the 13th he says That since the coming of Jesus Christ God requires of Men greater Holiness than before In the 14th he discourses of the Reward of Christians The 15th has no particular Subject It begins with a Reflexion upon the Obligation that lies upon Christians to honour Jesus Christ with Purity and Faithfulness and after this it contains many Questions whereof the First is concerning the Resurrection viz. If a Man shall rise with all his Members and the rest concerning Concupiscence and the Inclination to Sin that is found in all Men. He is of opinion That 't is a kind of Fire kindled in a Man which inflames as one may say all his Parts That a Man may resist it but that to do it aright he must watch continually over himself and always fight against it He says That those who resist their Passions receive the Holy Spirit and the Grace which Jesus Christ has merited for them but they ought to take good heed that they be not lifted up with Pride and that they continue in Humility and Contempt of themselves as being accountable to Jesus Christ for the Grace they have received and capable of falling from that State of Holiness in which they are unless they preserve themselves in it by the vertue of Humility which he calls the Sign and infallible Mark of a Christian. In the 16th he says That a Man ought always to live in Fear because he is always expos'd to Temptations That even those that have not yet received Grace ought so to behave themselves as to do Good and forsake Evil by Natural Motives but those who have receiv'd it need not such kind of Motives because this Grace producing Love in their Hearts makes that become sweet and pleasant which appear'd rough and uneasie and makes that appear easie which was thought before to be impossible In the 17th he treats of the Spiritual Unction and the state of the more Perfect Christians and makes it appear that notwithstanding any Holiness they have acquir'd they ought always to fear because they are always in a Capacity of falling away In the 18th he declares the marvellous Effects of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Soul of a Spiritual Man In the 19th he explains the degrees through which a Man ought to pass to acquire Perfection That he ought first to use his utmost natural endeavours to do Good and then God seeing him strive after this manner gives him the Grace of Prayer by which means he obtains all Vertues In the 20th he says That none but Jesus Christ can cure the Soul that 's wounded by the Sin of Adam and therefore we must address our selves to him by Prayer that he would give us his Grace The 21st is of the War that Men are oblig'd to make against their Vices and their Passions In the 22d he describes the terrible difference between the latter End of the Just and the Wicked and says that at the hour of Death the Souls of the Just are received by Angels and conducted to the Lord but those of the Wicked are encompass'd by Devils who draw them down with themselves to Hell The 23d is of the Victory which a Christian ought to gain over his Passions The 24th is of the Necessity of the Grace and Influence of the Holy Spirit to make us capable and worthy of Eternal Life He continues the same Subject in the 25th wherein after he has prov'd that we cannot shun all the occasions of Sin nor resist all our Passions without the assistance of the Grace of Jesus Christ he makes a lively Representation of the state of the Men of this World and describes the wonderful Effects which the Coelestial Fire of the Holy Spirit produces in our Souls The 26th contains many Questions and Answers concerning the Temptations of the Devil and the Effects of Grace The Author there teaches That Man is restor'd to his Primitive Dignity by the Holy Spirit That the Devil cannot tempt us any further than God permits him That Grace changes the Affections of the Heart That the Devil knows some part of our Thoughts but there are others unknown to him That Grace and Charity have no Bounds and we ought never to say that we have arriv'd at the highest degree of Perfection That the Soul goes immediately after Death to that place on which its Love was plac'd during this Life That the Good which may be done by Natural Strength can never Save a Man without the Grace of Jesus Christ That we ought always to attribute to him all the Good we do and to say If God had not assisted us we should neither have Fasted nor Prayed nor forsaken the World And that God seeing us attribute to him the Actions which may be done by our Natural Powers has liberally bestow'd upon us the Spiritual Heavenly and Divine Gifts of his Grace That the Actions which are done without Grace may be Good but they are not Perfect In the 27th after he has first consider'd the Dignity of a Christian he then Answers to many Questions about the Effects of Grace He says That no Man shall ever arrive at the top of Perfection in this World That whatever state they are in whatever Grace they have they are always capable of sinning That the strongest Grace does not hinder the Will from following after Evil because the Nature of Man as long as he is in this World is changeable and that though God has bestow'd very singular Grace upon Christians they ought nevertheless to work out their own Salvation with Fear and Trembling In the 28th he deplores the state of that Soul where Jesus Christ dwells not at all because of Sin In the 29th he says That God gives his Grace after two different manners That he prevents some with it before they have us'd their own endeavours and bestows it upon others after they have labour'd a long time and then he shows what Reason we have to admire the Goodness and Wisdom of the Divine Conduct both towards the one and the other In the 30th he shows That if the Holy Spirit does not produce within us the Love of God we cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven In the 31st he Exhorts Men to Prayer That they may obtain the change and renovation of their Heart In the 32d he says That we cannot certainly know whether we be in a state of Grace as long as we are in this World because we are always tormented with the Motions of Lust but at the Day of Judgment those who belong to God shall be made known The 33d is of the Attention and Fervour we ought to have in Prayer The 34th is of Eternal Glory The 35th is of the state of a Soul which God has deliver'd from Evil Thoughts which he calls a New Sabbath The 36th is of their different degrees of Glory who shall rise again from the Dead In the 37th he proves That many who have thought themselves Just were
