with mighty kindness and friendship and at last dismist with his own commendatory Letters to Alexandria and assured by the most Sacred and Solemn Promises That for the time to come he will never give Ear to any Tales and Stories against him And at his parting only makes this request that of that vast number of Churches that were under his Jurisdiction he would be pleased to grant one for the use of those who dissented from him Athanasius replies That he is ready to obey all his Majesties Commands only he requests the same favour for the Dissenters at Antioch i. e. the Orthodox who would rather set up a separate Communion then Communicate promiscuously with the Arians as the Eusebians did This request was so reasonable that the Emperor could not deny it but the Eusebians immediately stifle the motion as well knowing that they should loose more by this liberty to the Orthodox at Antioch then they should gain to themselves or their Cause by granting it to the Arians at Alexandria And so the banisht Bishops are restored to to their several Sees and they quietly enjoy them till the unfortunate death of the Emperour Constans who in the year 350 was barbarously murthered by his Rebel slave Magnentius who was the first man pretending to Christianity that ever thought of Rebelling against his Sovereign Prince though it is Evident that he was at best but a counterfeit Christian in that as soon as he had got the Empire he endeavoured the Restitution of Idolatry as appears from the Law of Constantius to abolish the night sacrifices that as Theodoret informs us were made for the dead that were allowed by Magnentius contrary to the Law of Constantine the Great who had taken them quite away And Athanasius affirms that he was much addicted to Magicians and Inchantments and for the same reason is he commended by Libanius in his Funeral Oration upon Julian that though he were an Usurper of anothers Kingdom he was a restorer of the Laws by which the Heathens understood the old Religion that had been supprest by the Christian Emperors But what do we talk of his being an Heathen when he was by the Character that all the Historians of all sides give of him scarce a Brute cruel and bloody in all his Actions sparing nothing in his rage nor scarce out of it inhumane in his very luxury and at last completing all the Villanies of his life in the murder of his Family and perhaps to expiate all the rest in his own But Athanasius having lost his Patron before he recovered Alexandria the Eusebians threaten him afresh so that Constantius himself was forced to write him Letters of encouragement and give him new assurances of security Upon which he goes forward and is in all places received with all the expressions of joy and triumph and in a little time is saluted with Communicatory Letters from above 400 Bishops and his Enemies everywhere fall upon their knees before him and implore his Pardon particularly those two vile wretches Valens and Ursacius confess themselves perjur'd Villains do publick Penance in a Council at Milan and then before the Bishop of Rome and declare to all the World under Hand and Seal that all those foul Accusations that were forged against Athanasius were meer falsehoods of their own contrivance to take away his life but though all this be attested by such clear and inevitable Records yet our faithful Arian Historians are so true to their own Story as wholly to overlook it But this dishonourable submission does but make the Party more outragious and implacable and they resolve that though Athanasius had hitherto escaped all their Snares that they will have his blood at last and therefore they only sit still a little while to hatch new matter for Calumny And that was soon done for whereas the Rebel Magnentius had sent Ambassadours to treat with Constantius or rather if it were possible mediate his Peace two of them were French Bishops with whome Athanasius had contracted acquaintance at the Council of Sardica and now he treats his old friends in their passage at Alexandria that is immediately made High Treason and he is Accused of keeping Correspondence with Magnentius against the Emperour though our Arian Historians are here so subtle too as to take no notice of this passage because the Calumny was afterward so shamefully bafled by Athanasius as we shall see in its due place But however by this and the like devices they once more enrage the Emperour against him though he is forced to dissemble his displeasure till he sees the Event of the War In the mean time Julius Bishop of Rome dyes and Liberius succeeds to whom Letters are sent by the Eusebians in the East to joyn Communion with them against Athanasius and others from Athanasius and the African Bishops to enter into Communion with them against the Easterns Liberius at first being ignorant of his Case denyes Athanasius but at length upon better Information rejects the Easterns and Communicates with the Africans But this was such an affront to their haughty Spirits that they ever after studied and watch't for Revenge against him as diligently as they ever did against Athanasius And Liberius foreseing that they would raise a Storm upon him dispatches away his Legates to the Emperour to Petition for a Council but
before they came the Emperour was little better then mad for though at the Battel with Magnentius he was so far forsaken of all Courage that he had not so much hardness as but to behold the Fight but retired into a Vault with his worthy Confessor Valens Bishop of the place who had the craft to set his Spyes to bring him the first News of the event of the Battel that so he might endear himself to the Emperor by being the Messenger of so good News if things went right But if wrong that then he might save himself in the first place either by flight or by betraying his Master to the Rebel for Men of his Principles can never boggle at any Treachery But so it happened that Magnentius his Army being put to an utter Rout that he had that timely intelligence of it that he had laid by his Spyes Whereas the Emperour and his Eunuchs a sort of Men that were his great Favourites and inseparable Companions not having the courage so much as to look out of their hole