contention he made an Oath to ask the Pope forgiveness if the Pope would come into Germany The Pope on his way fearing that the Emperor coming toward him with an Army would apprehend him turned back again and betook him to a strong City of his Patroness one Mathildis a woman The Emperor with his Army travelled to him and came to the Gates of the City and in a great and sharp winter frost putting off his Royal Ornaments came barefoot to confess his fault and ask forgiveness of the Pope The Pope would not suffer him to come in He patiently stayed three daies in the Suburbs continually begging pardon and the Citizens moved with Compassion At last the woman Mathildis and Adelai a Savoy Earl and the Abbot of Cluny became petitioners for him and prevailed for mercy with the Pope and he was absolved and reconciled to the Church having sworn a peace and promised Obedience I give you the words of Platina all along And now whether Hildebrand or Henry was the better man in common morals I that knew them not must refer you to the Historians of that age of whom some extol the Pope and depreciate the Emperor and others honour the Emperor and deeply accuse the Pope But if an Emperor that travelled so far inâ—o another Country and put off his ornaments and with his Army waited three daies patiently in the Suburbs of a womans City barefoot in a great frost begging mercy and pardon of a Priest before he could be let in and after this sware obedience to him I say If this Prince did not yet sufficiently submit but deserve to be turned out of his Empire though at the cost of blood and desolation to the innocent Countries it will be hard to know when the Obedience and Submission of Kings is enough to satisfie an ambitious Prelate But the Popes Historians say that the Emperor brake his Covenant It is a hard thing for a King that promiseth Subjection and Obedience to a Pope to be sure to keep his word unless he foreknew what would be commanded him when he hath taken away his Power and Kingdom by parts he may command his life It 's a great doubt to me when God hath made Princes the Rulers of Prelates and Procurators of his Church whether it be not a sin against God and their undertaken office for these Princes to cast off this trust and work because a Pope or Prelate claimeth it The Pope still charged him with sacriledge But I doubt he expounded his meaning when he deposed him for diminishing the Majesty of the Church that is of the Pope and Prelates To proceed in the History In the 3d. or 4th battle it was that Rodulph was slain and It was the Popes denial to disown or excommunicate Rodulph after so low a submission of the Emperor that enraged Henry and made him think of another remedy than to be a Prelates slave The Pope called all the Bishops that cleaved to the Emperor seditious He condemneth Roland the German Legate and sendeth into Germany Legates of his own with a Mandamus We command that no King Arch-Bishop Bishop Duke Earl Marquess or Knight dare resist our Legates c. And the Penalty to the disobedient is terrible viz. We accurse him from Christ and take from him his part of Victory by Arms. Sure if Popes had the power of Victory they need not so oft have fled to Castles nor to have rid on an Ass with the face backward nor to have suffered what many of them have done All this he doth Interpositâ Dei et B. Petri authoritate quâ nulla potest esse major Did Peter ever think that his name would have thus subdued Emperors and Kings The Pope again in a prayer to God and St. Peter reciteth the 2d Psalm and telleth them how the Emperor would cast off his yoke and again curseth him from Christ and deposeth him from all his Government and absolveth all his Subjects from the Oath of Obedience saying that he that may bind and loose in Heaven hath power to take away on Earth both Empires Kingdoms and Principalities and whatever men have to give or take away If we Iudge the ruling Angels how much more their Servants Therefore saith he to the Bishops Let Kings and all secular Princes understand by the example of this man how great your power is in Heaven and how much God esteemeth you and let them fear hereafter to break the commands of the Church Pass this sentence presently on Henry that all may understand that this Son of iniquity fell not from his Kingdom by Chance but by your endeavor Plat. p. 180. Rodulph being killed the Rebels set up the Emperors Son a Lad against his own Father But at that present he was quieted and the Emperor went with an Army into Italy and first Conquered the Army of Mathildis the Popes Patroness and brought his own Pope Clement the 3d. to the Chair and was crowned by him He besieged Gregory in the Castle Guiscard a Norman cometh with an Army to fight for the Pope The Citizens resist him the Emperor being drawn out to Sens. Guiscard burnt and destroyed that part of the City which is between the Laterane and the Capitol and took the Capitol and destroyed it He gave the prey of the City to his Souldiers and delivered Gregory and carried him away to Câ—ssinum and Salernum where he dyed having reigned 12 years Bin. saith that Henry besieged Rome three years before he took it When Robert Guiscard had delivered the Pope he deposed quantum in se all the new Cardinals made by Clement 3. and cursed the Emperor again Gregory himself saith that Italian French and German Bishops were for the Emperor and they were also for Clement 3. How shall we know then which was the true Pope § 44. No less than ten Books of Hildebrand's Epistles are added by Binnius to his life Most of them for the Papal Interest In lib. 2. Ep. 5. He talketh of Philip King of France as he did of the Emperor saying he was no King but a Tyrant and declaring that he was resolved to take his Kingdom from him if he did not amend his wicked life One of his crimes was resisting the Pope that would set Bishops in his Kingdom without his consent Epist. 13. He tells Solomon King of Hungary that his Kingdom is the propriety of the Church of Rome devoted to it by King Stephen and reproveth him for diminishing the Roman Kingdom by accepting Hungary as from the Germans and exhorts him to repent and amend Epist. 18. He again threatneth the King of France to cut off from the Church both him and all that give him any Regal Honour or Obedience O heinous crime to keep the 5th Commandment and Rom. 13. 1 2 3. And that this excommunication shall be oft confirmed upon St. Peter's Altar Epist. 28. He suspends quantum in se the Arch-Bishop of Breme as an Enemy to the