look upon Vincentius as a Saint who died a Donatist These Treatises were composed in 419. Though the main Points treated of in St. Augustin's Works against the Pelagians have been mentioned already yea it will not be amiss to give here a general view of his Doctrine God created the First Man in a state of Innocence Holiness and Grace He was subject neither to the Necessity of Dying nor to Sicknesses nor Pain nor the Motions of Lust nor Ignorance nor any of the Inconveniencies of Life or the Imperfections of Nature which are the Consequences and Effect of his Sin His Free-Will was entire and weakened with nothing It was perfectly indifferent to do either Good or Evil though it could not do good without the help of Grace but this Grace which God afforded him was entirely subjected to his Free-Will It was a help without which he could not do good but it did not make him do good Such was the Condition of the First Man like that of the Angels before their Sin Such would have been the Condition of his Posterity had he continued in that Happy state but having offended God by his Disobedience he and all his Posterity are become subject unto Death Pain Sicknesses Punishments and what is worse to Ignorance and Lust that is to say to Extravagant Motions which are within us whether we will or no. But what is yet more incomprehensible all his Descendents begotten in the ordinary way are born in Sin They all contract the Sin which we call Original which makes Children the Objects of God's Wrath and infallibly Damns them except they are regenerated by Baptism Baptism doth indeed take away the stain of Sin but it doth not remove the Punishment and the Consequences of Sin Concupiscence Ignorance Inclination to Sin Weaknesses and other Punishments for Sin abide still during the whole course of this Mortal Life Free-Will is not extinguish'd but it hath not so much strength and stands in need of powerful assistance to do good The Grace which it needs to act is not only that help without which it could neither will nor do that which is good but also such an assistance as makes it both will and do it infallibly This Grace is necessary not barely to accomplish entirely what is good and to continue therein but it is even necessary to begin Faith for Prayer and for the first Motions of Conversion Yet it bereaves us not of our liberty because we do not keep the Commandments but as far as we are willing It worketh this Will in us without Violence or Compulsion for God constraineth no Man to do either good or evil but to do good the Will must be succoured by Grace which doth not deprive it of its Liberty and this Grace is not granted to Merit but is absolutely free Since the First Man's Sin the whole mass of Mankind was corrupt condemned and subject to Death God by free Grace and Mercy takes out of this mass of Corruption whom he pleases leaving the rest in that condition out of that Justice which none can find fault with for what is Man that he should dispute it with God Doth the Earthen Vessel say to the Potter that framed it Why hast thou made me thus However it may be truly said That all Men may be saved if they will if they be not they can only accuse their own perverse Will whereby they resist the Call of God There are some Graces which he refuseth not to Reprobates wherewith they might do good if they would To some he gives the Knowledge of his Law and they despise it He inspires into others a desire of being Converted and they reject it Some he excites to Prayer but they neglect to do it He speaks to the Hearts of several who harden themselves that they may not hearken unto his Voice He overcomes the hardness of some for a time converting them by an Effectual Grace who plunge themselves again in Vice In a word how strong and powerful soever the Grace is which he gives yet it may be said in some sence that Man may always resist it though he doth not actually do it God does not grant this Grace to all Men not only because he oweth it to none but also because some make themselves unworthy of it for to say nothing of Children who die before the use of Reason who are either damned because of Original Sin or saved by the Grace of Baptism the Adult who have not the gift of Perseverance have made themselves unworthy of it either through their own Sins or by the Contempt which they have cast upon God's Vocation or by the Opposition they have made to inward Grace or lastly by falling again into the state of Sin from which God delivered them in his Mercy And so no Man can either excuse himself or accuse the Justice of God because every one receiveth what he deserved every one is rewarded or punished according to the good or the evil which he hath done by his Will which co-operates with the most effectual Grace The Effect of this Grace according to St. Augustin is to make us in love with that which is good it is a pleasure which draws our heart towards good things and enables us to keep the Commandments without this Grace there is no Action meritorious The fear of Punishment though merely servile is good and profitable because it regulates the inward Man but it does not render us Righteous before God We shall never perfectly accomplish the Precept of loving God in this Life because we shall never love him so perfectly as in the next And though through God's Grace a Man may absolutely avoid all Sin in this Life yet it never did nor shall ever happen that a mere Man excepting the Blessed Virgin of whom St. Augustin would not have us to speak when Sin is mentioned passed through this Life without Sin For this reason the most righteous say daily Lord remit us our Debts that is our Sins But these are not mortal Sins which bereave the Soul of Righteousness and Holiness they are venial and daily Sins which are indeed against God's Law but do not utterly destroy Charity St. Augustin's Principles concerning Predestination and Reprobation do exactly agree with his Opinion touching Grace Both those Decrees according to him suppose the fore-knowledge of Original Sin and of the Corruption of the whole mass of Mankind If God would suffer all Men to remain there none could complain of that severity seeing they are all guilty and doom'd to Damnation because of the Sin of the First Man But God resolved from all Eternity to deliver some whom he had chosen out of pure Mercy without any regard to their future Merits and from all Eternity he prepared for them that were thus chosen those Gifts and Graces which are necessary to save them infallibly and these he bestows upon them in time All those therefore that are of the number of the Elect hear
That the Son of God did not begin to pour down his Graces upon Men but from the time of his Incarnation That Sins are not entirely forgiven by Baptism That the Saints of the Old Testament are dead in a State of Sin That Man is necessitated to Sin That Sin cannot be avoided even with Grace Lastly he condemns the gross Errors of the Pelagians viz. Those who said That Men can avoid Sin without the help of God That Infants ought not to be baptized or that other Terms ought to be used in baptizing them That they who are born of baptized Parents have no need of the Grace of Baptism That Mankind died not by Adam and is not raised by Jesus Christ. In the last part the Bishops in whose name this Profession was written declare to Zosimus That if he still persists to molest them they will appeal to a fuller Synod That they could not sign a condemnation passed against the absent but were ready to suffer the worst rather than forsake Justice and Truth He ends with a Passage of S. Chrysostom's Sermon to the Novices The Letter of Julian and other Bishopâ— to Rufiâ—us of Thessalonica is recited almost entire in the 3 last Books of S. Austin to Boniface It contain'd the Heads of the Accusations which we have delivered in speaking of that Treatise of S. Austin The first Book to Turbantius is recited entire in the second Book of S. Austin of Marriage and Concupisence There are â—ragments of 3 other Books in the 6 Books of S. Austin against Julian Lastly all the 5 Books of Julian to Florus are copyed out whole in the 6 Books of S. Austin's imperfect Work Beda makes mention also of three Books of Julian * This is a kind of Prefatory Discourse to the Commentary upon Canticles and so not a distinct Book A Treatise of Love A Commentary upon the Canticles and A Book of †De bâ—no Constantiae Constancy It appears by the Fragments which Beda hath taken out of those Works That he delivers the same Principles in them as in his other Books That we are absolutely free to do good or evil That the love of Man inclines him naturally to do good and That Man is not born in Sin He cites in his Last Book a little Treatise