and were Apostatical rather than Apostolical and that some of them came not in by the Door but were Thi ves and Robbers That it is not impossible to forge Records for the Bolstering up of Heresies those counter eit Gospels Acts Epistles Revelations c. that were put forth by Hereticks in the Names of the Apostles do sufficiently evidence which being extant a little after the Apostles decease are pointed to by Irenaeus condemned in a Roman Council by Gelasius and some of them recorded by Ivo Cartonensis in a Catalogue lib. 2. cap. 〈◊〉 The Itinerary of Clement and the Book called Pastor being two of the number I note the two last because S. Clement in his first Epistle to S. James is made to approve the one and Pope Pius in his Decretal magnifieth the other Which giveth us a little glympse of the Knavery by which those Ancient Bishops and Martyre of Rome were both abused having Spurious Writings fathered upon themselves for had those Instruments been their own they would never have owned such abominable Forgeries But of this you may expect more hereafter Cap. 16. and Cap. 17. These aggravations and degrees of Forgery we have not mentioned in vain or by accident In the process of our discourse the Church of Rome will be found guilty of them all except the first which is beneath her Grandeur and in so doing she is very strangely secured by the height of her impiety For because it does not easily enter into the heart of man to conceive that men especially Christians should voluntarily commit so transcendent a Crime the greatness of it makes it incredible to inexperienced people and renders them prone to excuse the Malefactors while they condemn the Accusers But that the Church of Rome is guilty in all these respects we shall prove not by remote Authorities that are weak and feeble but by demonstrations derived from the Root and Fountain I will not be positive in making comparisons but if my reading and judgment do not both deceive me she is guilty of more Forgeries than all the Hereticks in the world beside Their greatness and their number countenance the Charge and seem to promise that one day it shall pass into a Sentence of Condemnation against her CAP. II. Of the Primitive Order and Government of the Church The first Popish Encroachment upon it backed with Forgery The Detection of the Fraud in the Sixth Council of Carthage IT is S. Cyprian's observation that our Saviour in the first Foundation of the Church gave his Apostles equal honour and power saying unto them Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Cyprian Tract de Simpl Praelator The place has been tampered with but unsuccessfully For though they have thrust in other words into the Fathers Text in some Editions of their own yet in others they are left sincere As Dr. James in his corruption of the Fathers Part. 2. Cap. 1. does well observe But the most remarkable attempt of the Papists is that whereas they have set a Tract concerning the Primacy of the Roman Church before the Councils containing many Quotations out of the Bastard Decretals which they pretend to be extracted ex Codice antiquo out of an Old Book without naming any Author closing it with this passage of S. Cyprian they leave out these words of Scripture Whose soever sins ye remit c. as rendring the Fathers Testimony unfit for their purpose You may see it in Binius his Collection of the Councils c. When the Apostles had converted Nations they constituted Bishops Priests and Deacons for the Government of the Church and left those Orders among us when they departed from the world It was found convenient also for the better Regiment of the Church when it was much inlarged to erect the Orders of Archbishops and Patriarchs The Patriarchs being Supreme in their several Jurisdictions had each of them many Primates and Archbishops under him with many Nations and Kingdoms allotted to their several Provinces every of which was limited in it self and distinct from the residue as appeareth in that first Oecumenical Council assembled at Nice An. Dom. 327. where it was ordained Can. 6 that the ancient custom should be kept the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome being expresly noted to be equal to that of the other Patriarchs In the two preceding Canons they ordain 1. That in every Province Bishops should be consecrated by all the Bishops thereof might it consist with their convenience to meet together if not at least by three being present the rest consenting but the confirmation of their Acts is in every Province reserved to the Metropolitan 2. That the last Appeal should be made to Councils and that the person condemned in any Province should not be received if he fled to others Can. 4. and 5. In the first of these Canons it was ordered that the chief in every Province should confirm the