Marriage with Waldrada The two great Archbishops of Colen and Triers are the Leaders The Pope is against it and accuseth the Bishops of owning Adultery They appear at Rome and he condemneth them of Impudency while with some immodest words they undertake to justifie the thing of which more anon He chargeth the Bishops of heinous Villany and they despised him He condemneth the Concilium Metense in which the Adultery was allowed § 20. This Pope falls out with Hincmarus Bishop of Rhemes justifying against him the cause of Rothaldus whom he had deposed He sends Messengers to the King of Bulgaria converted in his days whom the Emperor's Officers stop and abuse The Adversaries of Images were still strong at Constantinople Anast. Bin. p. 670 c. Epist. 2. He useth a notable Argument for Images viz. God is known only in the Image of his Works Why then may we not make Images of the Saints But why must Men be compelled to do it or else be Hereticks and why must they be worshipped Epist. 5. He is pitifully put to it to justifie the Election of Nectarius and Ambrose and yet to condemn that of Photius for being a Lay-man And Ep. 6 the same again in the instance also of Tarasius § 21. The 8th Epistle of this Pope Nicolas to the Emperor Michael doth shew that he had now shaken off the Imperial Power and therefore chargeth his Letters as full of Blasphemy Injury Madness c. partly for being so sawcy as to bid the Pope Send some to him which he saith was far from the godly Emperors Partly for blaming the deeds of the Prelates when he saith Their words must be regarded and their authority and not their deeds Partly for calling the Latine Tongue barbarous and Scythian in comparison of the Greek which he saith is to reproach God that made it Partly for saying that the Council that deposed Ignatius and set up Photius was of the same number of Bishops as the first Council of Nice where this high Pope's answer is worth the notice of our Papists Bin. p. 689. The small number hurteth not where Piety aboundeth Nor doth multitude profit where Impiety reigneth Yea by how much the more numerous is the Congregation of the malignant by so much the stronger are they to do mischief Nor must men glory in numbers when they fight not against the Rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness Glory not therefore in multitude because it is not the multitude but the cause that justifieth or damneth Fear not little Flocks c. This Doctrine was then fittest for the Pope in his Minority But the Letter is a Book pleading for the Roman Grandure and striving to bring the Emperor with others under his power § 22. In his Answer and Laws to the Bulgarians he difliketh their Severities against one that had pretended to be a Priest when he was not and had baptized many concluding that he had saved many and that they were not to be re-baptized Bin. p. 772. No not though he were no Christian that baptized them as after Consul Cap. 104. p. 782. To the Case Who are Patriarchs he saith properly they only that have succeeded Apostles which were only three Rome Alexandria and Antioch but improperly only Constantinople and Ierusalem But why then are not Ephesus Corinth Philippi c. Patriarchates And why had the rest of the Apostles no Successors Had they no Churches § 23. This Pope having Western security threatned Excommunication to the Emperor of the East unless he would depose Photius and restore Ignatius and threatned Lotharius for the cause of his rejected Wife and the Marriage of another as aforesaid and swaggered against Hincmarus Rhemensis for his deposing Rothaldus a Bishop and forced him to yield and condemned his Synod at Metz and would have proved that Pope Benedict had not confirmed it He and other Popes did make the Contentions of Bishops as well as of Princes a great means of their rising taking the part of him that appealed to Rome as injured and very oft of the truly injured By which means they had one Party still for them and all injured persons were ready to flie to them for help He Excommunicated the Bishops of Colen and Triers The poor Bishops that would fain be on the stronger side began now to be at a loss to know whether the Emperor or the Pope was the strongest They followed the Emperor and resisted the Pope a while The King and Hincmarus forbad Rothaldus going to Rome and imprisoned him But the Pope wearied them out by reason of the divisions of the Empire and Kingdom into so many hands of the French Line that being in continual suspicion of each other they needed the Pope's help Bin. p. 790. He ordereth Pennance instead of just death for one Cumarus that had murdered three of his own Sons viz. That for three years he pray at the Church-door and that for seven years he abstain from Wine three days in a week and for three years to go without shoes allowing him to eat Milk and Cheese but not Flesh and to enjoy his Possession but not have the Sacrament for seven years § 24. His Decretals begin That the Emperor's Iudgments and Laws are below the Canons and cannot dissolve them or prejudice them Tit. 4. 1. He saith All Patriarchal Dignity all Metropolitical Primacy all Bishops Chairs and the dignity of Churches of what Order soever were instituted by the Church of Rome But it 's he only did found it and erect it on the Rock of Faith now beginning who to St. Peter the Key-bearer of eternal life did commit the Rights both of the Terrene and the Celestial Empire Reader Had not the abuse of Humane Patriarchal Power and of Excommunications got up very high when this bold Pope made this Decree What! All Churches in the World made only by Rome Was not Ierusalem Antioch and many another made before it Did Christ say any thing of Rome Did not other Apostles build Churches by the same Apostolick Commission as Peter had Is not the Church built on the foundation of Prophets and Apostles Christ being the Head-corner Stone Did not others build the Church of Rome before Peter did it Did not Peter build other Churches before Rome Where and when did Christ give Peter the Imperial Power of Earth and Heaven did he not decide the Controversie who should be the chief or greatest with a prohibition of all Imperial Power With you it shall not be so § 25. But the next Dectee casteth Rome as low as this over-raised it If any one by Money or Humane-Favor or by Popular or Military Tumult be inthroned in the Apostolick Seats without the Concordant and Canonical Election of the Cardinals of that Church and then of the following Religious Clerks let him not be accounted a Pope or Apostolical but Apostatical By which Rome hath had so few Popes indeed and so many