of S. Chrysostom which bears this Title No Man is Hure but by himself Lastly some attribute to Julian the Translation of the Profession of Faith which bears the Name of Rufinus but they bring no proof of it NESTORIUS NESTORIUS born at Germanicia a City of Syria brought up and baptized at Antioch withdrew himself into the Monastery of Euprepius which was in the Suburbs of that Nestorius City He was ordain'd Priest by Theodorus and in a little time acquired a very great Reputation by his way of living and by his Sermons Sisinnius Archbishop of Constantinople being dead in 4â—7 the Ambition which the Clergy of that City had to obtain the Government of that Church made the Emperour resolve not to suffer any of them to be chosen Bishops and to cause a Clergy-man of some other Church to be chosen notwithstanding the Pains that were taken to procure it by some for Philip of Sida and by others for Proclus He cast his Eyes upon Nestorius chose him * It seems abâ—urd when 't is said the People desired others And Sâ—crates says That Sisinnius was chosen by consent orall but not Nestorius for he was chosen rather against than by the consent of all by common consent caused him to come from Antioch and 3 Months after his Election he was ordained and put in possession of the See of Constantinople in the Month of April in the year †A great Mistake in Chronology for Atticus died Octob. 427. Sisinnius was Arch-bishop almost 2 years as Socrates tells us l. 7. c. 28. Nestorius was ordained 〈◊〉 Months after Sisinnius's death so that he could not be in possession of the Patriarchate till near 430. and yet Dr. 〈◊〉 agâ—…s 〈◊〉 Duâ—in 428. In his first Sermon which he made in the presence of the Emperour he declared the design he had to make War with the Hereticks speaking boldly to the Emperour Sir Free the Earth from Hereticks and I will give you Heaven joyn in the War against them with me and I will assist you against the Persians Altho' the hatred which many of the People had for the Hereticks made them approve of this Discourse yet the wiser sort saith Socrates condemned the Pride and Fierceness of it and were amazed to see a Man before he had tasted as he says the Water of the City declare That he would persecute those who were not of his Opinion These Threatnings were followed with a suitable effect for 5 days after his Consecration he attempted to demolish the Church where the Arians tho' secretly celebrated their Assemblies and reduced them to so great despair that they set it on Fâ—â—â— themselves which being consumed the Flame took the Neighbouring Houses This Fire stirred up an unusual Disorder and from that time he was called An Incendiary He did all he could to vex the Novatians but the Emperour stopt his Fury He exercised also so great Severities against those People of Asia Lydia and Caria who kept the Feast of Easter upon the xiv day of the Moon that many Murthers happened by them at Miletum and Sardis He persecuted also the Macedonians and took their Churches from them He did not spare so much as the Pelagians but at length prevailed with the Emperour to make a Law against all Hereticks He brought the Memory of S. Chrysostom into Veneration He lived in a very regular and strict manner and applyed himself diligently to the Duties of his Ministry In a word he might have passed for a great Saint if he had not engaged himself to maintain an Opinion which made him condemned as an Heretick Which came this way to pass He had brought from Antioch a Priest called Anastasius for whom he had a very particular esteem and whom he made use of in all Affairs of Importance This Anastasius preaching one day in the Church ventured to say Let no Man call Mary the Mother of God Mary wâ—â— a Woman and God cannot be born of a Woman This Proposition gave great offence among the People who accused this Priest of Impiety A Bishop called Dorotheus confirmed the Opinion of Anastasius by saying Anathema to all that call the Virgin the Mother of God and Nestorius himself discoursing upon this Question in his Sermons took his Priest's part and always rejected the Name of the Mother of God The People being accustomed to hear this Expression were much inflamed against their Bishop being perswaded That he revived the Error of Paulus Samosatenus and Photinus and believed That Jesus Christ was a meer Man The Monks declared themselves openly against him and separated themselves from his Communion The People and some more considering Men followed their
the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the whole Trinity The last Question of Monimus is about the Explication of what St. Paul says That Virginity is a matter of Counsel and not of Command and about Fulgentius's comparing it to the two pence of Supererogation Upon this Subject he relates the different Opinions of St. Ambrose St. Austin and Optatus and shows that it is a matter of small importance after what manner the two pence of Supererogation be understood In the last Book he treats of the true sense of these words The Word was with God and answers the impertinent Difficulties which the Arians started about this passage The Books about Remission of Sins are in answer to another Question propos'd to St. Fulgentius by Euthymius viz. Who those are to whom God pardons sins in this life and whether he pardons them only in this life St. Fulgentius shows in the first Book That none can obtain remission of sins nor be saved who is out of the Church and that none of those who are in the Church can obtain pardon unless he be truly Converted and cease to commit sin and to love the Creature so as to set his heart upon it In the second Book he proves by many Reasons founded upon passages of the Holy Scripture That there is no remission of sins to be obtained but in this life and that all those who dye in a bad estate shall be damned without any mercy Which gives us to understand that he speaks only of mortal sins which deserve damnation But Fulgentius's words are general That all those who dye in a bad estate shall be damn'd which will not admit of this distinction but do plainly overthrow the Doctrine of Purgatory for whatever a man's sins be in which he dies unrepented of and unpardon'd he dies in a bad estate But Fulgentius could not have said that every one who dies in this state shall be damn'd without mercy had he believ'd a Purgatory into which many are thrown who die in a bad estate for their venial sins unpardon'd And this general sense of the words is confirm'd by what he says in his Treatise of Faith address'd to Peter That there is no state wherein a man can deserve well but only during this life and That those who die in a good state shall be happy for ever and others i. e. those who die in a bad estate shall be condemn'd to eternal punishment where he plainly asserts two different states only after this Life without any mention of a third which is now believed to be Purgatory by the Roman Church And to the same purpose he tells us in his Answer to the Questions propos'd by Ferrandus That it is unprofitable to baptize the dead because the Soul cannot obtain remission of its sins after it is gone out of the Body and Flesh alone is not capable of sin which Argument were of no force if the Soul might obtain after this Life remission of venial sins by the Pains of Purgatory for then it might be profitable to baptize the Dead for obtaining the pardon of these sins and delivering Souls out of Purgatory The most part of the Letters of St. Fulgentius were written in the time of his Exile The first is address'd to Proba who was descended of the illustrious Family of the Anicians There he extols Virginity