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A31002
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Select discourses concerning 1. councils, the Pope, schism 2. the priviledges of the isle of Great Britain 3. the Popes primacy, and the supream power of kings, both in temporals and also spirituals ... / by F. Barnes, of the Order of St. Benedict.
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Barnes, John, d. 1661.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing B866; ESTC R9065
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18,723
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62
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c 18 Num. in Edit 6.55 Epistle of Innocent the first to Alexander wherein he declares that the Cyprians are not wise according to the Faith unless they subject themselves to the Patriarch of Antioch it was decreed that what the Patriarch of Antioch attempted was praeter-canonical and therefore the Holy and Universal Synod declares that all Letters brought by him against the Cyprians were void So in the 178 Canon of the Code of the Universal Church d Et Tom. 2. Ephesin Append. 1. cap 4. In the Council of Chalcedon Act. 18. the Legats of Leo the first contradicted the Priviledges of the Constantinopolitan Patriarch but because they were according to the Canon of the fifty Holy Fathers assembled at Constantinople Leo 1. withstanding it was Synodically defined for the Patriarch of Constantinople These out of the Acts of the four general Councils which a Can. sicut Dist 16. Gregory receives as the four Books of the Holy Evangel yea as Cardinal Deus-dedit i. e. God-gave observeth in his Collection of Canons there was an ancient form of the Popes Oath which is yet extant b Can. sicut Dist 16. wherein hee sweareth that he will observe the four Councils to a title out of which the most learned c In Consult Venet Leschasserius wittily infers That the Pope of Rome cannot by right contend that hee is above those Canons of the Councils unless hee arrogate to himself a power above the four Evangels Agreeable to this oath of the Pope is the ancient Profession of d Can. Cont. Statut 5. q. 5. Pope Zozimus The Authority of this See cannot ordain or change any thing against the decrees of the Fathers And e Ibidem Canon sunt quidam Pope Urban Where the Holy Fathers have judicially defined any thing there the Pope of Rome ought not to give a new Law but to the hazard of life and blood confirm rather what is published The f Can. 8. Ephesine Council expresly orders that every single Church of the Provinces should have its rights preserved Hence arise the Appeals ab abusu and exceptions against the new Oecumenical commands So the Gallick Bishops under Ludovicus Pius except formally in these words against certain new Laws That they will obey them unless the Authority of the ancient Canons order otherwise And g Tract de Libert Eccles Leschasserius hath another honest note concerning the Gallick Nation That it was the usual manner of the Gallick Church to profess That shee acknowledged not the Pope of Rome but legitimately and canonically Which is the restriction of the Universal Church as hee there learnedly proveth Hence the African Fathers in a h Cap. 105. Synod under Boniface and Coelestine refuse to obey the commands of those Popes because they found it ordained by no Synod of the Fathers that any such thing should bee done And that I may pass by Hincmarus in i Tom. 10. Anno 878. num 30. Baronius who saith Hee receives the decrees of the Popes approved by Holy Councils and Gerbertus afterward called a Eod. Tom. Anno 992. N. 42. Sylvester the second accepting the decrees of the Apostolical See with this clause so they bee not dissonant from these Canons Illustrious was the testimony of St. Ignatius the Constantinopolitan and so of the whole Church approving his fact even to this day in b Tom. 10. Anno 818. N. 48. Baronius For he passed by with a deaf ear the Pope excommunicating him unless within thirty daies he recalled his Priests out of Bulgaria And Baronius doth not think Ignatius excommunicate for that command not fulfilled because hee defended the right of his Church as hee was bound by oath on the hazard of life eternal Therefore of greater authority is a Canon granting priviledge to the Church of Constantinople than a command of the Pope even Baronius being Judge See the very learned Collections of Vigorius Comment in Reipub. Synodal p. 26 46 22. And because Hincmarus a most constant Defender of the Canons is bitterly taxed by Baronius Dunallius and many more Neotericks I would have the Reader take notice that hee is praised by c Ad An. 109. N. 42. Baronius Tom. 