so much as his Beard in his own power in which nature hath given him a propriety How much more might the Pope then command all mens purses 4. May way we not see here on what weighty reasons these men condemn God's word of insufficiency and plead for traditions and a necessity of their additional Laws When Scripture hath left out the shaving of mens Beards and we had never had such a Law if such power as the Papal had not made it O what discord and disorder would there be in the Church if we had not so necessary a government and what confusion would toleration introduce if mens Beards were left at liberty But if Paul called the heathen Phylosophy Vain and Science falsly so named 1 Tim. 6. 20. as befooling the world with pedantick trifling and calling them off from their great concernes may we not say then that this is vain Government and Order falsly so named which thus calleth the Church from its primitive purity simplicity and unity when Christians were known by loving one another to these childish games that the Prelates and Priests of the Catholick Church must be known by their being without Beards One would suspect this had its original from Pope Ioane if there were indeed such a person and that it is a Symbol of the Churches sex as it is called Our Mother or at least that Marozia or Theodora instituted it 5. And do you know which were the more inexcusable for silencing and persecuting the preachers of the Gospel The Iews that did it because they thought it took down Gods Law and would bring the Roman Power on them Or the Roman heathens that thought the Gospel destroyed the worship of their forefathers Gods or the Roman Papists that silenced and persecuted men for wearing Beards 1 Thes. 2. 16. § 56. Epist. 11. When some French Preachers had revived Religion in Sweden the Pope desirous to reap where they had sowed sends to the King of Sweden to tell him his joy and that what the French taught them they recieved from Rome and to desire him to send one of his Bishops to Rome to acquaint him with their customs and to receive his Laws and Mandates You see by what means Rome was raised Epist. 15. A Bishop gave up his Bishoprick The Pope chides him and commands him to a Monastery Rather than do so he returneth to his seat again The Pope chargeth him with the Idololatriae scelus the Crime of Idolatry for not obeying him and writes to them not to recieve him or be ruled by him as ever they loved the Grace of God and St. Peter The like he doth Epist. 16. by the disobedient Bishop of Narbon and Epist. 17. by the disobedient Arch Bishop of Rhemes and Epist. 18. 19 20. of the same and all this in St. Peter's name Yea Epist. 20. he requireth the King of France Philip to joyn against the Arch-bishop of Rhemes as excommunicate as ever he would have St. Peter's Grace because his Kingdom and his Soul were in St. Peter's power And it is no wonder that they that believe that the Pope is St. Peter's Vicar and Secretary and that their souls are in his power will give him all their Lands or Kingdoms to save their souls § 57. When the Pope sentenced the Emperor Henry to be excommunicate and deposed and was charged to have done this without authority he wrote his 21 Epist. l. 8. to the Bishop of Metz to prove that he had power to do it and to absolve his Subjects from their Oaths of fidelity saying that the Scriptures were full of certain documents to prove it And his certain documents are Tibi dabo Claves c. and Feed my Sheep And Kings are not excepted They are St. Peter ' s Sheep Bin. p. 1262. he saith that the Head of Priests is at the right hand of God but who knoweth not that Kings and Dukes had their beginning from them that knew not God and affected by blind lust and intolerable presumption to domineer over others the Devil the Prince of the world acting them in Pride Rapines Perfidiousness Murders and all wickedness who while they would have the Priests of the LORD to stoop to their footsteps are rightlyest compared to him who is head of all the Sons of pride who said even to Christ All this will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Who doubteth but that the Priests of Christ are the Fathers and Masters of Kings and Princes and of all the faithful And is it not notorious miserable madness for a Scholar to endeavour to subjugate his Master and a Son his Father and by wrongful obligations to subject him to his power by whom he believeth that he may be bound or loosed both in Earth and Heaven Did not Pope Innocent excommunicate Arcadius the Emperor and Pope Zachary depose from his Kingdom the King of France not so much for his iniquities as because he was not meet for so great power placed Pepin in his stead and absolved all the French from the Oath of fidelity Ambrose sheweth that Gold is not so much more pretious than Lead as the Priestly Dignity is higher than the Kingly Power Pag. 1263. Yea even the exorcists have power over Devils How much more over those that are Subject to the Devils and are his members And if the exorcist excel so much how much more the Priests And every King when he cometh to his end doth humbly and pitifully beg the Priests help that he may scape the prison of Hell and Darkness and at the judgment of God be found absolved But is there either Priest or Lay-man that when he is dying begs help of the King for the saving of his soul What King or Emperor can by his Office take a soul by baptism from the power of the Devil and number him with the Sons of God and fortifie him with holy Chrism And which is the greatest thing in the Christian Religion can with his own mouth make Christs body and blood Or which of them can bind and loose in Heaven and earth By all which it may be plainly gathered by how great power the sacerdot al dignity excelleth Which of them can ordain one Clerk in the holy Church How much less can they depose him for any fault For in orders exclesiastical to depose is an act of greater power than to ordain For Bishops may ordain Bishops but in no wise depose them without the authority of the Apostolick seat Who then that hath any knowledg can doubt but that Priests are preferred before Kings In a word we must know that all good Christians are more fitly Kings than evil Princes For these by seeking the Glory of God do strenuously rule themselves But the other seeking their own and being enemies to themselves do tyrannically oppress others These good Christians are the body of Christ. The other bad Princes are the body of the Devil These so rule themselves as that they shall