Acts of his Inferiour Bishops the Patriarch of Rome in his and every other Patriarch in his own Jurisdiction In 〈◊〉 last if any trouble did arise that could not be decided by the Metropolitan provision was made in words so clear and forcible that none more plain can be put into their places that the last Appeal should be made to Councils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the City of Rome being in those days Queen of the World and lifted up above all other Cities as the Seat of the Empire the Bishop thereof began to wax proud in after-times and being discontented with the former Bounds invaded the Jurisdictions of his Fellow-Patriarchs For though the Foundation upon which the Government was laid was against it yet when persons were Immorigerous if any Bishop were censured by his Metropolitan or Priest excommunicated by his Bishop or Deacon offended with his Superiour who chastised him for his guilt though the Canon of the Church was trampled under foot thereby which forbad such irregular and disorderly flights the manner was for those turbulent persons to flee to Rome because it was a great and powerful City and the Roman Bishop trampling the Rule under foot as well as others did as is confessed frequently receive them Nay their ambition being kindled by the greatness of the place it tempted them so far as to favour the Delinquents and oftentimes to clear them for the incouragement of others invited by that means to fly thither for relief till at last the Cause of Malefactors was openly Espoused and while they were excommunicated in other Churches they were received to the Communion in the Church of Rome Hereupon there were great murmurings and heart-burnings at the first in the Eastern Churches because Rome became an Asylum or City of Refuge for discontented persons disturbing the Order of the Church spoiling the Discipline of other Provinces and hindering the Course of Justice while her
of the French Nation He tells us that the Legates of Pope Leo in the year 45 in the midst of the Council of Chalcedon where were assembled 600 Bishops the very Flower and choice of the whole Clergy had the confidence to alledge the sixth Canon of the Council of Nice in these very words That the Church of Rome hath always had the Primacy Words which are no more found in any Greek Copies of the Councils than are those other pretended Canons of Pope Zozimus Neither do they yet appear in any Greek or Latine Copies nor so much as in the Edition if Dionysius Exiguus who lived about 50 years after this Council Whereupon he breaketh out into this Exclamation When I consider that the Legates of so holy a Pope would at that time have fastned such a Wen upon the body of so Venerable a Canon I am almost ready to think that we scarcely have any thing of Antiquity left us that is entire and uncorrupt except it be in matters of indifferency or which could not have been corrupted but with much noise c. He further tells us in the place before-mentioned That whereas the Greek Code Num. 206. sets before us in the XXVIII Canon of the General Council of Chalcedon a Decree of those Fathers by which conformably to the first Council of Constantinople they ordained that seeing the City of Constantinople was the Seat of the Senate and of the Empire and enjoyed the same Priviledges with the City of Rome that therefore it should in like manner be advanced to the same Height and Greatness in Ecclesiastical Affairs being the second Church in Order after Rome and that the Bishop should have the Ordaining of Metropolitans in the three Diocesses of Pontus Asia and Thrace Which Canon is found both in Balsamon and Zonoras and also hath the Testimony of the greatest part of the Ecclesiastical Historians both Greek and Latine that it is a Legitimate Canon of the Council of Chalcedon in the Acts of which Council at this day also extant it is set down at large Yet notwithstanding in the collection of Dionysius Exiguus it appears not at all no more than as if there had never been any such thing thought of at Chalcedon He hath other marks of Dionysius Exiguus which sufficiently brand him for a Slave to the Chair but omitted here as out of our Circuit However I think it meet to lay down the Canon as I find it lying in the Code of the Universal Church CCVI. Altogether following the Decrees of the H. Fathers and the Canon of those 150 Bishops most beloved of God which was lately read which met under the Great Theodosius the Pious Emperour in his Royal City of Constantinople called New Rome we also define and decree the same concerning the Priviledges of that most H. Church of Constantinople that is New Rome For the Fathers justly gave priviledges to the See of Elder Rome Quod urbs illa imperaret because that City was the Seat of the Empire And the 150 Bishops most