and shows how necessary it is that it should be joyn'd with Humility and he gives also many useful Instructions to a Christian Virgin He address'd also another Letter to her concerning Prayer and Compunction of heart wherein he recommends particularly this last Vertue He compo'd also at the desire of this Virgin two Treatises concerning Prayer and Fasting which are now lost In another Letter he comforts a Roman Lady call'd Galla who was thought to be the Daughter of Symmachus and understanding that she was resolv'd to live a Widow he entertains her with a description of the happiness of that state and the manner in which she should live He wrote to Theodorus a Roman Senator to confirm him in the design he had taken up of quitting his Secular Employments to dedicate himself to God and informs him that this Conversion was owing to the Grace of Jesus Christ. The Letter concerning the Conjugal Duty and the Vow is upon a particular case Some had ask'd Fulgentius Whether a married Person was oblig'd to keep a Vow of Continence For resolving this Question St. Fulgentius makes many Observations concerning the use of Marriage and the Obligation of Vows He remarks upon the first Head That the use of Marriage is allow'd when it is intended for the procreation of Children but when it has no other end but pleasure altho it is not a Crime like Adultery yet it is always a small sin which is blotted out by Prayer and good Works As to the Vow he says That there is no doubt but by it an Obligation is contracted to do the thing which was vow'd But he maintains That the Vow of Continence made by one of the married Persons cannot oblige the other nor dispense with that Person who made the Vow for paying the Conjugal Duty to the other at least unless both parties had concurred in making the Vow Having laid down these Principles he concludes That if the Persons who wrote to him had both made a Vow of Continence then they were oblig'd to keep it and that if they found themselves tempted by Carnal Desires they should humbly pray to God to give them Grace to resist them but if only one of the two had made the Vow of Continence that party was oblig'd to pay the Conjugal Duty to the other who had not made it He concludes with some Reflexions upon the Duties of married Persons and chiefly upon the Education of their Children In the Letter to the Abbot Eugippius he treats very largely of the Advantages of Charity and the Love of our Neighbour He thanks him for his Present and acquaints him that he had sent him his Letters to Monimus St. Fulgentius wrote at the desire of Junilius who was one of his Friends a Letter about Penance to an unknown Woman call'd Venantia There he shows That remission of sins committed after Baptism may be obtain'd in this Life provided one be sincerely penitent From whence he concludes that these sinners ought not to despair but neither ought they to hope without striving and doing of Penance The Treatile of Faith address'd to Donatus contains an exact Explication of the Mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation We have already spoken of the Question started by the Monks of Scythia upon this Proposition One of the Trinity did suffer which they would maintain to be Catholick and oblige others to acknowledge it for such Their Faction was very powerful in the East and they had their Complices in the West They had sent as we have already observ'd Deputies to Rome to maintain their Opinions there and Peter the Deacon was at the Head
exalt Free-will above Grace the better to discover the power of this Grace which is not known when it is not received and the great struggle that arises then because without it no Truth can be known neither is there any Light to discover it After this Preface he proposes and maintains the following Propositions 1. That Predestination is purely gratuitous and that this Decree is not made upon foresight of Men's Merits 2. That Infants who die after they are baptiz'd are sav'd by the mere Mercy of Jesus Christ and that those who die without Baptism are condemn'd upon the account of Original Sin 3. That those who believe this Grace is given to all are not Catholicks in their Sentiments since not only all men have not Faith but there are even whole Nations who never heard of the Gospel 4. That it may be said that Man is sav'd by Grace and by his Good Works provided it be confess'd that the Grace and Mercy of God prevents the Will of Man and works in him to will 5. That all those whom God would have sav'd are predestin'd because the Almighty Will of God does always take effect his Power can never be defeated 6. That the Free-will which was sound and entire in the first Man is become weak by sin but is improv'd and strengthned by Grace 7. That the Question concerning the Origine of Souls must not be ventilated or it must be treated of without bitterness but that there is no doubt that Souls do contract Original Sin They cite at the end of this Letter a passage of Pope Hormisdas in favour of St. Austin and praise the Books of Fulgentius about Predestination and Grace and those which he wrote against Faustus We have nothing now remaining but some Fragments of the Ten Books of St. Fulgentius against a famous Arian call'd Fabianus The first Book was entitled Of the most High the Comforter of the Titles of Ambassador Doctor and Judge There he prov'd that these Titles agreed to the Father and the Son In the second Book he shew'd that the Functions of Sighing Desiring and Praying which are attributed to the Holy Spirit are not contrary to his Divinity In the third he prov'd that Immensity agreed to the three Divine Persons In the fourth that the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit are equally adorable He distinguishes the Worship of Latria from that of Dulia the first agrees to God only and the second may be given to Creatures He speaks also of the Properties which belong to each Divine Person The fifth Book was about the Title of Image which is given to the Son of God where he proves that he is so the Image of God as to be also of the same Nature In the sixth he proves that the Son is eternal as well as the Father The seventh establishes the Divinity of the Holy Spirit The eighth was about the Mission of the Holy Spirit The ninth is concerning the Invocation of the three Divine Persons where he demonstrates that the Son and the Holy Spirit are to be Invocated as well as the Father That Sacrifices are to be offer'd to the Son and Holy Spirit as to the Father and that the like Thanksgiving is paid unto â—â—m The tenth was about a Writing upon the Apostle's Creed where he observes that it was so call'd either because it is a Compact or because it is an Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine After this he proves that what in the Creed is attributed to the Father agrees to the whole Trinity The Treatise address'd to Victor is upon the same Subject and written at the same time There he refutes the Discourse of a Priest nam'd Fastidiosus who having quitted a Religious Profession and the Priestly Office to lead a licentious Life had also abandon'd the Faith by turning Arian St. Fulgentius proves in this Treatise the Divinity of the Son and explains how it may be said That the Word only is Incarnate The time is not certainly known when the Treatise of the Faith was written which is address'd to a Lay-man call'd Peter who having a design to make a Journey to Jerusalem desir'd before his departure to have an Instruction containing the Articles of Faith that he might know what he ought to believe St. Fulgentius explain'd to him first what he ought to believe concerning the Mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation And then he told him that all Beings both Spiritual and Corporeal are the Work of God who created them that Spiritual and Intelligent Beings were to subsist eternally by the Will of God that the Angels being created free and having power by the Grace of God to merit their Happiness or else to fall from it by their sin one part of them had perish'd and the other part was confirm'd in the Love of God which they could never lose any more That the first Man who had been created perfectly free had fall'n into sin and so subjected all Mankind to death and sin That God had deliver'd many of them by his Grace by the help of which they were enabled to live well and to obtain eternal Life That there is no state wherein a Man can deserve well but only during the time of this Life but as long as a Man lives upon this Earth there is always space for Repentance That this Repentance is unprofitable to those that are out of the Church That all Men shall rise one day and those who shall die in a good state shall be happy for ever and others shall be condemned to eternal punishment That a Man comes to the Kingdom of Heaven by means of the Sacraments which Jesus Christ has instituted That none can obtain Salvation without the Sacrament of Baptism except those who shed their Blood in the Church for Jesus Christ That he who has receiv'd Baptism out of the Church has receiv'd this Sacrament and if he returns into the Church he ought not to be re-baptiz'd but his Baptism will profit him nothing if he continues out of the Church or if he lives ill after he has been receiv'd into the Church That those who live well ought continually to do Works of Mercy to expiate those sins which even the Just commit every day That to avoid them the humble Servants of Jesus Christ shun Marriage and abstain from eating Meat and drinking Wine Not that they think that 't is forbidden to use Marriage to eat Meat and drink Wine but because they are perswaded that Virginity is to be preferr'd before Marriage and that Abstinence restrains a Man from sin That neither second nor third Marriages are forbidden and that excess in the use of Marriage is a Venial sin but to those who have made a Vow of Continence Marriage is a great Crime Afterwards he reduces this Doctrine to forty Heads which he thinks are to be believ'd There was a long Article added at the end of this Treatise which is cut off by the Authority of some ancient
greater others less some unto others not unto Death And though every the least Sin be offensive to God and deserving Damnation in its own Nature yet they say some are mortal others venial 1. Comparatively and by God's Favour as the Sins of the Elect being committed with Reluctancy and without consent are more pardonable than the Sins of wilful Offenders 2. Because some Sins exclude not Grace the Root of Remission and Pardon out of the Soul but others cannot stand with Grace and so leave the Persons in a state of Wrath and Damnation who are guilty of them Mortal Sins to watch over their Actions and Words to despise the World to repent continually and never to despair of Salvation c. It is observed in this Treatise that every Christian hath a good Angel to assist him and when he sins he drives away his good Angel to take a Devil There are Sixteen Homilies more bearing Eligius's Name but it is doubted whether they be really his because they are made up of Passages and Quotations of the Fathers as of S. Austin S. Leo S. Ambrose Caesarius of Arles and S. Gregory These Fathers are likewise cited there under the Name of Saints and Blessed S. Benedict is there called most Blessed and most Holy Father They say that these Citations are affected they add That there be even some Passages of Authors who wrote since Eligius's Time as of S. Isidore of Sevil of Alcuin of Haymo of Halberstat From whence they conclude That these Sermons are the Work of an Author of the Ninth Century Yet methinks he that composed them first was older than that Time and many things may easily have been added to them since However there are yet found in them some remainders of the Ancient Discipline not to be slighted This is an Extract of them In the First Sermon for Christmasday he shews the Happiness of the Peace which Christ brought to the Earth and exhorts his Hearers in the end to Almsgiving He relates the Story of a Gardner who being used to bestow what he earned upon the poor was tempted to keep back part of it in case he should fall sick that having thus gathered many Crown-pieces he got a running Sore in his Foot which fell into a Gangreen so that the Surgeon appointed a Day to cut off his Leg seeing there was no other Remedy but in the Night the Gardner coming to himself and having begged God's Forgiveness for his not having continued in his Almsgiving and promised to continue it hereafter he was miraculously cured and the Surgeon coming the next Day to cut off his Leg found him gone abroad The Second Sermon is upon the Purification After having uttered some Allegories upon that Ceremony of the Jews he speaks of the use of the Church to have on that Festival s Tapers light during the Mass upon the Feast of the Purification This Ceremony tho' not taken from the Sacrifices called Lustrum as this Author imagines being offered in the end of February yet was certainly instituted in imitation of a Festival celebrated at Rome either in remembrance of Ceres's search after Proserpinâ— or in honour of Februâ— the Mother of Mers which were both solemniz'd with Tapers burning in their Hands by the Romans These Superstitions the Bishops of the Church very much abhorred yet because it conduced greatly to the Conversion of the Gentiles to make as little Alterations in their Ceremonies as possible therefore did the Heads of the Church institute the same Ceremonies to be used by the Christians on the Feast of the Purification as had been used upon the Calends of February at Rome And this the learned and judicious Rhenanus on Tertul. l. 5. cont Mar. Tertullian confidently afferts Negari non potest Ardentium Cereorum quos bodie Christiani die Purificatâ—e Mariae ex more circumferunt a Februalibus Romanorum sacris Originem sumpsisse Pertinaci paganismo mutatione subvenâ—um est quem vei in totum sublatio potius irritasset Tapers light during the Mass and says That the Original of this Custom came from the Romans who having collected the Tribute every fifth Year offered solemn Sacrifices in the end of February and kindled Tapers and Torches in the Town which Ceremony was called Lustrum That the Church hath changed that Superstition into an Ecclesiastical Ceremony ordering Tapers to be kindled yearly in the beginning of February in the Time when S. Simeon took our Lord in his Arms. One must needs be very credulous to believe this Conjecture which hath neither Truth nor Likelihood in it The Third Sermon is upon the Fast of Lent therein he enlargeth upon the good Effects of Fasting The Fourth is on Holy Thursday He observeth That on that Day was made the Reconciliation of Publick Penitents guilty of Crimes which deserved that the Bishop should separate them from the Altar and then reconcile them Then he addresseth his Speech to those Penitents and exhorts them to examine themselves whether they be reconcil'd to God or not because it may happen that although they be reconciled by the Ministery of the Bishop yet they be not so with God who alone grants the true Reconciliation He shews them that to be truly reconciled they ought to be according to the Apostle new Creatures purged from the Crimes of the Old Man That they who continue in their