and here also had too much success X. And it must be remembred that God hath made use of many proud and turbulent men to propogate and defend the truth of the Gospel And their Gifts have served for the good of the sincere As the husk or chaff and straw is useful to the Corn so many worldly Prelates and Priests have been learned Expositors and useful Preachers and taught others the way to life which they would not go in themselves Besides that their very Papal power and grandure which hath corrupted the Church hath yet been a check to some that would have assaulted it by force and as a hedge of thornes about it Worldly interest engageth Pope Patriarchs and Prelates to stand up for the Christian Religion because they gain by it as Leo the 10th is said to have odiously confessed § 42. And the old Fathers till Constantines time did most of them think that the last thousand years would be a time of fuller glory to the Church as many yet think though I confess my self unskilful in the Prophesies But I make no doubt but though this earth be so far deâ—erted by God the Glorious Kingdom which we shall shortly see with the new Heaven and Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness will fully confute all our present temptations to think hardly of God or the Redeemer because of the present corruptions and dissentions of this lower world § 43. We may conjecture at former times by our own We see now that among the most Reformed Churches too often the most worldly part are uppermost and perhaps are the persecuters of the rest and though they may be the smaller part it 's they that make the noise are the noted part that carry the name and that Histories write of A few men got into places of power seem to be all the Church or Nation by the prevalency of their actions which few dare contradict They may give Laws They may have the power of Press and Pulpit so that nothing shall be published but what they will They may call themselves the Church and call all that obey them not Schismaticks and Sectaries and strangers may believe therefore that it is but some few inconsiderable fellows that are against them when yet the far greatest part may utterly dissent and abhor their pride I have lived to see such an Assembly of Ministers where three or four leading men were so prevalent as to form a Confession of Faith in the name of the whole party which had that in it which particular members did disown And when about a controverted Article One man hath charged me deeply for questioning the words of the Church others that were at the forming of that Article have laid it all on that same man as by his impetuousness putting in that Article the rest being loth to strive much against him and so it was he himself that was the Church whose authority he so much urged at least the effectual signifying part We cannot judge what is commonest by what is uppermost or in greatest power In divers Parishes now where the Minister is conformable perhaps ten parts of the people do dislike it and sometimes you may see but three or four persons with him at the Common-prayers And yet all know that Dissenters are talkt of as a few singular Fanaticks I compare not the Causes but conclude that so also for the Numbers humble Godly persons might be very numerous though only the actions of worldly Prelates do take up most of the History of the Church Yea I believe that among the Papists themselves five to one of the people were they free from danger would declare their dislike of a great part of the actions and Doctrines of their Prelates and that the greatest part that are named Papists are not such throughly and at the heart When the Rulers Scribes and Pharisees were against Christ and persecuted him and the truth the common people so much adhered to him that the persecutors durst not seize on him openly by force but were fain to use a Traytor to apprehend him in the night and in a solitary place lest they should be stoned by the people who said Never man spake as this man speaketh § 44. Let us not therefore turn Church-History into a temptation nor think basely of the Church or Christianity or Christ because of Papal and Prelatical pride and tyranny God can make use of a surly porter to keep his doors yea a mastiff-dog may be a keeper of the house and his Corn hath grown in every Age not only with straw and chaffe but with some tares And yet he hath gathered and will gather all his chosen § 45. Nor is the Ministry it self to be therefore dishonoured For as at this day while a few turbulent Prelates persecute good men and much of the Ministry is in too many Countries lamentably corrupted yet is Religion piety and honesty kept up by the Ministry and never was well kept up without it For the Faithful Ministers labour still and their very sufferings further the Gospel and what they may not do publickly they do privately Yea their very Writings shew that still there are such as God doth qualifie to do his work even among the Papists he that readeth the pious Writings of such men as Gerson and Gerhardus Zutphaniensis and Thaulerus Thomas a Kempis Ferus and many such others will see that Gods spirit was still illuminating and sanctifying souls And he that readeth such Lives as Philip Nerius persecuted by the Bishop as an ambitious Hypocrite for setting up more serious Exercises of Religion than had been ordinarily used among the Formalists to say nothing of such privater men as M. de Renâ—y and many others will see that it is not all Church-tyranny and corruption though very heinous that will prove that Christ hath not a Holy Generation whom he will save § 46. Yea among the very corrupted sort of the Clergy many that are overcome with temptations in that point and take usurpation and tyranny and worldly pomp and violence for Order Government and the interest of the Church have yet much good in other respects Even among the Cardinals there have been such men as Nerius's companion Bellarmine and others that would Preach and practise the common Doctrines of serious piety Yea among the Jesuits there have been divers that have Preacht Written and lived very strictly much more among their Fryars and such Bishops as Sales And though their times and corruptions blemished their piety I dare not think they nullified it § 47. And it sheweth the excellency of the Sacred Office 1. That Christ did first make it as the noble Organical part of his Church to form the rest 2. That he endued the first Officers with the most noble and excellent gifts of his spirit 3. That he founded and built his Church by them at first 4. Yea that he himself preached the Gospel and is called The Minister of the Circumcision the chief