beloved of God being moved with the same consideration gave equal Priviledges to the most holy See of New Rome rightly judging that the City which is honoured with the Empire and the Senate and enjoys equal priviledges with the Royal Elder Rome ought in Ecclesiastical Affairs also no otherwise then it to be extolled and magnified being the second after it c. Upon this advantage the Patriarch of Constantinople advanced himself above the other Patriarchs and his See being made equal to the See of Rome by the Authority of the Church upon the Interest he had in the Empire then setled in Greece he arrogated the Title of Vniversal Bishop Which Gregory then Bishop of Rome so highly stomacked that he thundered out Letters against him calling the Title a proud and prophane nay a blasphemous Title denying that either himself or any of his Predecessors had ever used it and plainly affirming that whosoever used that Title was the forerunner of Antichrist And to this purpose in the 34. Epistle of his fourth Book he asketh What else can be signified by this pride but that the times of Antichrist are drawing near For he imitates him says he who despising the Fellowship of the Angels in their common joy endeavoured to break up to the Top of Singularity This he spake against John of Constantinople because he brake the Order of the Patriarchs and despised the Equality of his Fellow-Bishops Now whether it does not hit his own Predecessors Zozimus and Boniface and Celestine and Leo I leave to the judgment of the Reader They were not contented with an Equality in Power but aspired and that some of them by the most odious way that of Lying and Forgery as well as Pride and Ambition to the top of Singularity Whether this Zeal of Gregory was according to knowledge that is whether it proceeded from integrity or self interest I shall not determine All that I observe is this which followeth when the Tyde turned and the Emperour next sided with the Bishop of Rome the very next Successor of Gregory but one took up the Title a little before condemned for blasphemous which is claimed by the Roman Bishops to this day The Emperour sided with the Roman Bishop because the Roman Bishop sided with him For when Phocas had murdered his Master the good old Emperour Mauricius and usurped the Throne in his stead the Title of Vniversal Bishop was given to the Patriarch of Rome by this Bloody Tyrant to secure his own which had so great a Flaw in it and needed the assistance of some powerful Agent Hereupon a Council was called at Rome by Boniface 3. wherein the priviledge of the Emperour Phocas was promulged and the Bishop of Romo made a POPE upon the encouragement of the Tyrant by the consent of the Council but his own viz. a Roman Council Thus Boniface and Phocas were great Friends The Imperial and Triple Crown were barter'd between them Connivance and Commerce soiling them both with the guilt of Murder Simony Treason and if S. Gregory may be believed with Sacriledge and Blasphemy For being involved in a mutual Conspiracy they became guilty of each others crimes to partake with Adulterers and comply with Offenders being imputed as sin in the H. Scriptures Platina an Eminent Writer of the Lives of the Popes and a Papist himself informeth us sufficiently of this business in these words Boniface 111. saith he a Roman by Birth obtained of the Emperour Phocas but with great contention that the Seat of blessed Peter the Apostle which is the Head of all the Churches should be so called and so accounted of all which place the Church of Constantinople endeavoured to vindicate to it self evil Princes sometimes favouring it and affirming the first see to be due to the place where the Head of the Empire was In the Life of Zozimus the first Episcopal Forger in the Church of Rome Platina
perhaps by some Doctors and Bishops more sincere than ordinary or by some Learned Lawyer that rarely appeared but the general Interest of the Times the Deluge of corrupted manners the Ignorance of the Laity the Luxury of the Priests the Greatness of the Chair and the Love of Superstition so far prevailed that for a long time the Court of Rome luxuriantly fiourished in the Light of her own Glory and to this Prodigious Sun-shine owed much of its Splendour For the Pope having wrought himself by his first Arts into that high Reputation the Lustre whereof dazled the world it concerned him much to keep the Earth in a Profound Quiet and to cherish Ignorance a Vertue highly praised in the Church of Rome that as the Tares were sown they might be permitted to grow and be fruitful while men slept In which the want of Printing much assisted him Monks and Fryars being the only scribes or the chief ones and all at his Devotion Written Copies were the only Books which at most could be but few enough indeed to