sinful Habits should not imagine that they can throughly be reconcil'd before they have made t Made a Satisfaction proportionable to the greatness of their Sins Tho' these Words seem to come up to the Doctrine of Satisfaction held in the Church of Rome yet it does not appear that the Fathers of this Age had any other Notion of Satisfaction than that which was received in the Ages before which is much different from and much more Orthodox than the Popish We have a Definition of it p. 2. given by Isidore of Sevil to this effect Satisfaction is an Exclusion of the Causes and Occasions of Sin and a Cessation from Sinning which is almost the same with S. Austin's Satisfactio est peccatorum Aug. de dog Eccles. c. 54. causas excindere eorum suggestionibus nullum aditum indulgere This is the Nature of true Repentance which being proportion'd in some measure to the greatness of our Guilts the more pensive and hearty by how much our Sins are more heinous and aggravating is all the Satisfaction that God expects of us besides a firm Faith and Dependance on the Merits of Jesus Christ. The popish Satisfaction is a clear different thing as they Greg. de Val. to 4. d. 7. q. 14. So. Drido Tapper c. define it thus It is an equivalent Compensation made to the offended Justice of God for the Injury done unto him by Sin partly by our Actions and partly by our Sufferings whereby we deliver our selves from Divine Vengeance and save our selves from Punishment A Doctrine unknown to Antiquity Ambr. in Luc. Ser. 46. Of
Faith the Cross and the Worship due to it of the custom of praying towards the East of the Holy Mysteries in which we ought not to doubt but Christ gives us his Body and Blood * Spiritually to feed us the Bread and Wine being ‡ In their Use not Nature changed into Christ's Body and Blood and being but one and the same thing He tells us with what Purity we ought to receive such a Holy Sacrament He establisheth Mary's perpetual Virginity both in and after the Birth and reconciles the two Genealogies of Christ after the same manner with Africanus Then he proves that Saints ought to be honoured and their Relicks reverenced He would also have the Images of Saints and of Christ to be honoured and believeth them to be very useful to remember us of them He confesses they do not worship the Matter whereof the Cross or the Images are made but only that which is represented thereby He says That this Custom is established by an ancient Tradition and thereupon he quotes the Fabulous Story of the Image sent by Christ to King Agbarus He takes notice that no Image of God ought to be made He maketh a Catalogue of the Sacred Books of the Old Testament agreeable to the Canon of the Hebrews To the Books of the New he adds the Canons of the Apostles which he thinks to have been collected by St. Clemens Having treated of all these Things he comes again to some Questions he had forgotten He explains how many ways they speak of Christ. He proves God is not the Author of Sins and that there is but one Principle of all Things He renders a Reason why God created some Men who would Sin and not Repent He shews what 's the Law of Sin and the Law of Grace He gives some Reasons of the Observation of the Sabbath and Circumcision He extols the State of Virginity He concludes with some Reflections upon Antichrist the Resurrection and the Last Judgment Whereupon he says That Hell Fire shall not be material as that among us but such as God knows Non materià hujusce nostri constantem sed qualem Dein novit This Work is in Greek and Latin in the Basil Edition in 1548 and 1575. St. John Damascene wrote many Tracts more upon some particular Doctrines A Dialogue between a Christian and a Saracen about Religion Another Dialogue under the Name of an Orthodox and a Manichee in which he disputes against the Errors of those Hereticks A Treatise of the two Natures against the * The Acephali or Monophysites a sort of Hereticks Dr. Cave Monothelites who did admit but one Nature in Christ made up of two A Treatise of the Trisagion against the Sedition of Peter the Fuller wherein he explains several forms of Speech about the Trinity and the Inoarnation A Treatise of the two Wills in Christ against the Monothelites Another upon the Trinity and the Incarnation To these Tracts may be added the last Article of his Logick wherein he explains what is the Hypostatick Union and his Institutes containing an Explication of the Terms used by him in speaking of the Mysteries as Essence Substance Person Hypostasis c. The three Orations upon Images belong to the Doctrinal Tracts He distinguisheth two sorts of Worship and Adoration the one Supreme belonging to God only the other a Worship of Honour and Respect only He says The matter of Images is not worshipped but what is represented by them that they are in stead of Books to the Ignorant and that in worshipping of them they worship the Saints of whom they are the Images He cites St. Basil to Authorize this use of them He objects to himself St. Epiphanius's Letter and answers Either that that Letter is supposititious or that he caused the Picture he speaks of to be buried only for some particular Reasons like as St. Athanasius caused the Relicks of Saints to be buried to condemn the Profane Practice of the Egyptians He cites several Passages of the Fathers to prove that the Images of Saints are to be honoured but there is hardly one word proving directly what he maintains though he relates a great many Passages in those three Orations He owns the worship of Images cannot be established from Holy Scripture and that it is authorized by the Tradition of the Church only Lastly he confesses no Image ought to be made of the Trinity nor of Things purely Spiritual The Prayer for the Dead is another Point which also is not proved but by the Tradition of the Church S. John Damascene defends it in an Oration made for that purpose In it he affirms that the Prayer for the Dead is from the Tradition of the Apostles He adds That the Church does do nothing but what is useful and pleasing to God from whence he concludes that by those Prayers they obtain the Remission of those Sins which remain to be expiated by the Dead He relates the Fable of Trajan's Deliverance and a Story that happen'd to St. John the Alms-giver We may moreover add to these Tracts two very short Treatises the one in what consists the Image and Similitude of God in which we were created and the other of the Last Judgment Besides we may add to these two Letters about the Mass and the Consecration but I do not believe them to be of St. John Damascene's The Historical Works of S. John Damascene are fewer in number We have a Treatise of Heresies which bears his Name but the twenty four first are nothing but the Abridgment of S. Epiphanius The rest beginning at the Nestorians were added by S. John Damascene He joins to the Hereticks already known viz. the Nestorians Eutychians Monophysites Aphthartodocites Theodosians Jacobites Agnoetes Donatistes Monothelites Saracens and Iconoclasts He joins I say to these other unknown Sects of Persons that had extraordinary Opinions and Practices namely the Semidalites who taste of the Paste brought to them by Dioscorus's Scholars and believe this is to them instead of Sacrifice the Orchistae which are Monks dancing when they sing God's Praises the Gnosimachi who will not have Men to Write or Study a good Life being sufficient the Heliotropites who believe there is a certain Vertue in the Herb called Turnsol or Heliotrope the Thnetopsychites who believe Men's Souls to be like to the Beasts and that they die with them the Theocatochestes who find fault with some Expressions in the Scripture the Christolites who believe that Christ hath left his Body and Soul in Hell and that the Godhead only ascended up to Heaven the Ethnophrones who retain some Pagan Superstitions the Ethiproscoptes who find fault with ancient Usages and introduce new ones the Parermeneutes who interpret several places of the Old and New Testament according to their own fancy and the Lampetians living after their own fashion It is plain That S. John Damascene gave what Names he pleased to those he thought to be of these Opinions and Practices