Lover of Truth he used to do such things as these which are familiar with men of exquisite honesty who through their excellent study of Godliness use this great liberty of Speech Therefore when he saw things ill carried in the Churches he sometimes spake his thoughts and could not forbear blaming them As if he saw any of the Clergy over covetous of Money be it Bishop or Priest he would reprehend them or if any abounded in luxury and pleasures or if they corrupted any part of the Doctrine or Discipline of the Church he would not bear with them but blame them Which was troublesome to men of a dissolute life And therefore he underwent the greatest contumelies being exagitated by the hatred and malicious words of them all But he being thus tossed about and beaten and reproached did bear it all with an equal mind and thus long continued in the Communion of the Church Till some that were more vehemently offended with him for these Causes cast him out But yet he patiently bore all this but being more earnestly intent for the promoting of the Truth he still studied not to be drawn away from the Conjunction and Society of the Catholick Church But when he and his friends were still beaten and suffered unworthy usage groaning under these evils he took Counsel of the violence of these calamities and contumelies And so he separated himself from the Church and many falling away with him a new Divorce was hereby made For he did not in any thing depart from the right faith but he with his partakers held in all things sincere Religion Though in one small matter they are too stiff About the Father Son and Holy Ghost they judg excellently and as the Catholick Church and swerve not a jot and the rest of the order of their Lives is truly most excellent and admirable so that not only He himself but even the Bishops Priests and all the rest of them live by the labour of their hands Indeed they had a conceit that the Body did partake of the Image of God and they thought that to please Constantine the Nicene Council had altered the Custom and Tradition of the Church about Easter But these were not the causes of their departure from the Church but the violence of dissolutâ— Bishops that cast them out as being impatient of their strictness and opposition to their sin § 8. About Easter saith Epiphanius p. 821. Neque â—ruditis ignotum est quà m saepe diversis temporibus de illius festi celebritate varii Ecclesiasticae disciplinae tumultus ac contentiones obortae sint praesertim Polycarpi ac Victoris aetate cùm Orientales ab Occidentalibus divulsi â—acificas à se invicem literas nullas acciperent Quod idem aliis temporibus accidit velut Alexandri Episcopi Alexandrini Crescentii quemadmodum contra se mutuò scripserint acerrimè pugnaverint Quae animorum opinionumque distractio ex quo semel post Episcopos illos qui ex circumcisione ac Iudaeorum sectâ ad Christum se converterant agitari coepit ad nostra usque tempora eodem est tenore perducta By which we see 1. With what caution Tradition must be trusted 2. How early Bishops began to divide the Church about things indifferent § 9. That men that all in the main fear God should thus contend abuse and persecute one another is sad and hath even been a hardening of Infidels But alas the remnant of corruption in the best will somewhat corrupt their conversations It is a sad note of Epiphanius ib. p. 816. I have known some of the Confessours who delivered up Body and Soul for their Lord and persevering in confession and chastity obtained greatest sincerity of faith and excelled in piety humanity and Religion and were continual in fastings and in a word did flourish in all honesty and virtue yet the same men were blemished with some vice as either they were prone to reproach men or would swear by the name of God or were over talkative or prone to anger or got gold and silver or were defiled with some such filth which yet detract nothing from the just measure of virtue § 10. But as God made a good use of the falling out of Paul and Barnabas so he did of Audius his unhappy case Being cast out of the Church he took it to be his dâ—ty to Communicate with his own party and a Bishop that suffered for the like made him a Bishop and the Bishops accused him to the Emperour that he drew many people from the obedience of the Church and hereupon the Emperour banished him into Scythia Dwelling there he went into the inner parts of Gothia and there instructed many of the barbarous in the principles of Christianity and gathered many Monasteries of them wâ—o lived in great religious strictness p. 827. But it is hard to stop short of extreams when men are alienated by scandal and violence They caâ—â—e to so great a dislike of the Bishops of the common Churches that they would not pray with any man how blameless soever that did but hold Communion with the Church Vranius a Bishop and some others joyning with them made Bishops of the Goths Note out of Epiphanius p. 827 828. what Country was called Gothia in those times § 11. It is not to be past over that at the Nicene Council the first speaker and one of the chief against the Arians was Eustathius Bishop of Antioch And when Eusebius Nicomed was made Bishop of Constaâ—tinople he pretended a desire to see Ierusalem and passing through Antioch secretly hired a Whore to swear that Eustathius was the Father of her child and getting some Bishops of his Faction together they judged Eustathius to be deposed as an Adulterer and got the Emperour to consent and banish him And after the Woman in misery confessed all and said that it was one Eustathius a Smith that was the father of her child § 12. In Pisanus's Conâ—il Nic. Bin. p. 332. this Eustathius is made the first Disputer against a Philosopher And whereas the great cause of the Arians Errour was that they could not conceive how the Son could be of one substance with the Father without a partition of that substance Eustathius tells the Philosopher that took their part and urged Faciamus hominem ad Imaginem c. that The Image of God is simple and without all composition being of the nature of fire but he meaneth sure but analogically § 13. In the same Pisanus lib. 3. p. 345. Bin. the description of the Church is There is one Church in Heaven and Earth in this the Holy Ghost resteth But Heresies that are without it are of Satan Therefore the Pope was not then taken for the Head of the Catholick Church For he pretendeth not to be the Head of them that are in Heaven See what the Catholick Church then was § 14. Note that 1. the Council of Nice nameth none Patriarchs 2. They nullifie the Ordination