could suspect nothing of the Messengers Arrival and therefore Valens to add worship to himself like a Villain as he was pretends that the Message was brought him by an Angel and the poor Emperour in that sad pickle in which he then lay gladly and greedily believed any thing that was for his own case and imputed the Victory more to the merits of that Atheistical wretch then to the Courage of his Army All which Sandius though he carefully P. 94. baulkt the Confession of his reiterated Perjuries sets down with great gravity for a serious truth as if God had miraculously interposed his Power at the Prayers of so great a Villain But the Emperour being so suddainly delivered from the horrour of his own fears by his Information he for his sake grew much more fond of the Eusebian Faction then he had ever been and withal grew to that sottish insolence as to forget his own frailty writing himself my Eternity and concluded that God Almighty approved all his past Actions by blessing him with so much success as to make him Lord of the whole World upon which Lucifer Calaritanus writ his Book of the Apostate Kings of Israel to prove that worldly Proâ—perity was not entailed on the Pious but that the worst of the Race met with as much Prosperity in this World as the good and the religious Upon this new encrease of Insolence the Shops of Calumny as Zosimus expresses it were opened anew and though it had been a L. 2. thriving commodity all his Reign yet now it doubled its Price and the Eusebians by flattering him in the grosness of his folly got the entire management of him So that when he understood that Liberius had denyed Communion with them and entered into League with Athanasius he is all turn'd into rage and notwithstanding all his former Oaths and Promises he sets out an Edict requiring all Christian Bishops to Excommunicate Athanasius †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Solit. p. 829. upon pain of deposition About which time Arrived the Popes Legates and when they came to treat with the Eusebians or Court Bishops they refuse all manner of dispute about the Faith and the only point they stand upon is the Excommunication of Athanasius and by the help of the Emperours threatnings prevailed so far upon them that at length they subscribed his Condemnation Upon which Liberius immediately dispatches away new Legates of whom Lucifer Calaritanus was chief whose zealous temper he might safely trust and they prevail for a Council at Milan but because of the death of Gallus and other incumbrances of the Emperours Affairs it was not summon'd till the year following viz. An. Dom. 355. And when they met Constantius being now resolved to quell the Athanasians carries all things by Force and Violence So that the Legates refused to sit and so did Eusebius of Verselles who was joyned with them but they are commanded into the Council by the Emperour where Eusebius at his first entrance throws down the Nicene Faith upon the Table and tells them that he will comply with all other things if they will but secure that Dyonisius Bishop of Milan takes it up and offers to subscribe but Valens who now with his Companion Ursacius were return'd to their old Trade of open Villany shatches it out of his hand and cryes out that it was none of the business of their meeting This comes to a scuffle and that to a kind of Tumult upon which the Eusebians according to their usual Craft leave the Council and meet at Court where the Emperour in effect takes upon himself the determination of all things commands the Bishops to subscribe the Condemnation of Athanasius banishes as many as refused and when they pleaded in their own behalf against the Credit of the Testimony of Valens and Ursacius that were then and there his only Accusers he replyes what is that to them it is enough that himself was his Accuser and therefore requires it of them at their utmost Peril by this means he gets 30 Subscriptions in all then banishes two of the Legates and whips the third in which worthy Exploit those worthy men Valens and Ursaicus were the chief Actors endeavours to perswade Eusebius of Versetles and Dionysius of Milan to subscribe but they tell him that it is against the Canons to which he replyes †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Solitar p. 831. That his Will shall be the Canon For which rashness they boldly reprove him but he gives them no hearing storms rages draws his Sword swears and curses them into Exile This is the Story as it is told by the Ancients but as Sandius tells it it l. 2. p. 113. was no more then this that Athanasius was Condemn'd by the Unanimous Vote of the Bishops Paulinus only excepted §. XIV Things having been thus violently transacted in Council the Emperour resolves to follow his own will abroad with the same heat and therefore sends his Commissioners into Africk to take subscriptions against Athanasius with express Authority to banish all Abâ—orrers and sends one of his Eunuchs by whom he was chiefly managed and who were the grand instruments of all these mischiefs with bribes and threatnings to Liberius to induce him to a Subscription but he peremptorily refusing is sent for by force and by the discourse that past between them which Theodoret has set down at large we may discover by what tricks and forgeries the Eusebians had all along imposed upon him The first thing is that Athanasius must without any farther process be condemned the Bishop replyes that cannot be done according to Ecclesiastical Discipline and therefore craves a Council To this the Emperour rejoyns that he already stands under Condemnation by the Tyrian Council That was their Post which if they quitted they lost all and therefore when all other devices fail'd it was their last Borough Though
