c 18 Num. in Edit 6.55 Epistle of Innocent the first to Alexander wherein he declares that the Cyprians are not wise according to the Faith unless they subject themselves to the Patriarch of Antioch it was decreed that what the Patriarch of Antioch attempted was praeter-canonical and therefore the Holy and Universal Synod declares that all Letters brought by him against the Cyprians were void So in the 178 Canon of the Code of the Universal Church d Et Tom. 2. Ephesin Append. 1. cap 4. In the Council of Chalcedon Act. 18. the Legats of Leo the first contradicted the Priviledges of the Constantinopolitan Patriarch but because they were according to the Canon of the fifty Holy Fathers assembled at Constantinople Leo 1. withstanding it was Synodically defined for the Patriarch of Constantinople These out of the Acts of the four general Councils which a Can. sicut Dist 16. Gregory receives as the four Books of the Holy Evangel yea as Cardinal Deus-dedit i. e. God-gave observeth in his Collection of Canons there was an ancient form of the Popes Oath which is yet extant b Can. sicut Dist 16. wherein hee sweareth that he will observe the four Councils to a title out of which the most learned c In Consult Venet Leschasserius wittily infers That the Pope of Rome cannot by right contend that hee is above those Canons of the Councils unless hee arrogate to himself a power above the four Evangels Agreeable to this oath of the Pope is the ancient Profession of d Can. Cont. Statut 5. q. 5. Pope Zozimus The Authority of this See cannot ordain or change any thing against the decrees of the Fathers And e Ibidem Canon sunt quidam Pope Urban Where the Holy Fathers have judicially defined any thing there the Pope of Rome ought not to give a new Law but to the hazard of life and blood confirm rather what is published The f Can. 8. Ephesine Council expresly orders that every single Church of the Provinces should have its rights preserved Hence arise the Appeals ab abusu and exceptions against the new Oecumenical commands So the Gallick Bishops under Ludovicus Pius except formally in these words against certain new Laws That they will obey them unless the Authority of the ancient Canons order otherwise And g Tract de Libert Eccles Leschasserius hath another honest note concerning the Gallick Nation That it was the usual manner of the Gallick Church to profess That shee acknowledged not the Pope of Rome but legitimately and canonically Which is the restriction of the Universal Church as hee there learnedly proveth Hence the African Fathers in a h Cap. 105. Synod under Boniface and Coelestine refuse to obey the commands of those Popes because they found it ordained by no Synod of the Fathers that any such thing should bee done And that I may pass by Hincmarus in i Tom. 10. Anno 878. num 30. Baronius who saith Hee receives the decrees of the Popes approved by Holy Councils and Gerbertus afterward called a Eod. Tom. Anno 992. N. 42. Sylvester the second accepting the decrees of the Apostolical See with this clause so they bee not dissonant from these Canons Illustrious was the testimony of St. Ignatius the Constantinopolitan and so of the whole Church approving his fact even to this day in b Tom. 10. Anno 818. N. 48. Baronius For he passed by with a deaf ear the Pope excommunicating him unless within thirty daies he recalled his Priests out of Bulgaria And Baronius doth not think Ignatius excommunicate for that command not fulfilled because hee defended the right of his Church as hee was bound by oath on the hazard of life eternal Therefore of greater authority is a Canon granting priviledge to the Church of Constantinople than a command of the Pope even Baronius being Judge See the very learned Collections of Vigorius Comment in Reipub. Synodal p. 26 46 22. And because Hincmarus a most constant Defender of the Canons is bitterly taxed by Baronius Dunallius and many more Neotericks I would have the Reader take notice that hee is praised by c Ad An. 109. N. 42. Baronius Tom. 2. as a man very famous for learning and piety Look Cassand lib. De Officio pii viri They which make the Pope of Rome little less than God and exalt his authority not onely above the whole Church but above the Divine Scripture it self and constitute his decree equal to the Divine Oracles yea the infallible Rule of Faith I see no reason why you may not call them Pseudo-Catholicks and Papists b That the withdrawing from the Ecclesiastical Magistracy of the Roman Church is deservedly reputed Schismatical I will confirm by the testimonies of Cassander and the Arch-Bishop of Spalato yet writing in England which may seem to arise rather from the desert of the thing than their blind affection toward the Roman Church Cassander saith thus in Tract De Officio pii viri Very many of them who have assumed their name from the Evangel despise utterly that party which hath retained the ancient name of Catholicks and the Roman Church and fly off from all communion with it nor do they account it a member