preserve knowledge by way of Record but being Chained up in Monasteries and Libraries they came seldom abroad unless by the report of such well-affected persons as had their Tutelage and keeping The Popes Indulgence and the Sloth 〈◊〉 made way for the Artisice of 〈◊〉 in after-ages which were not Bookish ones as this is neither were Lay-men addicted much to Reading But upon the Reformation occasioned by nothing more than the notorious impiety and excess of Popes unless the impudence and security of his Followers may contend for a share in it when Libraries fell into the Protestants hands Inquisition was made Archives were entered Books opened Records searched and diligently compared Whereupon much fraud and shufling was found and exposed to the world For as the Copies were enough had they been sincere so though they were not sincere by the Providence of God they contained Indications wherby clear Judgments might easily discern between Records and Forgeries as I found my self to my great amazement without any Warning when I first set my self to read the Councils and simply made use of none but Popish Compilers For there is not more difference for the most part between a piece of Gold and an Oyster-shell than between a true Record and a Forgery Upon this Inspection the Popes Power began to be questioned and his Throne to shake as if it had been founded on a Quagmire He therefore furnisheth himself with Armies of Priests as S. Gregory phraseth it new Orders of Jesnites and Fryars never before heard of being erected for the defence of his Tottering Chair men devoted against the Truth as those Conspirators were that swore they would neither eat nor drink till they had slain Paul for the Maintenance of whom he is at great expence unto this day Above all other arts that of providing Seminaries being the most costly and the most mysterious wherein they are secretly trained up like Sappho s Birds of whom it is reported that being ambitious to be thought a GOD he privately cherished a multitude and taught them by degrees to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sappho is a great God which being let loose on a sudden with their Lesson all the other Birds in the Forrest were quickly instructed in the same Ditty Whereupon he withdrawing himself the people thought him gone to Heaven and a Temple was erected to the God Sappho Whether the Story be true I shall not determine I am sure it may pass for an Embleme of the Popes Atchievement who by this means has made the World to ring of a Doctrine which makes him a God or if not that at least Lord of all Councils greater than Emperours Head of the Church c. His Emissaries issuing forth from these mysterious Seminaries and filling the Earth like Locusts or like little fraudulent and simple Birds chirping out the Ditty and while all the Wood learning it one of another the Earth is full of the Miracle All the late Compilers of the Decrees and Councils seem hence to flow James Merlin Peter Crabbe Laurentius Surius Nicolinus Carranza Severinus Binius Labbè and Cossartius the Collectio Regia c. being his sworn Adjutants for upholding the Chair The last is a Book of such State and Magnificence that it consists of 37 Volumes and is in price about 50 pounds More or less they all carry on the Forgeries with one consent which were at first published in the name of Isidore of Hispalis though some had rather upon mature deliberation it should be Isidore Mercator or Isidore Peccator a Merchant or a Sinner rather than a Saint and a Bishop This Narrative of the Forgeries being thus nakedly and by way of History plainly given it remains now that the Forgeries themselves be proved to be such In the detection of which much light will reflect upon the foregoing passages All which if you please you may take only for a fair Introduction Howbeit I must close with two or three Observations First of all I do not content my self with any single Collector of Councils among the Papists lest they should say This is but one Doctors Opinion but I take the Stream of them together Secondly Detect not the Books of private men but such as are adopted by the Church of Rome being dedicated to Popes Kings Emperours and coming out cum summo Privilegio Thirdly that the first of these Compilers excepting those that were imployed in the first publication and Promotion of Isidore did begin with that Service not much above 130 years ago all of them rising up since the times of Martin Luther though their Names make a great noise and bluster in the world For upon the Reformation of the Church so happily wrought and carried on by the Protestants these Armies of Collectors were marshalled together to help a little and to uphold the Popes Chair by Forgeries Which intimates a Dearth of Antiquities since they are forced to fly to