of scandalous and uncapable men Can. 9. and 10. Which will justifie Pope Nicholas forbidding any to take the Mass of a Fornicating Priest 3. That Rural Bishops were then in use and allowed by the Council Can. 8. 4. That no Bishop was to remove from one Church to another Can. 15. which Euseb. Nicom soon broke 5. Even in the Arabick Canons the 4th si populo placebit is a Condition of every Bishops Election 6. The 5th Arab. Canon in case of discord among the people who shall be their Bishop or Priest it is referred to the people to consider which is most blameless And no Bishop or Priest must be taken into anothers place if the former was blameless So that if Pastors be wrongfully cast out the people must not forsake them nor receive the obtruded 7. Those Ordained by Meletius were to be received into the Ministry where others dyed If by the suffrage of the people they were judged fit and the Bishop of Alex. designed them Sozom. l. 1. c. 23. § 15. XXXI The next Council in Binnius and in Crabs Order is said to be at Rome under Sylvester with 275. Bishops But this is confessed to be partly false if not all And is the same that is before mentioned which ordered that no Bishop should ordain any Clerk nisi cum omni adunatâ Ecclesiâ But with all the Church united or gathered into one Which Canon seemeth made when a Church was no more than could meet together and when the People had a Negative Voice But the Concil Gangrense is Binnius's next though Crab put afterward some of the forementioned also said to be in Sylvesters days and yet Sozomen and some others say that the Council of Nice was in Iulius days though most say otherwise Here were sixteen Bishops who condemned some Errours of Eustathius of Armenia or rather one Eutactus as Bin. thinks who was too severe against Marriage as if it were sinful and against eating Flesh and against receiving the Sacrament at the Hands of a married Priest he made Servants equal with their Masters he set light by Church-Assemblies he drew Wives to leave their Husbands for Continency and on pretence of Virginity despised married Persons These superstitions they here condemned § 16. XXXII An. 335. The Council at Tyre was held for the Tryal of Athanasius where he was unjustly condemned and thereupon by Constantine banished though his innocency was after cleared Had not his severity against the Meletians driven them to joyn with the Arians against him Epiphanius saith they had not been able to make head thus against him Constantines Epistle to the Alexandrians lamenting and chiding them for their Discords is well worth the translating but that I must not be so tedious See it Bin. p. 391. § 17. XXXIII The next is a Council at Ierusalem An. 335. where Arius Faith was tryed approved and he restored to Alexandria and the favour of Constantine The Creed which he gave in was this We believe in one God the Father Almighty and in the Lord Iesus Christ his Son begotten of him before all Ages God the Word by whom all things were made which are in Heaven and in Earth Who came down and was Incarnat◠and Suffered and Rose again and Ascended to the Heavens and shall come again to Iudge the Living and the Dead And in the Holy Ghost The Resurrection of the Flesh The Life of the World to come and the Kingdom of Heaven In one Catholick Church of God extending it self from one end of the Earth unto the other Arius with this protesting against vain Subtilties and Controversies desireth the Emperour to accept of this as the Evangelical Faith and the Council and the Emperour receive him as for the joyful restoration of Unity and Peace and so would undo what was done at Nice The Emperour was so greatly troubled at the continued divisions of the Bishops that he was glad of any hope of Unity and Peace But this proved not the way § 18. XXXIV An. 336. A Council was called at Constantinople in which they accused condemned and banished Marcellus Ancyranus an Adversary to the Arians as if he had denyed the Godhead of Christ upon some wrested word though it was their denying it that offended him Here also Arius was justified and Athanasius condemned But Arius dyed shortly after § 19. XXXV The next is a Council of 116 Bishops at Rome in or about An. 337. under Iulius in which the Nicene Creed was owned and the Arians condemned and nothing else down that is recorded § 20. XXXVI The next was a Council at Alexandria which vindicated Athanasius from his Accusations when Constantinus junior sent him home from his Banishment § 21. XXXVII The next was a Council at Antioch of near 100 Bishops of which 36 were Arians the most Orthodox and the holy Iames of Nisibis one yet they deposed Athanasius and the Arians it 's like by the Emperours favour carryed it In his place they put George a Cappadocian suspected to be an Arian whom as I said before the People murdered burnt and scattered his Ashes in the Wind and he was one of the Arians Martyrs Unless England had ever been Arian I cannot believe them that say that this is the St. George that the English have so much honoured § 23. This Arian Council finding that the Emperours favour gave them the Power made many Canons against Non-Conformists The first Can. is against them that keep not Easter at the due time The second against them that come to the hearing of the Word but communicate not publickly in the Lords Supper and Prayers and against them that keep private Meetings and that communicate with them Can. 4. Was to make their Case hopeless that exercise the Ministry after they are Silenced or Deposed be they Bishops Priests or Deacons Can. 5. Was that if any Priest or Deacon gathered Churches or Assemblies against the Bishops Will and took not warning he was to be Deposed And if he go on to be oppressed by the exteriour Power as Seditious There is their Strength Can. 6 and 7. None suspended by his own Bishop was to be received by another nor any Stranger without Certificates Can. 8. Country-Priests may not write Canonical Epistles but Rural Bishops may Can. 9. No Bishop must do any thing without the Metropolitane save what belongeth by Ordination and Guidance to his own Church Can. 10. Though the rural Bishops are consecrated as true Bishops yet they shall only govern their own Churches and Ordain such lower Orders as they need but not Ordain Presbyters or Deacons without the City-Bishops to whom they are subject Can. 11. Casteth out all Bishops or other Clergy-men that go to the Prince without the Metropolitane's Counsel or Letters Can. 12. Deposed or silenced Ministers must not go to Princes for relief but appeal to a Synod Can. 13. Bishops must not go or ordain in other Diocess unless sent for by the Metropolitane else their Ordinations there
