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A65321
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Dialogues between Philerene and Philalethe, a lover of peace and a lover of truth, concerning the Pope's supremacy. Part I
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Watts, Thomas, 1665-1739.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing W1156; ESTC R27584
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35,721
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46
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The 19th in the Morning they spoke every man in this turn upon the Subject of their Commission and at Night the Company being re-assembled they by a general Consent approved of a Declaration which contains these following Propositions The First is That neither the Pope nor the Church it self hath any Power directly nor indirectly over the Temporality of Kings That they cannot be deposed and that their Subjects cannot be absolved from their Oaths of Allegiance to them upon any account whatsoever The Second is That the Council is above the Pope according to the Doctrine established in the 14th Session of the Council of Constance which the Assembly declares to have had the full Power and Approbation of the Church The Third is That the Use of the Pope's Power ought to be limited by the Canons and that he can do nothing to the Prejudice of the Ancient Customs and Liberties of the Gallicane Church The Fourth is That the Pope hath the Chief or Principal Authority in things which concern the Faith but so that his Decisions are not certain without the Churches Consent The Assembly ordered at the same time That this Declaration should be written in Latine and sent to all the Prelates of France to be Signed by them and that the King should be petitioned to make an Edict for the Execution of it throughout the whole Kingdom Philalethe This is Brave and looks like the Apostolical Vigour and Heroick Courage of our Ancient Prelates Philér This is not all These Lords Commissioners were dispatched away to the King and having given an exact Account of the Behaviour of the Clergy they demanded an Edict in the Kings Name for the Execution of their Declaration His Majesty granted them the Edict which was made as followeth And by this Edict the King ordains That this Declaration shall be Registred in all the Courts of Parliament of the Kingdom and in all the Faculties of Divinity and of the Canon-Law And his Majesty doth Prohibit under grievous Penalties even Foreigners within his own Kingdom and all as well Seculars as Regulars to teach any thing contrary to what is contained in this Declaration This Edict hath been executed The Parliament of Paris hath Registred this Declaration of the Clergy with that Zeal and Readiness that cannot be too much commended and which all other Parliaments of the Kingdom ought to imitate Phila. It cannot be denied but that our Prince is incomparable in all his Actions that France never saw upon the Throne a Monarch of so High a Character and of so great a Power that he maintains most worthily upon all occasions the Glorious Title of Lewis the Great which his Heroick Actions have acquired him And that the Parliament of Paris hath done well to express the great Zeal which they have always had for the Rights of the Crown and for the Liberty of the Gallican Church against the Enterprizes of the Court of Rome You may have read in our Histories what heretofore Philip the August Philip the Fair Charles the 6th 7th and 8th Lewis the 9th 11th and 12th did You know also the Conduct of the same Parliament under all these Great Princes to maintain according to their Will and Pleasure the Rights of the Crown and the Privileges of the Gallican Church And I believe also that you have heard of the Decrees which this Honourable House hath sent forth under Lewis the 13th against the Scandalous Books of Saâ—terel and of Bellarmin But we may say without excess That Lewis the Great in this Conjuncture hath shewed more stedfastness and greatness of Mind in the Opposition which he hath made against the Attempts of the Court of Rome than all his Illustrious Predecessors ever did And it cannot also be denied but that the Parliament of Paris hath gone on worthily in the Footsteps of their Glorious Ancestors Philér It is not in this single Affair only that this Honourable House of Parliament have shewed their Zeal to Second the Intentions of his Majesty and to maintain the Rights of the Crown and the Privileges of the Gallican Church They have also given notable Proofs of it in the Affair of Father Buhi the Carmelite Phila. I have also heard of a Thesis which this Father had maintained the 4th of December last and it was said that they had caused him some Trouble about it at Rome but I do not precisely know what were the Propositions which this Father did maintain Philér If my Memory doth not fail me I think there were Six The First of them is That there are some Ecclesiastical Laws to which the Pope himself is subject The Second is That he cannot upon all occasions dispence with the Canons of General Councils The Third is That he cannot Depose Kings nor impose Tributes upon their Estates without their Consent The Fourth That Bishops hold their Jurisdiction from God. The Fifth That the Faculty of Divinity at Paris doth not esteem the Pope to be Infallible And the Sixth That the Right of the Regale is neither a Fancy nor an Usurpation These Propositions greatly stirred up the Pope against this Father he ordered the Commissary General of the Carmelites to declare him deprived of the privileges of his Order and uncapable of performing any function either Administration of the Sacraments or Preaching This Command was sent to the Superior of the Carmelites of the place Maubert * A Street in Paris so called to whom this Commissary General had given advice of the Noise that this Thesis of Father Buhi had made at Rome and of the misfortune wherewith the whole Order was threatned This Father demanded a Copy of the Letter of his Superior that he might consult his Friends about it which was granted him The Affair coming at length to the King's ear there came forth a Letter under the Seal to the Superior forbidding him to execute any Order from Rome against Father Buhi without the King's knowledg and consent Yet notwithstanding this the Superior caused the Order to be Registred which he had received from the Commissary General of the Carmelites the 18th of February last But the Parliament shewed the same vigour in this Affair as in that of the Declaration of the Clergy for after many proceedings made at the instance of the Attorny General the Parliament ordered that the Superior of the Carmelites should be admonished for his Disobedience and expresly forbad the execution of the Order against Father Foelix Buhi to which they added That he should continue in his Function of Divinity Reader expresly forbidding any person to molest him and at length they Order that the Commissary General 's Letter should be razed out of the Register and laid aside And this by order of Parliament the 14th day of April 1682. Phila. The Parliament did very bravely in this Affair and shewed that the same spirit of Zeal and Courage still reigns in that Honourable Assembly Thilér But ought not we to fear that this should