such shameful expedients Luther appeared in the year 1517. The first that appeared after him was James Merlin in the year 1535. The next was Peter Crabbe in the year 1538. After him Carranza in the year 1564. Then Surius in the year 1567. Turrian follows not as a Collector but as a Champion to defend them in the year 1573. Whom Nicolinus succeeded as a Compiler of the Councils in the year 1585. After him Binius Labbè and Cossartius and the Collectio Regia follow in their Order So that it is an easie matter to discern what set these Voluminous Writers on work to wit the great and smart occasion they received by the Reformation Finally observe that Isidore and Merlin the first of the Compilers whose Works are extant lay down the Forgeries simply and plainly for good Records but Binius and his Followers by reason of the Arguments which they cannot answer begin to confess some of them to be Forgeries So do the most Grave and Learned Cardinals
hateful Forgeries But who could suspect that so much Fraud could be Ushered in with so fair a Frontispiece or so much Sordid Basene s varnished over with so much Magnificence I have heard of a Thief that robbed in his Coach and a Bishops Pontificalibus of the German Princess and of Mahomet's Dove But I never heard of any thing like this that a 〈◊〉 should trade with Apostles Fathers Emperours Golden Bulls Kings and Councils under the fair pretext of all these to Cheat the World of its Religion and Glory His Grandeur is rendered the more remarkable and his Artifice redoubted by the Greatness of his Retinue Riculphus Archbishop of Mentz Hincmarus Laudunensis Benedictus Levita the Famous 〈◊〉 and his fourscore Bishops Ivo Cartonensis Gratian Merlin Peter Crab Laurentius Surius Carranza Nicolinus Binius Labbè Cossartius the COLLECTIO REGIA Stanistaus Hosius Cardinal Bellarmine Franciscus Turrianus c. Men that bring along with them Emperours and Kings for Authority as will appear in the Sequel Men who think it lawful to Cheat in an Holy Cause and to lye for the Churches Glory These augment the Splendour of his Train Their Doctrine of Pious Frauds is not unknown And if we may do evil that good may come certainly no good like the Exaltation of the Roman Church can possibly be found wherewith to justifie a little evil The Jesuites Morals are well understood Upon their Principles to do evil is no evil if good may ensue Perjury it self may be dispenced with by the Authority of their Superiour An illimited Blind Obedience is the sum of their Profession To equivocate and lye for the Church that is for the advancement of their Order and the Popes benefit is so far from sin that to murder Heretical Kings is not more Meritorious It is a sufficient Warrant upon such grounds to James Merlin our present Author that he was commanded to do what he did by great and eminent Bishops in the Church of Rome as he sheweth in his Epistle Dedicatory To the most Reverend Fathers in Christ and his most excellent Lords Stephen and Francis c. the one of which was Bishop of Paris and the other an Eminent Prelate who ordered all his work by their care and made it publick by their own Authority Conceiving nothing saith he more profitable for the Commonwealth I have not dissembled to bring the Decrees of the Sacred Councils and Orthodox Bishops which partly the blessed Isidore sometime since digested into one partly you most Reverend Fathers having confirmed them with your Leaden Seal gave me to be published in one Volume For every particular appeareth so copiously and Catholickly handled here which is necessary for the convicting of the Errours of mortal men or for the restoring of the now almost ruined World that every man may readily find wherewith to kill Hereticks and Heresies The Protestants being grown so dangerous that they had almost ruined the Popish World by reforming the Church nothing but this Medusa's Head of Snakes and Forgeries was able to affray them The nakedness of the Pontisicians being discovered they had no Retreat from the Light of the Gospel but to this Refuge of Lies Where every one may readily find saith Merlin wherewith to kill Hereticks and Heresies to depress the proud to weary the voluptuous to bring down the ambitious to take the little Foxes that spoil the Vineyard of the Church By the proud and ambitious he meaneth Kings and Patriarchs that will not submit to the Authority and Supremacy of the Roman Church and by the little Foxes such men as the Martyrs in the Reformed Churches the driving away of which was the design of the publication That he meaneth Kings and Patriarchs in the former you will see in the Conclusion And if any one shall hereafter endeavour to fray and drive away these Monsters from the Commonwealth what can be more excellent saith he than the stones of David which this Jordan