of the same body but abominate it as the very body of Satan and Antichrist This I know truly and lament and do not see how they that are such can be exempted from the imputation of Schism And hee observeth that Luther himself at first confessed as much yea and afterward when made more fierce by the Popes Bull hee did not deny that the Roman Church wherein the Roman Pontifie swayed was the true Church of Christ although hee proclaimed the Governours of it as the Pope Cardinals c. not Members but Tyrants and Enemies of the Church For be it that the Pope is the Antichrist who Paul teacheth is to sit in the true Temple and true Church of God yet wee must abide in the true Church that the evil Pastour may be cast out of it for by our departure from the Church hee shall not the sooner be put out of doors Beside know That it is one thing to recede from communion with the Pope another from communion with the Church for in case of Heresie declared the Canons perswade and command both to adhere to her Canons and to separate ones-self from every Bishop that teacheth amiss To this purpose may be read the Canons of the Universal Church the third Canon of the Ephesine Council Wee command those Clerks who either have or do disunite by no means to obey their Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor at all in any manner to bee subject unto them And Can. 1. A Metropolitane being an Heretick can do nothing against the Bishops of his Province And Synod Constant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 13. They that separate themselves from communion with their Prelate being condemned for Heresie by the Holy Fathers or Synods
received for Catholick so as the opposite is heretical and they accused of Heresie that defend the same which is delivered as such by the definition of an Oecumenick Council approved by an undoubted Pope But when as b De Locis l. 5. c. 4. Conclus 3. Canus c Lib. 4. De Rom. Pontif. cap. 2. Bellarmine c. do every where confess But when as the d Sess 4. 5. Council of Constance approved by the * Sess 16. Bull of Martin 5. and e Sess 2. that of Basil confirmed for legitimate by the Bull of Eugenius determine the Pope to be under an Oecumenick Council it is at least probable that the opposite to it is Heresie Chronicon Chronicorum the work of a learned nameless Writer in the time of Eugenius the fourth and one that favoured him writes That Eugenius by Apostolick Letters approved their decrees So likewise Platina in Eugenius and it is a matter very well known to him that reads the Bulls The University of Paris in an appeal against Leo the tenth saith That the condemnation of the Council of Basil is against the Catholick Faith f T. 2. Comment de Gest Concil Basil 9. Aeneas Sylvius reports That an Almoner to the King of Arragon a Bishop of Eureux an Abbot of Virgiliac and a Bishop of Lubec when they perceived their hour of death to approach having called many grave men to them in the very presence of Christs body which they were presently to receive and before whose Tribunal within few hours to appear spake thus All you who are present pray yee God that hee would convert them who acknowledge Gabriel for the Holy Pope because in that state they cannot be saved professing in their own behalf That they died in the Faith of the Council of Basil Lewis Cardinal of Arles a man famous for learning and miracles calls Eugenius a Devastatour of the Church and those that adhere to him men departing from the truth of the Faith And on the contrary hee saith Those that adhere to the Council of Basil will not refuse to dye for the truth of the Faith and traditions of the Holy Fathers Aeneas Sylvius in the same place calls the Anti-Synodal sentence The Eugenian Heresie The Council of Pisa among these in Bochellus calls Cajetans little Book concerning the Authority of the Pope because it is against the Councils of Constance Basil and Pisa and against John Gerson the best defender of the Church suspected and full of injuries and Cajetan for it is termed a bold and dangerous man And the most learned man Vigorius witnesseth That in the Pragmatical Sanction of Charls the seventh the Decrees of the Council of Basil were received with the consent of all the Orders of France the Gallican Church and Universities Moreover Pius the second in Bulla retract witnesseth That honour is given to the Council of Basil by men almost of all Nations so that Vigorius truly related in the cited place That it was pronounced by the best Lawyers whom hee quotes an arrogant and sacrilegious thing to demur at the things approved by the Council of D Constance or the Conciliary authority it self See the Speech of St. Robert of Lincoln in Westminster Matth. Paris 1253. Polychronicon Fabian and Harpsfield who thinks it would be the greatest sort of pertinacy in the holy Pontifies to compel men by censures and excommunications to embrace those things which are bad and which fight against faith and good manners But the Bull in Coena forbidding appeals to General