that when the banisht Bishops were restored to the Exercise of their Function by the Decree of the Council he restored them too to the possession of their Bishopricks by his Imperial Rescript The first Synod at Milan was wholly Western and under the Jurisdiction of the Emperour Constans where they had all free liberty both of debating and determining as they pleased So that hitherto all Powers Priviledges and Jurisdictions in the Church were preserved as far as the Emperours were concern'd but after the death of Constans the overthrow of Magnentius and the murther of Gallus when Constantius run mad either through guilt or insolence we read of nothing but Fury and Tyranny For in the year 355 when Gallus was murthered he summons or rather musters a Council at Arles for the Condemnation of Athanasius commands the Bishops to subscribe it and banishes Paulinus of Trevers for refusing the Subscription In the same year meets the second Council at Milan and that for the same purpose in which Eusebius of Verselles Liberius of Rome and at last Hosius of Corduba are sent on the same Errand after Paulinus for the same Offence In the year 357 follows the Council of Sirmium where as we have seen all things were carried by Force Then comes the Council of Ariminum in the year 359 where a Council of near 400 Bishops are compelled to subscribe and submit to the pleasure of Valens and his fifty Men. The Council of Seleucia came to the worst end of all being only a contest between the Eusebians and Acacians who finding themselves over-numbred appeal to the Emperor and are received by him draw up a new Creed in which they not only cashiere the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but as they phrased them all other Exotick words And this indefinite Faith is imposed upon all Christian Bishops by an Imperial Rescript upon pain of banishment by which the Acacians outed the Eusebians and so got themselves into the best and fattest Preferments In the year 360 comes the last Conventicle of Antioch in which Meletius Bishop of Antioch was deposed for asserting the Nicene Creed and that against the Publick Faith of the Emperour given him under Hand and Seal for his Security These were wild actings in the Church but they all followed the Magnentian and Gallian madness and that is the excuse that is made for him by Athanasius himself that after that he was not himself but was entirely govern'd by other Men that as he expresses it had no more brains in their Skuls then in their Toes But before this time of outrage and distraction he kept up that reverence and regard that is due to that Authority that our Blessed Saviour has committed to his Church Nay even after this loosing himself and his understanding by getting the whole World he kept up that respect to our Saviour's Institution as at least to Warrant all his irregular Proceedings by a shew of its Authority For though he endeavour'd to carry all things by force and violence yet he never attempted any thing without a pretended Council This was the Interval of time in which the Ancients complain of his invading the Power of the Church and as it were by these wild Practices thrusting himself into the Evangelical Priest-hood Thus was it in the year 355 immediately after the mad Council at Milan when the Dialogue between the Emperour and Liberius Bishop of Rome pass't in which Liberius insists upon that one Proposal that the Emperour would be pleased to call a free Council and not over-aw it by his own Sovereign Power Let there be an Ecclesiastical Synod Summon'd but not to Court where neither the Emperor himself nor any of his Lords or Judges commands by threatning but where the fear of God alone determines all things And for sticking to this Proposition and refusing to act in an Ecclesiastical Sentence till it was granted he is sent into banishment In the same year and upon the same occasion it was that the wise Hosius gave him that famous advice Tibi Deus Imperium commisit nobis quae sunt Ecclesiae concredidit Et quemadmodum qui tuum Imperium malignis oculis carpit contradicit ordinationi divinae Ita tu cave ne quae sunt Ecclesiae ad te trahens magno crimini obnoxius fias neque enim fas est nobis in terris Imperium tenere neque tu thymiatum sacrorum potestatem habes Imperator God has committed the Empire to you the Church to us and as he would rebel against God that should malign your Authority so take heed left by drawing the Affairs of the Church to your self you prove guilty of the same Rebellion for as it is a sin in us to challenge any temporal Authority so know O Emperor that you have not the power of the holy Function This was plain dealing and but necessary at that time when he had made so foul an inrode upon the Jurisdictions and Liberties of the Church and overborn all its Divine Authority by Military force and sury So that his meaning was not as the Romanists would have it to cut off the Emperor from all interposing in Church Affairs because he that had been so much employed in them under Constantine could not think it unlawful in it self But though that be no fault but a duty yet to use his Authority with meer force and violence to destroy the Judgment of the Governors of the Church by compulsion in matters of Faith and to take upon himself the determination of them as he had in effect done and that in contradiction to the Authority of a General Council was such a bold contempt of our Saviour's Institution and such an Invasion of the rights of his Kingdom that the good Bishop could do no less then threaten it with the Terrors of the last day About the same time St. Hilary address't his Apology in behalf of the Catholicks to the Emperor where among divers other abuses that he Petitions to be redress't this is none of the least Provideat decernat Clementia vestra ut omnes ubique Judices quibus Provinciarum administrationes creditae sunt ad quos sola cura solicitudo publicorum negotiorum pertinere debet à religiosa se observantia abstineant neque posthac praesumant atque usurpent putent se causas cognoscere Clericorum innocentes homines variis afflictationibus minis violentià terroribus frangere atque vexare That was the deplorable State of the Church at that time that the Emperor's Prefects and Officers took upon them a Power of Summoning the Orthodox Clergy to their Tribunals to give an account of their Faith and to banish them if they refused compliance with the Emperor's Will and not only so but to take the Accusations of their Enemies against them and right or wrong and without any regard to Justice or understanding the merit◠of the Cause inflict upon them their own Arbitrary punishments This just