this contest of Image Worship tho' of less note in the Greek Church as Sergius called Confessor by Photius who wrote an History against the Iconaclasts of which we have nothing but the Name and the Judicious Censure of Photius of it in his Biblioth Co. 67. 2. Michael called Syncellus who endured much for Image-Worship with Theodorus Studita and Nicephorus he hath left nothing in the defence of the Cause for which he suffered but hath two Pieces extant viz. An Encomium of Dionysius the Areopagite which is among the Works of Dionysius Tom. 2. And an Encomium upon the H. Angels and Arch-Angels of God put out in Greek and Latin by F. Cornbefis in his Auctuar Nov. Tom. 1. p. 1525. Claudius Archbishop of Turin besides the Treatise of Images of which we have already spake Claudius Bishop of Turin hath composed several other Works We have a Comment of his upon the Epistle of S. Paul to the Galatians Printed at Paris in 1542. and inserted into the Biblioth Patrum Tom. 14. p. 134. Two Prefaces put out by F. Mabillon in Analect Tom. 1. of which the first is to his Commentaries on Leviticus and the other to those of his Epistle to the Ephesians Tritherius makes mention of several other Commentaries of this Author upon many other Books of the Bible viz. The Penteteuch Joshua Judges Ruth and all S. Pauls Epistles His Comment upon Leviticus is in MS. in the Library of S. German de Prez His Comment upon the Gospel of St. Matthew is a MS. in the Jesuits College at Paris and in the Library at the Cathedral Church of Laon. His Comments upon S. Pauls Epistle to the Romans and 2d to the Corinthians are in the French Kings Library That upon the Epistle to the Ephesians is in the Library of the Abby of Fleury and upon Ruth in the Abby of Good-Hope F. Labbs hath Published a short Chronicon attributed to this Author Altho Jonas Bishop of Orleans makes no great account of this Authors Commentaries yet we may truly say that in his Comment upon the Galatians he explains the literal sense in a familiar and easie manner agreeing with the true sense of the Apostle without mixing any Allegories and invented Senses far from the Subject Jonas of Orleans and Dungal accuse him of reviving not only the Errors of Eustathius and Vigilanthius touching the Relicks and Honour of the Saints and that of Faelix Orgelitanus about the Incarnation but also that of Arrius about the Trinity yet Jonas owns that it doth not appear by his Writings but that he received it from Persons worthy of Credit Dungal besides his Treatise against Claudius of Turin hath a Letter directed to the Emperor Dungal Charles the Great about two Eclipses in the Year 810. 'T is extant in the 10th Tome of Dacherius's Spicilegium The End of the Controversy about Images CHAP. II. A Relation of the Dispute concerning GRACE and PREDESTINATION OF all the Questions that were Debated in the Ninth Age there was none that was managed with more heat and noise than this of Predestination and Grace Gotteschalcus a German The beginning of the Controversie about Predestination and Grace Born was the first Broacher of it He was brought up and Instructed in the Monastery of Augia the Rich or Richenou and was Sirnamed Fulgentius He made Profession of a Monastick Life in the Monastery of Orbez in the Diocess of Soissons and was Ordained Priest at forty years of Age not by his own Bishop but by Rigboldus Suffragan of the Church of Reims which made his Ordination to be suspected Hincmarus describes him to us as an ill-bred turbulent and fickle Man and assures us that this was the sense which the Abbot and Monks of his own Monastery had of him Nevertheless they could not but say but he was an Ingenious Studious and Subtile Man but very troublesome and over-reaching About the Year 846 he had a Mind to leave his Monastery Hincmarus accuses him of doing it without the leave or consent of his Abbot and go to Rome to visit the Holy Places there From thence he went into Dalmatia and Pannonia where some say under a pretence of Preaching the Gospel to the Infidels he began to spread his Doctrine of Predestination But however this was at his return he tarried some time in Lombardy in an Hospital Founded by Count Eberard and had a Conference in 847 with Notingus Bishop of Vienna concerning the Predestination of the Saints to Glory and of the Wicked to Damnation Notingus offended at this Opinion of Gotteschalcus not long after being come to meet Lewis King of Germany at a Town of Switzerland told Rabanus Archbishop of Mentz who promised him to confute this Error of Gotteschalcus in Writing by the Authorities both of H. Scriptures and Fathers which promise he not long alter performed in a Rabanus's Book against Gotteschalcus Treatise which he sent with two Letters one to Notingus and the other to Count Eberard both against the Error of Gotteschalcus In his Treatise he accuses this Monk of teaching that Predestination is so made That every Man that is Predestinated to Life can't be Dâ—nm'd and every Man Predestinated to Damnation can't be Sav'd He chiefly opposeth this last assertion and shews That such a Predestination is contrary to the Goodness and Justice of God who desires the Salvation of all Men because nothing is more Unjust than to Damn a Man who can't avoid Sin He owns that Predestination is asserted in H. Scripture but in this sense That all Men being fallen by the Sin of the first Man into a State of Damnation can't be delivered but by the Grace of Jesus Christ who was provided and Predestined from all Eternity That those who are freed from the State of Damnation and to whom both their Original and Actual Sins are Pardoned by Baptism are afterwards Damned for the Sins that they commit wilfully and freely And that it is by the foresight of their Evil Will that they have been Predestined But that the Predestination of God whether to Good or Evil hath no influence upon Man to necessitate him either way That God Predestines things only because he foresees after what manner they will happen That he doth not Predestine Evil but foresees it only whereas he both foresees and Predestines Good That out of the whole Mass of Mankind he through meer Grace accepts those whom he pleaseth to Salvation and leaves others yet not Ordaining them to Damnation but for their Sins which he foresees they will commit freely These are the Doctrines which Rabanus lays down against Gotteschalcus in his Treatise to Notingus which he endeavours to prove by Texts of Scripture and Testimonies of S. Austin Fulgentius and Gennadius whose Book concerning the Doctrines of the Church he cites under the Name of S. Austin He repeats the same thing in his Letter to Eberard and exhorts that Lord not to suffer any contrary Doctrine to be Taught in