Cyril to Atticus How oft have I heard just such language Reader How hard is it to know what History to believe when it comes to the characterizing of adversaries How little is a domineering Prelates accusation of such men as Chrysostome to be credited And how ordinary is it with such to call their betters not what they are but what they would have them thought if not what they are themselves But Atticus was wiser than to take this Counsel but obeyed the Wisdom which is from above which is first pure and then peaceable gentle c. And God had so much mercy on Constant. as to defeat the evil Counsel of Cyril and turn it into foolishness For Atticus restored the name of Chrysostome and used the Nonconformists kindly and they came into the unity of the Church And when Proclus after him fetch'd home his bones with honour the breach was healed § 5. No credible History telleth us that either Theophilus or Cyril did repent of this Though the Papists say that the Pope Excommunicated Theophilus for it yet they are now honoured because the Pope did own the Cause against Theodoret's Epistle to Ioh. Antioch upon the death of Cyril taking his death for the Churches deliverance from a turbulent enemy of Peace intimates that he repented not But God only knoweth Nicephorus out of Nicetas the Philosopher tells us a report that after all this before he dyed a dream did cure him viz. That he saw Chrysostome drive him out of his own house having a Divine company with him and that the Virgin Mary intreated for him c. And that upon this Cyril changed his mind and admired Chrysostome and repented of his imprudence and wrath and hereupon called another Provincial Synod to honour him and restore his name O ductile Synods And O unhappy Churches whose Pastors must grow wise and cease destroying after so long sinning and by an experience which costeth the Church so dear And Nicephorus saith that Pelusiota's reproof conduced much hereto Niceph. lib. 14. cap. 28. § 6. Isidore Pelus words you may see at large in his Epistles Nicephorus reciteth thus much of them lib. 14. c. 53. Cyrillum sanè ut hominem turbulentum refellens haec scribit Favoris affectio acutum non videt Hostilis verò animi odium nil prorsus cernit Quod si utroque hoc vitio te purgare ipsum liberare vis ne violentas sententias extorqueto sed justo judicio causas committe Multi qui Ephesi tecum congregati fuerunt publicè te trâ—ducunt quod inimicitias tuas persecutus sis non ritè ordine juxta rectae fidei sententiam ea quae Iesu Christi sunt quaesiveris Theophili inquiunt cùm ex fratre nepos sit mores quoque illius imitatur sicut ille apertam insaniam in sanctum Deo dilectum Joannem effudit ita iste gloriam eodem affectat modo And after other sharper words he addeth Ne ego ita condemner ne tu ipse etiam à Deocondemneris contentiones sopto Nec injuriae propria vindicta quae ab hominibus provenit videntem Ecclesiam per astuâ—as actiones fallas And of Theophilus he saith Eum quatuor administris seu potius desertoribus suis circumvallatum qui Deum amantem Deumque praedicantem virum Chrysost. hostiliter opprimeret quum occasionem causâ—m impictatis suae arripuisset Thus Isidore speaketh of them § 7. Atticus dying the Clergy were for Philip or Proclus but the Laity choosing Sisinnius prevailed He was a good and peaceable Man and sent Proclus to be Bishop of Cyzicum but the People refused him and chose another § 8. After the death of Sisinnius to avoid strife at home the Emperour caused Nestorius to be chosen a Monk from the House by Antioch whence Chrysostome came He was loud eloquent and temperate But hot against the liberty of those called Hereticks He begun thus to the Emperour Give me the Earth weeded from Hereticks and I will give thee Heaven Help me against the Hereticks and I will help thee against the Persians Thus turbulent hereticators must have the Sword do the work that belongeth to the Word Princes must do their Work and they will pretend that God shall for their sakes advance those Princes But he was rewarded as he deserved He presently enraged the Arians by going to pull down their Church and they set it on Fire themselves to the hazard of the City So that he was presently called a Firebrand He vexed the Novatians and raised stirs in many places but the Emperour curbed him Antony Bishop of Germa vexing the Macedonians they killed him whereupon they were put out of their Churches in many Cities § 9. At last his own ruine came as followeth Nestorius defended his Priest Anastasius for saying that Mary was not to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mother of God This set all the City in a division disputing of they well knew not what and suspecting him of denying the Godhead of Christ But he was of no such Opinion but being eloquent and self-conceited read little of the Ancients Writings nor was very learned and thought to avoid all extreams herein and so would not call Mary the Mother of God nor the Mother of Man but the Mother of Christ who was God and Man At that time some Servants of some Noble Men impatient of their Masters severities fled to the Church and with their Swords resisted all that would remove them killed one Priest wounded another and then killed themselves § 10. CXIII The Emperour Theodosius jun. A Religious Peaceable Prince weary of this Stir called a General Council at Ephesus and gave Cyril order to preside the Papists pretend that he was Pope Caelestine's Legate who indeed joyned with him by his Letters when he saw how things went Both Cyril and Nestorius desired the Council Letters before having made no end Caelestine nor the Africanes could not come Augustine was dead Nestorius Cyril and Iuvenal of Ierusalem came Iohn of Antioch was thirty days journey off and his Bishops much more and stayed long Cyril and Memnon of Ephesus would not stay for him Nestorius came the first day But Cyril and the rest being sharp against him for not calling Mary the Parent of God he said to them Ego bimestrem aut trimestrem Deum non facile dixerim Proinde purus sum à vestro sanguine in posterum ad vos non veniam That is I will not easily say that God is two or three months old I am clean from your bloud and will come to you no more Some Bishops going with him they met by themselves Cyril summoneth him He refuseth to come till Iohn Bishop of Antioch came They examine his Sermons and Witnesses and condemn and depose him as blasphemous against Christ. Three or four days after Iohn of Antioch and his Eastern Bishops come He took it ill that they stayed not for him He