of Judging Soveraignly in all Ecclesiastical Affairs they in their 4th Session made this following Canon The General Council lawfully Assembled in the name of the Holy Ghost and representing the Catholick Church militant holdeth immediately its power from Jesus Christ to which Council all manner of Persons of what estate or quality soever nay the Pope himself is bound to obey in things which concern the Faith the extirpation of Schisms and the General Reformation of the Head and Members And for as much as in the 39th Session this Council did ordain that for time to come there should be held a General Council at the end of every Ten years and that the next Council should be called in Five years and the following one in Seven the Council accordingly was called together at Pavia where it began and was afterward continued at Siena and finally in 1431. it was transferred to Basil where it was decided according to the Council of Constance that it was a most Catholick truth that Councils were above Popes and that Popes could not by their own wills either dissolve or prorogue Councils from place to place P. Have you no other proof which justifieth this Opinion And have not there been Popes who have acknowledged the superiority of Councils Phil. There are many other proofs which might be made use of which are even of the same kind as those whereof we have already spoken for we might remember several examples of the Ancient Bishops of Rome who have suffered their judgments to be examined in General Councils and have submitted themselves to their Decrees nay there are some who have desired that the Decrees which they had made might be examined in Council and amongst others Leo the Great who demanded of Theodosius that what he had decreed as well as what had been decreed in the pretended Council of Ephesus should be examin'd in a Gen. Council There have been also many other Popes that have acknowledged the Tribunal of particular Councils and amongst others the Pope Damasus who disputing with Vrsicinus concerning the Pontificate submits himself to the judgment of a Synod which decided this Affair and when this Pope was accused of Adultery by two Deacons Concordius and Castorius he justified himself before a Council of 44 Bps. Assembled at Rome in the year 378. I could add the evidence of several Popes upon this subject and amongst others that of Zozimus who in his 1st Ep. says That the Authority of his See cannot add nor change any thing against the Ordinances of the Holy Fathers which is a mark of subjection and of dependence And also that of Gregory the Great who in some place protested that he reverenced the Authority of the four Great Councils like that of the four Gospels Philér Were I not afraid of trespassing upon your patience I would desire you to give me some particular account of our Gadican Church and to let me know whether she always believed the Superiority of the Councils above the Popes Phila. I will do it my dear Philéréne but it shall be but very short that I may not tire you It cannot be doubted but that in the first Centuries our Churches of France acknowledged the Authority of Councils as superior to all others since that in the question concerning the day of Celebrating Easter our Prelates without the knowledg and participation of the Pope called a Synod wherein St. Irenaeâ—s presided who by order of the Synod wrote a Letter extreamly pressing to Pope Victor about this Affair as may be seen in Eusebius which this Bishop would never dare to have done if the Pope had been considered in the Gallican Church as the Supreme Magistrate of the Church and the Decretal Epistles attributed to the first Bishops of Rome cannot be objected to the contrary because that these Epistles have such visible characters of being counterfeited that it is beyond all doubt And in the Council of Arles above mentioned our Bishops of France shewed sufficiently that the Pope was subject to the Authority of Councils since that they examined an Appeal brought before them from the Popes Sentence Since that time divers Synods have been held in France by the order and permission of our Kings to treat of things concerning the Faith or Discipline of the Church wherein they judged of â—aith by the Oracles of the Scripture and by Tradition and of Discipline by the Canons of the Church that is to say of Councils Such was for example that which was held in the reign of our K Clovis at Orleance c. Also the second Council of Mascon Ordained that Provincial Councils should be called by the Metropolitans and that of the whole Kingdom by the Bishop of Lions with the Kings permission It is true that the Gallican Church received a great abridgment of its Liberties in the year 445 by the Ordinance of Valentinian the 3d who made the judgments of all the French Prelates subject to the Pope But this Ordinance of Valentinian received divers oppositions in France as it were easie to justifie by many famous examples In the 8. Century the Churches of France received another blow by introducing the Code of the Roman Canons which Charlemaign obliged himself to receive in France as well as the Roman Office in acknowledgment of the good turns which Po. Adrian had done him who in an Assembly of 15 Bishops and many Abbots declared Charlemaign Patrician or a Nobleman of Rome and acknowledged that it was in his power to Elect Popes to regulate the Apostolick See to institute through all the Provinces Archbishops and Bishops in a word he invested him with all the Rights which the Roman Emperors enjoyed Nevertheless this great Prince found in the exceution of his promise great opposition from the Clergy whom he forced to receive the Code of these aforesaid Canons by constraint Minis Suppliciis says the Original nor were these Canons received but by the Authority of our Kings having been published but under the name of Charlemaign and as Ordinances made by him His Successors have trod in the same footsteps always ordering that the Laws which they made by the advice of the Prelates of their Kingdoms and which are to be read in their Capitulars should be published under their Majesties Names and that the Popes themselves should be subject to them C. de Capi destin 10. and C. nos de Compet 2. Quest 7. But whatever increase the Authority of the Pope had gained in France by this Ordinance of Valentinian and by this Introduction of Charlemaign this did not hinder our Bishops from shewing upon all occasions a great deal of vigor in maintaining their Privileges and the Authority of the Church It is manifest by divers Examples which History affordeth and chiefly by that of Hincmare B. of Laon this Prelate was censured and condemned for his ill actions by a Synod held at Vervins he would have appealed to Rome but far from having any regard to his appeal