2. as a man very famous for learning and piety Look Cassand lib. De Officio pii viri They which make the Pope of Rome little less than God and exalt his authority not onely above the whole Church but above the Divine Scripture it self and constitute his decree equal to the Divine Oracles yea the infallible Rule of Faith I see no reason why you may not call them Pseudo-Catholicks and Papists b That the withdrawing from the Ecclesiastical Magistracy of the Roman Church is deservedly reputed Schismatical I will confirm by the testimonies of Cassander and the Arch-Bishop of Spalato yet writing in England which may seem to arise rather from the desert of the thing than their blind affection toward the Roman Church Cassander saith thus in Tract De Officio pii viri Very many of them who have assumed their name from the Evangel despise utterly that party which hath retained the ancient name of Catholicks and the Roman Church and fly off from all communion with it nor do they account it a member of the same body but abominate it as the very body of Satan and Antichrist This I know truly and lament and do not see how they that are such can be exempted from the imputation of Schism And hee observeth that Luther himself at first confessed as much yea and afterward when made more fierce by the Popes Bull hee did not deny that the Roman Church wherein the Roman Pontifie swayed was the true Church of Christ although hee proclaimed the Governours of it as the Pope Cardinals c. not Members but Tyrants and Enemies of the Church For be it that the Pope is the Antichrist who Paul teacheth is to sit in the true Temple and true Church of God yet wee must abide in the true Church that the evil Pastour may be cast out of it for by our departure from the Church hee shall not the sooner be put out of doors Beside know That it is one thing to recede from communion with the Pope another from communion with the Church for in case of Heresie declared the Canons perswade and command both to adhere to her Canons and to separate ones-self from every Bishop that teacheth amiss To this purpose may be read the Canons of the Universal Church the third Canon of the Ephesine Council Wee command those Clerks who either have or do disunite by no means to obey their Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor at all in any manner to bee subject unto them And Can. 1. A Metropolitane being an Heretick can do nothing against the Bishops of his Province And Synod Constant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 13. They that separate themselves from communion with their Prelate being condemned for Heresie by the Holy Fathers or Synods
that is hee preaching Heresie publickly they shall not onely not be subject to Canonical punishment before a hearing in the Synod having separated themselves from communion with him who is called their Bishop but shall be accounted worthy of the honour meet for Orthodox persons for they have not condemned their Bishops but their Pseudo-Episcopal teachers nor have they rent by Schism the union of the Church but have endeavoured to free the Church from Schisms and Divisions The same speaks the single Canon of the Carthaginian Synod under Cyprian which is extant in Balsamon and Zonaras joyned to the Synod of Carthage Videatur Canon 6. 9 32 33. Laodicenus 9. Canon P. Timothei Alexandrini CHAP. 2. Concerning the Priviledges OF THE Isle of Great Britain WHat some have writ is truly to be lamented That the Kings of Great Britain are Feudataries of the See Apostolick and consequently subject to the Holy Pope as Monarch independent on the Canons as well in Temporals as Spirituals whereby they have too much exasperated them and alienated them from their Obedience to His Holiness and Roman-Catholick Communion It were here to be wished that the Holy Pope would yeeld somewhat to the publick peace and safety of Great Britain and be content that the most Serene King and Kingdome of Great Britain might be admitted to the Communion of the Holy Roman Church without any actual dependance on the Sovereignty of the Holy Pope until at least in a full and free Council a remedy might be gotten for this mis-fortune Now I shall assign a threefold Theological Foundation out of which with submission to better judgement appears that such a Council is probable and convenient to be assembled A The first is a grievous fear which the wiser Politicians conceive as affairs stand in Britain from an actual subjection to be yeelded to the See Apostolick and truly who would not fear to be subject unto him that if you displease him can in a little half hours space take away Kingdome and Life and Reputation and is able to arm his Catholick Subjects