per Christum intrant sed ut ipsa veritas testatur fures sunt latrones Therefore it is no sinful separation to disown and avoid such obtruded Bishops or Pastors as are not so ordained by the Common Consent of the Clergy and the People § 76. In this Council the Pope to keep up some pretensions yet to a power in the East excommunicated the new made Emperor Nicephorus Botoniates for deposing wrongfully the Emperor Michael and his Wife Mary and his Son Constantine Porphyrus and putting them into a Monastery and invading the throne whom the Patriarch Cosmas lately set up by Michael had Crowned But thus matters were then often carryed § 77. That we may a little take along some of the Greek affairs note here that Zimisces being dead an 975. the Empire returned to Basil and Constantine the Sons of Romanus jun. Basil held it 50 years and Constantine three more Against them rose first Bardas Scleros and then Bardas Phocas Basil overcame and subjected the Bulgarians An. 1028. Argyâ—us Romanus took the Empire with Constantine's daughter putting away his Wife for her and the Empire After five years Zoe killed him and took her adulterer and the agent Michael Paphlago to her bed and Empire He being afflicted in body penitently turned Monk and reduced Zoe to some order But being dead she took Michael Calephate who sware to obey Zoe but breaking his Covenant she deposed him and put out his eyes And an 1042. She took to her bed and the Empire Constantine Monomachus in whose times the Greeks had divers losses by the Sueves and by the Normans that got Apulia At which time the Turks being Soldiers under the Persians revolted and oft overcame them Zoe and her Sister Theodora having ruled all dye In Constantines time Michael Cerular Patr. of Const. wrote against the Church of Rome Theodora being dead Michael Stratonicus reigned one year who was forced to resign to Isaac Comnenus 1057. Who being diseased turned Monk and made Constantine Ducas Emperor an 1059. He dyed 1067 swearing his wife Eudocia not to marry and make a Father in Law to his three Sons but she brake her oath and marryed Romanus Diogenes and made him Emperor He is taken in fight by the Sultan and released and when he came home his eyes put out by his own Subjects of which he dyed an 1071. and Eudocia is thrust into a Monastery Michael Paripinacius the Son of Const. Ducas is chosen Emperor The Turks and others greatly weaken the Empire Two Nicephori usurp One called Botoniates helped by the Turks getting possession Michael entred a Monastery and the other Nicephorus Byennius is overcome and his eyes put out Botoniates after three years is deposed and made Monk by Alexius Comnenus who was made Emperor an 1081 and being worsted by Robert D. of Apulia and having dealt ill with Godfrey and his army going for Palestine and beaten by them an 1096. living 70 years and reigning 37 he dyed an 1118. forsaken first of all and succeeded by his son Calojohannes Sect. 78. CCCLXI. A Roman Council an 1079. Forced Berengarius to recant and to own Transubstantiation Sect. 79. CCCLXII An. 1080. Another Roman Council renewed the deposition of the Emperour and gave his Empire to Rodulph the Pope excommunicating Henry and saying Confidens de judicio misericordia Dei ejusque piissimae matris semper Virginis Mariae fultus vestra authoritate saepe nominatum Henricum quem Regem dicunt omnesque fautores ejus excommunicationi subjicio anathematis vinculis alligo iterum Regnum Teutonicorum Italiae ex parte omnipotentis Dei vestra interdiceâ—s ei Omnem Potestatem dignitatem illi regiam tollo ut nullus Christianorum ei sicut Regiobediat interdico Omnesque quiâ—i juraverunt vel jur abunt de regni dominatione a juramenti promissione absolvo Ipse autem Henricus cum suis fautoribus in omni congressione belli nullas vires nullamque in vita sua victoriam obtineat Then he giveth absolution from all their sins to all that take part with Rodulph and blessing in this life and that to come Adding Go on then holy Fathers and Princes I beseech you that the whole world may understand and know that if you can bind and loose in Heaven you can on earth both take away the Empires Kingdoms Principalities Dukedomes Marquisates Earldoms and Possessions of all men according to their merits and grant them to others for you have often taken away from the evil and unworthy Patriarchates Primacies Arch-Bishopricks Bishopricks and given them to religious men For if ye judge spiritual things what must men believe that you can do about things secular and if you judge the Angels that rule over all Proud Princes what can you do with their servants Let Kings and all secular Princes now learn how great you are and what you can do and let them hereafter be afraid to set light by the Command of your Church And exercise your Iudgment so speedily on the said Henry that all may know that he falls not by chance but by your power I wish he be confounded to repentance that his Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. O brave Pope From this Council the Pope sent Rodulph a Crown with this inscription Petra dedit Petro Petrus diadema Rodulpho But all this was but as Balaam's attempt It destroyed not Henry nor saved the life of Rodulph that was after killed Sect. 80. CCCLXIII An. 1080. The Emperor called a Council at Brixia which deposed Gregory as a false monk the pestilent Prince of all villanie the invader of the Roman Seat never chosen of God impudently intruding himself by fraud and money subverting all Church-order perturbing the Kingdom of a Christian Empire designing the death of Soul and Body to a quiet Christian Emperour defending a perjured King sowing discord where there was concord and strife where there was peace scandals among brethren divorces between Husband and Wife and shaking all that seemed to be in quietness among godly men a proud preacher of Sacriledge and flames defending perjuries and murders questioning the Catholick doctrine of Christs body and blood an old Disciple of Berengarius a follower of divinations and dreams a manifest Conjurer possessed with a divining evil Spirit and so swerving from the true Faith And they made Guibert Pope in his stead as was aforesaid § 81. CCCLXIV A Council at Lyons An. 1080. deposeth Manasse Bishop of Rhemes for refusing to give account to the Pope c. § 82. CCCLXV Another at Avenion maketh Hugo Bishop of Gratianople § 83. CCCLXVI Another at Meaulx maketh Arnulph Bishop of Soissons § 84. CCCLXVII Another at Rome An. 1081. Excommunicateth the Emperor again § 85. CCCLXVIII An. 1083. another at Rome the Pope kept three days in sighs and groans being besieged and then dismist it § 86. CCCLXIX An. 1084. in another the besieged Pope again excommunicated the