Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A46757
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Historical examination of the authority of general councils shewing the false dealing that hath been used in the publishing of them, and the difference amongst the Papists themselves about their number.
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Jenkin, Robert, 1656-1727.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing J568; ESTC R21313
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80,195
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100
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Oxford so soon after I am yet to learn but it can be no wonder that our Clergy should at that time yield to any thing the Pope desired when the Archbishop of Canterbury had had so fresh an Instance of his Power who had been suspended in this very Council of Lateran and was willing to comply with any thing that might advance his Interest at Rome The Pope openly styled King John his Vassal and had reduced all Christendom to such dependence and obedience that there was not one of those secular Princes and States that gave their attendance at this Council but were some way or other obnoxious to him and stood in awe of him the Croisade left the Popes at liberty to play their own game at home and had gained them more in the East than could ever be gotten by all the Councils that were ever called Henry Brother to Baldwin Earl of Flanders was then possessed of Constantinople with the Title and Honour of Greek Emperour and the four Eastern Patriarchs were all Western Bishops one Frenchman and three Italians who held their Patriarchates of the Pope and were never owned in their respective Titular Sees Upon this account 't is rather strange that any demur should be made to this Pope's Dictates in Council or that this Council should not be every where reverenced as an Oracle than that one Nation which had smarted so much under the Pope's displeasure should acknowledge it in his Successour's days for Honorius the Third was no degenerate Successour to Innocent the Third and our Nation then had learnt to submit to harder terms than these yet sure there must be something in these Decrees very irksome which could not pass the Votes of an Assembly so entirely addicted to the Pope and here is no mention of the Doctrines of the Lateran Council in that of Oxford besides 't is remarkable that Richard Bishop of Sarisbury An. MCCXVII two years after the Council cites it c. 7. yet c. 4. where he gives an Exposition of the Catholick Faith does not follow this Council in putting down Transubstantiation for one Article of it And Sir Roger Twisden f Historical Vindication cap. 8. p. 165. shews that notwithstanding this Council of Oxford the fourth Council of Lateran was not received in England Not to dissemble any thing material in this business Mat. Paris himself g Ad Annum MCCXLVI relates that the Arch-deacon of Saint Albans quotes the twenty first Canon as a Canon of this Council and so Innocent the Fourth calls it but Alexander the Fourth takes not the least notice of this Canon when he reverses Innocent's Decree in favour of the Monks giving them liberty to hear Confessions without the consent of the Parish Priests nor do his Cardinals when he advised with them h Launoii explicat Tradit Eccles circa Canon utriusque sexûs c. 2. upon this occasion in the Instrument which they drew up about that Controversie make mention of any Canon of a General Council in favour of the Parish-Priests But whether it were that it could not be easily believed that so many men should meet together to no purpose or that Innocent's Decrees in the Lateran Council were mistaken for the Decrees of the Council it self or whether Innocent the Fourth having called it a General Council 't was thought no good manners to contradict him however it were in process of time the Canons were owned as genuine and some of them more early than one would expect as may be seen particularly of the twenty first Canon Omnis utriusque sexûs c. Yet after all a late Doctour of the Sorbon with the Approbation of the Faculty i Du Pin Dissert p. 573. has concluded from the foregoing Arguments that no Canons were made by the Council but that some Decrees onely being framed by the Pope and read in Council some of them to the major part seemed burthensome § X. The first Council of Lyons A. D. MCCXLV 1. Launoy k Ep. part 7. ad Raymundum Formentinum p. 228 c. proves against Bellarmin that the first Council of Lyons under Innocent the Fourth was not General because Innocent in his Sentence against Frederick though he often mentions the Council yet never calls it General or Universal or OEcumenical and so in his Epistles to the Arch-bishop of Sens and to the Chapter of that Church to the Bishops of England and to the Bishop of Ostia he never so much as once calls it General which certainly he would have done if he could have ascribed to it so great Authority but he called thither onely the King of France the Arch-bishop of Sens and his Chapter besides the Bishops of England and the Bishop of Ostia The Bishops of Italy Sicily Germany Arragon Castile and Portugal it doth not appear that he ever called For Odoricus Rainaldus in his Continuation of Baronius gives a Register of the Epistles which Innocent wrote upon this account but mentions none sent to any of these Bishops I omit says Launoy the Eastern Bishops Qui profectò vocati non fuere who assuredly were not called He shews that Bellarmin contradicts himself in this matter and goes against his own Principles tacitly retracting in his eighteenth Chapter de Concil lib. 1. what he had said in his fifth of this Council and besides does abuse Palmerius and Platina whose Authority he brings to prove it General whereas neither of them say any such thing And thus says he has Bellarmin run himself into such difficulties as he will never be able to get clear of For if the Conditions required by him to make a Council General be true then is this not General if this be General then are not those Conditions rightly lay'd down nor the business truly stated But as for Palmerius and Platina who are falsly quoted he can never bring himself off unless he pretend negligence which indeed makes the case but so much the worse 2. This Council of Lyons is not in Nicolin's Councils printed at Venice MDLXXXV with the Approbation of Sixtus the Fifth under this Title Conciliorum omnium tam Generalium quà m Provincialium quae jam indè ab Apostolicis temporibus hactenus legitimè celebrata haberi potuerunt Caranza likewise and Sylvius either knew nothing of it or thought it not worth their taking notice of 3. But it is more considerable l Burnet's History of the Rights of Princes c. p. 309. that in the late contest between the Pope and the King of France the Court of Rome contending that the Regale are onely Concessions of the Church which were restrained in the Council of Lyons and that therefore they ought not to be extended to Churches which were not then subject to the French the Arch-bishop of Rheims in an Assembly at Paris of twenty six Bishops and six that were named to Bishopricks being chief of the Committy of six deputed to consider the affair of the Regale and make Report