against him The second foundation is because adhering to the decrees of the Councils of Constance and Basil which have declared them to bee accounted Hereticks who maintain B That the Pope is not subject to General Councils it seems in practice the modern Popes are to be accounted C Hereticks especially since they pertinaciously defend the Heresie which the said Fathers condemned by censures of the Bull in Coena Which I speak not to raise a controversie against His Holiness but humbly to insinuate a probable foundation of pacifying so illustrious a Kingdome and aggregating it to the Catholick Church The third is because by the Ephesine Canon the ancient priviledges of Churches ought to be conserved yea if ravished away by force to be recovered Now the Isle of Britain in times past hath enjoyed the Cyprian priviledge that it should be subject to the Law of no D Patriarch although this priviledge was heretofore abolished by the tumults and violence of wars yet whereas in the time of Henry the eighth it hath been recalled by the consent of the whole Kingdome and since that time peaceably prescribed it seems that for peace-sake it ought to be retained without the loss of Catholicism or the brand of any Schism so that in other things the Kingdome conform it self to the Universal Canons and Customes of the Catholick Church These things I humbly suggest to His Holiness ready to bee corrected by Him if in any particular I have erred from the truth Paralipomena A SEarch the resolution of the a Bochel in Decret dict 1. Gal. l. 5. Tit. 5. Cap. 5. ss 3. Gallican Church in the Council of Tours 1510. under Lewis 12. where the question is put Whether for notorious hatred and unjust assault it be lawful for a Prince to withdraw himself from the obedience of the Pope attending so long until the Pope have stirred up other Princes and Communities yea and hath attempted to compel them to invade the Countries and Dominions of the said Prince It was concluded by the Council That the Prince may substract himself from the obedience of such a Pope and withdraw for the maintenance and defence only of his temporal rights And Gerson b Tract de Auferibilitate Papae ab Ecclesia Consid 14. excellently If there be any one who would convert his Presidence and Papal dignity into an instrument of wickedness and destruction of some part of the Church in Temporals or Spirituals and that there appear no other sufficient remedy but by withdrawing himself from such a raging and self-abusing Pope and this for a time until the Church or a Council shall provide This shall be lawful yet so as that a certain pious necessity urgeth to do it The same hee asserteth in the question Whether in controversies of Faith it be lawful to appeal from the Pope where hee saith The like substractions were approved by the holy Council of Constance and that so was practised in the council of Pisa from which the c In Ep. apud Nyem lib. 3. c. 34. Cardinal of Liege writing saith that what was just before affirmed by Gerson is most assured and alledgeth for himself Augustin Ambrose Bede and others And Gerson saith that this Proposition of Petrus de Luna That it is never lawful to make a substraction from the true Pope was reputed Heretical in the Council of Constance Now whether the causes of substraction in the Kingdome of Great Britain are sufficient is not a matter of Faith but Fact wherein wee must stand to the reasons and authority of the more wise and skilful persons For the Prelates of the Church when the question is concerning the admission of penitents to the Communion and Sacraments of the Church ought not especially in matters of fact to be so tenacious of their own opinion Let them beware lightly to condemn of mortal sin when as in the practick for a strong reason or authority the opinion of the penitent might be probable Unto which the practick being laid down by reason of some circumstance or the possession of some other Confessours ought to conform themselves in their own opinion For surely they are not alwaies obliged to follow the safer opinion if it bee the more rigid if they follow one that is safe it is enough but if the opinion of the Penitent be not accounted very safe let Confessours consider whether they may leave him in ignorance with discharge of their trust In doubtful cases Confessours ought to follow the more favourable opinion for their penitents sake a In Sum. De Sacr. poenit ca. 26. num 8. So Henriques a Divine of the Society of Jesus out of Navarre Sylvester and Cordubensis whom hee cites and followeth I suppose it to bee accounted an opinion not onely probable but certain among Writers who favour the party of the B Holy Pope C That that Faith is to be