Councils under pain of excommunication doth in effect forbid them to be above the Pope for as the Lawyers teach It were open iniquity and against the Law of Nature to prohibit an appeal unto him who is acknowledged to be Superiour Hee therefore that will seem holily to take away Appeals to Councils by censures potentially takes away their Supremacy and highest power over the Popes These are the words of Westminster relating to the year 1254. under Henry the third Hee grievously reproves as well the Friars Preachers as the Minours saying That therefore their order is constituted in voluntary poverty that they might more freely rebuke great ones for their errour But in that they do not reprehend the sins of great persons hee said They were manifest Hereticks and added Heresie is an opinion chosen by humane sense contrary to Holy Scripture openly taught obstinately defended But to give cure of souls to a little childe is the opinion of a certain Prelate chosen by humane sense for carnal reason or through rashness and it is contrary to Holy Scripture which prohibits Pastours to be made who are not meet to drive away the Wolves And it is openly taught because it is manifestly carried in sealed or embossed Paper Chartâ sigillatâ vel bullata And it is obstinately defended because if any one would contradict it and doth not contradict it hee sinneth and seems to be a favourer of errour according to that of Gregory Hee wants not a scruple of close co-partnership who ceaseth to oppose a manifest wickedness These things hee spake upon occasion of the Popes Letters appointing to have somewhat done which seemed unjust for a Bishop of the Church and dissonant from reason The Judgement of Westminster concerning St. Robert is of this sort This Robert having a good zeal unto the Lord and his neighbour although hee vexed much his Canonicks and darted lightning terribly against the Religious of both Sexes yet I confidently averre That his vertues have pleased God more than his excesses have displeased him which now is manifest by the miracles shining forth at his tomb And that although our Lord the Pope being very much moved at deeds and words of that sort determined to precipitate him into confusion that hee might become an astonishment and an Example of trembling to the whole world yet at length being mollified by better counsel permitted him to passe away without taking any notice of it lest he might seem to raise a greater tumult hereupon Thus hee See the Authors before cited I think I shall do what will bee acceptable to such as are studious of Antiquity if I here briefly transcribe out of my Tractate some few things by which it may appear that the Britains and Scots whom wee call Irish before the coming of Augustin into England were Catholicks and enjoyed the same Priviledges in the Western Church as wherewith the Cyprians were honoured in the Eastern Gildas the Wise writeth That Britain almost from the age of the Apostles had Bishops who communicated with the rest of the world in a Pacificis formatis Pacifique and formed letters even from the beginning of the Gospel Tertullian in his Book against the Jews Num. 43. of Pamelius's Edition after hee hath reckoned up all the Catholick Churches throughout the world adds And the Britains holds inaccessible to the Romans are subdued to the yoak of Christ And Pamelius upon the said place out
of Bede and Polydore Virgil confesseth That Britain had publickly received the whole Evangile not onely in the time of Marcus Antoninus Verus under King Lucius but asserts also out of b Lib. de excid Britan. Gildas from the beginning of the Gospel Out of Polydore Virgil That the Britains had received the Religion of Christ from Blessed Joseph of Arimathea See thereupon c In Desens Hist Britan. Bilsius and d In 6. primi secul cap 1. Harpsfield With Gildas not onely Tertullian giveth suffrage but also e Hom. 4. in Ezechiel Origen yea and f In secunda Apol. contra Arian St. Athanasius glorieth That Bishops passed out of Britain to the Council of Sardis wherein Athanasius's absolution was obtained And in his Epistle to Jovinian then Emperour which is extant in g Cap. 42. Nicephorus Calixtus's tenth Book of Ecclesiastical History he proves that hee communicates with the Catholicks diffused through the world and among others with the Spanish Britannick and Gallick Churches which hee saith by common consent receive the Catholick Faith of Athanasius Hierom in his 85th Epistle Both Gaule and Britain adore one Christ observe one Rule of Truth The same thing teacheth a In Orat. contr Gent. Chrysostome And that Catholick Bishops came from Britain to the Council of Ariminum is manifest out of Severus Sulpitius Theodoret b In Chron. Hierome Ruffinus Socrates Zozomen c In 15. Primi seculi cited by Harpsfield That the Britannick Church kept this Communion and unity of Rule with the Gallicane to the coming of St. Augustin into England and afterward I have proved in a large Tractate concerning the Primacy of Councils and it