was afterwards improved into that which all Bishops c. take at their Consecration § IX 1. The fourth Council of Lateran under Innocent the Third An. MCCXV is reckoned the twelfth General Council in order by Bellarmin Possevin c. Cardinal Pole with his Synod at Lambeth owns it for General they frequently mention it and never but under the Title of General though they do not put it in the same rank among the General Councils they profess however to receive and embrace the Faith of the Church of Rome according to the Decrees of the General Council of Lateran under Innocent the Third v Decret 2. The Council of Constance * Session 39. requires all Popes to make profession of the Faith established in the VIII Sacred General Councils whereof this is set down for one and the Council of Trent x Session 24. cap. 5. it self calls this a General Council The Great General Council of Lateran y Session 14. cap. 5. and makes use of its authority again z Session 21. cap. 9. and which is yet more to the purpose a Council of English Bishops held at Oxford a Conc. Tom. 11. Part. 1. A. MCCXXII cap. 24 28 29 33. not above seven years after acknowledge the Authority of this Council of Lateran and several times quote its Decrees In short as this is placed by Bellarmin among those Councils which are received with full approbation beyond all dispute by the Church of Rome so he looks upon it as no less than Heresie to deny the Authority of it and therefore when he has produced the third Canon of this Council in defence of the Deposing Doctrine against Barclay he cries out with great zeal and vehemence Quid hic Barclaius diceret si haec non est Ecclesiae Catholicae vox ubi obsecro eam inveniemus si est ut verissimè est qui eam audire contemnit ut Barclaius fecit annon ut Ethnicus Publicanus nullo mode Christianus pius habendus erit What can Barclay say to this if this be not the voice of the Catholick Church where I pray shall we find it and if it is as questionless it is he that despises to hear it as Barclay has done is he not to be look'd upon as an Heathen-man and a Publican and by no means a Christian or a pious Man This Widrington b Discussio Discuss Part. 1. § 2. p. 28. complains of as intolerably insulting others may rather think he speaks as a Cardinal when he was managing the Popes cause so victoriously from so infallible evidence For such is the authority and esteem in the Church of Rome of this Council that it is usually called The Great Council of Lateran either from the great number of Bishops in it or from the great importance of the matters decided or both The number of Bishops was no less than CCCCXII or in Bellarmin's reckoning CCCCLXXIII and among these were the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem and the Delegates of the other two Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch LXXVII Primates and Metropolitans besides DCCC Abbats and Priors these were all there in person and proxies were sent innumerable The Emperour likewise of Constantinople the King of Sicily Emperour of the Romans Elect the Kings of England France Hungary Jerusalem Cyprus Arragon and other Princes and Cities sent their Embassadours hither so that never was there such a show perhaps in the world again 2. The matters Determined both of Faith and of Discipline were extraordinary and of the greatest importance The Doctrines of Faith defined were Transubstantiation c Cap. 1. the Articles concerning the Holy Trinity asserted and vindicated from the errour of Abbat Joachim and those errours condemned and the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son declared d Cap. 2. The Deposing Doctrine established e Cap. 3. The Church of Rome declared to be the Mother and Mistress of all Christians universorum Christi fidelium and to have by God's appointment the Dominion over all other Churches of ordinary Authority by her extraordinary Prerogative f Cap. 5. 3. The Decrees in points of Discipline are in their kind no less considerable against the Incontinency of the Clergy g Cap. 14. against their Drunkenness h Cap. 15. against the Negligence and Debauchery of Prelates i Cap. 17. that no Clergy-man should give Sentence in Capital Causes k Cap. 18. Auricular Confession enjoyned once every year l Cap. 21. That no Clergy-man should take an Oath of Allegeance to any secular Persons unless he held some temporal Estate of them m Cap. 43. That no Clergy-man should be obliged to pay Taxes n Cap. 46. The manner of proceedings in Excommunications regulated o Cap. 47. The Prohibition of Marriages restrained to the fourth degree p Cap. 50. Clandestine Marriages forbidden and that Children of Parents married within the degrees prohibited declared illegitimate q Cap. 51. Against Simony r Cap. 63. and many other things of like nature which are of the highest consequence and fall under daily practice 4. All this one would think were sufficient to put the Authority of the fourth Council of Lateran beyond all contradiction or debate for who can imagine that a Council celebrated with so much solemnity which decided Controversies of so mighty concernment in the Church and determined things of continual use among all sorts and Orders of Men should not immediately meet with the most entire submission and always retain an undoubted Authority and veneration Thus much would have been due if it had not been infallible but being infallible what regard must every Age and every Nation and every Writer at least every Traditionary Christian pay to it yet this very Council so famous and so renowned in its Members so extraordinary in its Determinations and Decrees lay dormant unregarded and unknown till the year MDXXXVII that is till above CCC years after it was held 'T is very surprising that neither Innocent himself nor his Nephew and next Successour but one Gregory the Ninth who published his Uncle's Decretal Epistles and these very Decrees which now pass for the Decrees of this Council among the rest should put this forth among the other General Councils 't is strange that no other Pope or Bishop or at least some Canonist or other learned man should ever think of it but 't is yet more strange that Merlin in his Councils printed but three years before the fourth Council of Lateran was published should omit this though he sets down the Councils of Constance and Basil But when this Council did come to light with what Credentials did it come what evidence does it bring for its Authority is it printed from some ancient Manuscripts in the Vatican it might then be wondred how it should lie so long concealed never published never quoted nor mentioned but 't is a much greater