shall most copiously afford If any one would satisfie the desires of the Hungry what is more sweet and abundant than the Treasures which this Ship bringeth from the remotest Regions but if he desires the path and splendour of Truth by which the clouds of Errour with their Authors may best be dispelled and driven far away what is more apparent than the Sentences of the Fathers which they by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost have brought together into this Heap For here as out of a Meadow full of all kind of Flowers all things may be gathered with ease that conduce to the profit of the Church or the suppressing of Vices or the extinguishing of Lusts. Here the most precious Pearl if you dig a little will strait be found c. Here the Tyranny of Kings and Emperours as it were with a Bit and Bridle is restrained Here the Luxury of 〈◊〉 and Bishops is repressed If Princes differ here peace sincere is hid If Prelates contend about the Primacy here THE ANGEL OF THE GREAT COUNCIL discovers who is to be preferred above the residue c. Are not the Roman Wares set off with advantage here How exceedingly are these Medicines for the Maladies of the Church boasted by these Holy Mountebanks The stones of David that kill Goliah the River that refresheth the City of God the Food of Souls the Ship the very Argonaut of the Church that comes home laden with Treasures from unknown Regions are but mean expressions the Inspirations of the Holy Ghost the Pearl of Price Angelus ille Magni Concilii the Angel of the Covenant are hid here and all if we believe this dreadful Blasphemer declare for the Pope against all the World Here is a Bit and Bridle for Kings and Emperours a Rule for Patriarchs and what not The Councils and true Records we Reverence with all Honour due to Antiquity And for that very cause we so much the more abhor that admixture of Dross and Clay wherewith their Beauty is corrupted Had we received the Councils sincerely from her we should have blest the Tradition of the Church of Rome for her assistance therein But now she loveth her self more than her Children and the Pope which is the Church Virtual is so hard a Father that he soweth Tares instead of Wheat and giveth Stones instead of Bread and for Eggs feedeth us with Scorpions We abhor her practices and think it needful warily to examine and consider her Traditions What provisions are made in Merlin's Isidore for repressing the Luxuries of Popes and Bishops you may please to see in Constantines Donation and the Epilogus Brevis In the one of which so many Witnesses are required before a Bishop be condemned and in the other care is taken for the Pomp. of the Clergy even to the Magnificence of their Shooes and the Caparisons of their Horses As Merlin who was a Doctor of Divinity of Great Account so likewise all the following Collectors among the Papists derive their Streams from this Isidore
especially what a multitude of men have been encouraged to carry on this Design that you might see the Conspiracy of the Members with the Head and the general Guilt of that Church in so Enormous an Affair To which we might add the innumerable Armies of Learned men that have cited them in that Church and the Company of Captains that have defended them But it had been better for them that they had never medled with the Protestant Objections for they have made the matter worse than they found it and bewraid themselves in all their Answers nay they have made the Frauds more eminent and notorious by disturbing the Reader while they give him Warning by their Notes though the intent be to defend them This I speak especially upon the last from Binius downward CAP. XI Of Nicolinus his Tomes and their Contents for the first 420 years His Testimony concerning the sixth Council of Carthage NIcolinus is printed in five Volumes Sixti V. Pont. Max. faelicissimis Auspictis as himself phraseth it I think he means By the favourable Permission and Authority of Pope Sixtus V. He dedicates his Tomes to the same most Holy Lord Sextus c. which were printed at Venice An. 1585. Among other things in which I should sav he is peculiar had not Merlin in his Isidore done the same he sets a counterfeit Epistle of Aurelius Archbishop of Carthage to Damasus the Pope and the Popes Answer in the Front of his Work The Epistle requesteth a Copy of all the Decretals that were made by the Bishops of Rome from S. Peter downwards The Answer intimates a Copy commanding him to preach and publish the same In both these Collectors the Epistles are displaced above 〈◊〉 years out of their due order meerly that they might face the Forgeries with the great Authorities of Aurelius and Damasus who were both dead 300 or 400 years before the Counterfeits were made Howbeit the Pageant does well to adorn the Scene it entertains the