appears out of the first book of the History of the English Nation d Cap. 20. Hist 6 prim sec Harpsfield and other English Writers That the Gallick Church sent into Britain St. German and Lupus before the coming of Augustin into England to succour the Britannick Church And e Lib. 3. cap. 7. Bede relates That Aegilbert a Gallick Bishop resided no small time in Ireland being imployed in reading upon the Scripture Moreover it appears out of f Hist lib. 4. Bede g Hist 7. Seculi cap. 36. Harpsfield Surius and others That Hilda the Nunne of Calice was sent into England by St. Aidan and had communicated with the Britannick Church But on the other side presently when as she lived in the Monastery at Calice That St. Malo Brendan Samson Polensis about the year 550. communicated with the Gallick and Aremorick Churches moreover with the Britannick and Irish as appears out of h C. 26.27 Hist Harpsfield among other things Argentraus and such like Writers And that St. Turseus did the same Ceadde Fislan Vetan Eustathius Disciple of St. Columban Disigod Fridegund Cedwall King Oswald Wigbert Fiakre Willebrod Columban who communicated with both Church the Britannick and Gallick The Britannick Church therefore in the time of St. Augustin the Apostle as they call him of England was Catholick and consequently the Scotick or Irish for it is evident out of a L. 2. c. 4. Hist Bede That the Irish whom they call'd Scots lead the like course of life and profession and afterward The Scots differed nothing in conversion from the Britains Now it appears out of b L. 1. Hist c. 7. Bede in the place last cited and otherwise as also c Hist l. 3. Henry of Huntington That neither Britains nor Scots would communicate with the English and their Bishop Augustin more than with Pagans as Huntington speaks and the reason was because Augustin seemed to deal with them uncanonically by constraining them to receive him for their Arch-Bishop and to submit themselves to the mandates of Foreigners when as the ancient manners of their Church required that they should act all things Synodically among themselves as in their Ordinations of Bishops so in other affairs of the Church their words out of d L. 2. Eccles Hist c. 2. Bede are Because they cannot without the consent and license of their Clergy so assembled renounce their ancient manners when as this appears to be against the sixth Nicene Canon which commands ancient manners to be kept and the eighth of the Ephesine Council which will not have the rights of Churches taken away and if they be taken away even by what Patriarch soever his fact is declared void and command is given him that hee restore the Province which hee hath made his own In the mean time what are the manners of the Britannick Church appears out of c L. 3. c. 3. Bede St. Oswald the King an observer of the Scotick and Britannick communion desiring to have a Bishop by whose learning and Ministry hee might be ruled the English Nation sent unto the Ancients of the Scots they begin to hold a great Treaty in Council what should bee done They decree Aidan worthy of the Episcopate and so ordaining him send him to preach Which custome continued a long time in Ireland as appears out of Sylvester Girald and the Topographie of Ireland a Dist 3. c. â—7 In Ireland the Bishops only consecrated one another to the time of Eugenius the 3d. wherein Papirio was sent Legate to constitute Arch-Bishops there And both in b Lib. 3. Huntington and c L. 2. Hist Bede it is manifest that the Scots and Britains act all their businesses by common consent As evident it is out of Baronius at the year 1089. In the end of that year Lanfrank Arch-Bishop of Canterbury relates in an Epistle to Serdalnac King of Ireland That the customes of the Kingdome were that Bishops might be consecrated by one Bishop Yea that the Britannick Churches were Catholick in the Judgement of Augustin himself with whom they would not communicate appears out of d L. 2. Hist c. 2. Bede for Augustin offers the Bishops of Britain his communion if they would conform themselves to the Roman Church in the ceremonies of Baptism and observation of Easter which shew that the Britains agree with Augustin in matters of Faith About this by the way mark a lapse of Bede for in his Book concerning the sixth Age Anno Mundi 4585. hee writes That the Scots were Quartodecimans and yet e L. 3. c. 4. Bede saith That they celebrated Easter on the Lords day on which it is manifest Anatolius Patriarch of Constantinople celebrated it who is asserted to have delivered to them his use The ancient manners of Britain were abrogated more by the force and power of the English Saxons then Synodical consent which those most holy men Colman and his fellows seeing had rather desert their Bishop and Monasteries than their ancient manners of living as a L. 3. cap. 16. Bede relates Since these things had been so the three States of England willing to retrive the ancient Rites of the Kingdome taken away more by force and power than by Canon by concession of the