Spectators as a fit Praeludium to make the way more fair for these disguized Masquer's In the last of these Epistles the Counterfeit Decrees are Fathered on the Holy Ghost and whosoever speaketh against them is charged with Blasphemy Yet for all 〈◊〉 though the Epistles were desired by Aurelius and sent by Damasus and commanded to be preached and published throughout the world they were never heard of by the space of 700 or 800 years after their first Authors nor for 300 or 400 years after this Damasus and Aurelius though pretended to be the Canons of the Holy Fathers so Sacred and so Divinely inspired by the Holy Ghost This is that Damasus upon whom the Famous Pontifical is Fathered He sate in the Chair An. 370. The Forgeries were unknown till about the year 800. This Aurelius is he who tasted the Decrees of Zozimus and had experience of their sincerity when he resisted the Encroachments of the Roman Chair But to return to Nicolinus he has Isidore's Preface The Treatise conceruing the Primacy of the Roman Church containing so many Testimonies out of forged Bishops Martyns and Fathers All the Apostles Canons of which he maketh S. Clement's the Top and Coronis concluding that Impious Counterfeit with this affected phrase Coronidis ipsorum Canonum Apostolorum finis The end of the Coronis of the Apostles Canons Francis Turrian is in so much esteem with him that he hath Eight Books of Clement's Constitutions with Turrian's Proem and Explanatory Defences upon them The Liber Pontificalis drawn from the beginning like a Vein of Lies through the tedious length of 800 years infecting all these Ages with Forgery It is his Text in like manner He has all the Decretal Epistles without Exception the Council of Sinuessa or condemnation of Pope Marcellinus with the same Premonition you saw in Peter Crab to the Reader The Donation of the Emperour Constantine which by this time one would think to be a sound and admirable Record having so many Hands subscribing it and so many Pens inserting it among the Councils without the least note of any dubiousness or blemish in it He has threescore and eighteen Canons of the Nicene Council and professeth himself to be the first which added them thereunto And he had them of a certain man that brought fourscore of them in Arabick to Alexandria as his Printer does witness for him to the Reader But surely had there been so many Pope Paul V. and all the Collectors before him had not omitted them Some 40 years hence we may expect fourscore more for as for those naked and vulgar Canons as he calleth the Old and Authentick Records they will not serve the turn nor yet the old Seventy mentioned by Isidore Athanasius and Pope Mark by which you may see they are always growing and may come to a Million if the continuance of the World permit it and their need require it What say you In good earnest methinks the year 1585. is very late for the finding of eight and fifty Canons of the Nicene Council That Council was assembled in the year 327. and made its Canons above one thousand and two hundred years before Nicolinus time They were written in Greek and these lay dormant in Arabick so many Ages no man can tell where But the blessed Jesuites or one of the same Society luckily found them the other day Here and there he has a true Record and among the rest a piece of the sixth Council of Carthage though mangled too where concerning the two Counterfeit Canons of Pope Zozimus he saith The African Fathers not finding any such Canons as these in the Codes which they had of the Nicene Council both in Greek and Latine promised that they would keep them only so long as the time would be that they might get the true Copies out of Greece Which when they had been sent for and were brought from Cyril of Alexandria and Atticus of Constantinople they were found imperfect as not containing but only those 20 Canons which were extant also among the Latines in which nothing is contained concerning Appeals to the Roman Bishop Nay those African Fathers from the fifth and sixth of those Canons gathering the contrary did earnestly beseech Celestine the Pope that succeeded Boniface who was the Successor of Zozimus that he should not admit Appeals which they said as it was most prudently and justly provided for by the Nicene Council so they found it in no Synod of the Fathers that any should be sent from the side of his Holiness What Boniface and Celestine answered it is not certain Acta enim illa valdè concisa sunt mutila For those Records are cut very short and maimed and therefore the matter is the more obscure Who maimed those Records is worth the Enquiry Some-Body that was concerned in them and whose influence must be exceeding great for the attempting of such a thing hath out them short that Records so offensive and pernicious to him might