another way Wherefore meeting at Quiercy in his return from the Council of Soissons held in 853 with several Bishops and Abbots he propounded four Heads of Doctrine to the Emperor which were published by his Authority The I. was That there is no other Predestination but only to Life by which God had chosen out of the Mass of Perdition into which all Men are fallen by the Sin of Adam those whom he hath predestinated by his Grace to Glory And as to those whom he hath left in the State of Damnation he foresaw that they would perish but he hath not predestined them to destruction but only hath predestined the Eternal punishment which they have deserved The II. is That the Free-will which we have lost by the Sin of the first Man is restored by Jesus Christ and we have a full power to do good by the assistance of his Grace and to do evil being forsaken by it The III. is That God would have all Men without exception to be saved although they are not all saved That those that are saved are so by the Grace of Christ and those that perish are damned for their own Sins The IV. was That Jesus Christ hath suffered for all Men although all Men are not redeemed by the Mystery of his Passion which doth not happen because the Price of Redemption is not great enough or sufficient but because they have not Faith or not such a Faith as is saving i. e. a Faith which worketh by Love These four Articles were Signed by the Bishops and Abbots present at their Assembly and if we Prudentius's Letter to the Council of Sens. may believe Hincmarus were subscribed by Prudentius himself But this Bishop repenting of what he had done wrote to the Bishops assembled at Sens to choose a Bishop of Paris that since he could not be present himself at that Synod he had sent Arnoldus a Priest to whom he had given commission to subscribe to their Election of a Bishop provided they would sign and approve these four Articles concerning Grace 1. That the Free-will of Man which was lost by the disobedience of Adam is so far restored by the Grace of Jesus Christ that we cannot do think or desire any good thing without it 2. That God hath predestinated some to Eternal Life through his mere Mercy and others through his just Judgment to Damnation 3. That the Blood of Jesus Christ was shed for them that believe on him and not for those that do not believe 4. That God saves all those he will have saved and that no Man can be saved whom he will not have saved 'T is not known what effect this Letter had in the Council of Sens but is probable that it was read but nothing was determined in that matter But the 4 Articles of Quiercy being sent to the Church of Lyons the Archbishop examined them The 4 Articles of Quiercy as confuted by the Church of Lyons and confuted them in a Book made on purpose Entituled A Censure of the Articles of Quiercy or a Book proving that the Truth of Scripture is to be held and the Judgments of the Holy Fathers followed In answer to the first Article he finds fault with these Assertions 1. That the first Man was free to do good not mentioning the Divine assistance without which neither he nor the Angels themselves can do good 2. That they speak of the Predestination of the Elect as if it were made upon the account of their good Works foreseen 3. That they deny that God hath predestinated the Wicked to Damnation Upon the 2d Article he objects 1. That they have spoken too succinctly and briefly about Free-will having said nothing but produced some Explications of the Fathers upon that point 2. That they had asserted that we have utterly lost our Free-will by the Sin of the first Man though the Fathers acknowledge that though it be weakened by that Sin it still subsists in Man but he can't use it well without the assistance of Grace That all Men have naturally Judgment Reason and Understanding by which they are able to distinguish that which is good from that which is evil and that which is just from that which is unjust That they also have a liberty of choosing good in some sort but through the Law we have of Human Affairs 't is wholly carâ—ied upon the good of Society Transactions of the World and certain private Interests Lastly That in that respect we can do some good but we can do nothing towards our Eternal Happines but by the inspiration and Motions of Grace 3. He also reproves them in this Article for saying that after regeneration we have liberty of doing evil as if we had it not before Regeneration Concerning the 3d Article which is about the Will of God to save all Men part of his Remarks are lost but by what remains we may see that he disapproved their asserting of it so generally and had rejected the Fathers Explications of it In the last Article he reproves them for saying 1. That there is no Mans Nature that is not healed by Jesus Christ and asserts that Jesus Christ did not assume the Humane Nature of necessity but of his own good will and that for the Elect 2. He dislikes them for holding that there is not ever was nor shall be a Man for whom Christ died not He confesses that he died for all that is Baptized and for the Righteous Men of the Old Testament but denies that he died for all Infidels which died before Christs Nativity for those who never received the Faith or Infants dying without Baptism He maintains that Christ died for none but for those for whom the Church prays and mentions in their Holy Services after their Death Lastly He disapproves their comparison between Infidels that never received the Faith and Christians who though they have been Baptized die in their Sins This Confutation of Remigius of the Articles of Quiercy is extant with the Treatises last mentioned Remigius Bishop of Lyons having thus confuted the Articles made at Quiercy by his own Writings The Canons of the Council of Valence about Grace caused his Doctrine to be confirmed in a Council held at Valence an 855. made up of 14 Bishops of the Provinces of Lyons Arles and Vienna in which the 3 Metropolitans presided and Ebbo Bishop of Grenoble was present They made 6 Canons in this Synod concerning Grace Free-will and Predestination The first forbids all Novel Expressions about such Matters and commands Men to follow the Doctrine of the Latin Fathers In the 2d they declare that God hath foreseen from all Eternity all the Good which Righteous Men will do by his Grace and all the Evil that Sinners will do by their own Malice That the Righteous shall receive Eternal Life as a reward of their good Actions and the Wicked be condemned justly for their Crimes to Eternal punishment That this Prescience lays no necessity
unworthy Priests have the Power of the Keys as well as the worthy The Twentieth Section contains the Opinions of the Fathers concerning the Repentance of dying Persons In the Twenty first he discourses of the Expiation of light Sins by the Pains of Purgatory of the general Confession of venial Sins and of the Penalties to be inflicted on Priests who divulge matters related to them in Confession In the Twenty second he proposes this Question viz. Whether Sins that have been once forgiven return by the Commission of following Sins And after having produced the Reasons on both sides leaves the Question undecided In the Twenty third Distinction he treats of the Sacrament of Unction which he believes to have been instituted by the Apostles the Effect of it being the remission of Sins and the comfort of the Sick Person He also proves that this Sacrament may be reiterated In the Twenty fourth he treats of the Functions and Dignity of the Seven Orders and of the different Dignities among Bishops In the Twenty fifth he discourses of the validity of Ordinations made by Hereticks and after having produced different Opinions seems to approve that of those who affirm that Persons who were ordain'd in the Church still retain the Power of ordaining though they turn Hereticks but deny that those whom they ordain have the same Power Afterwards he treats of Simoniacal Ordinations and of the Age requisite for admission into Orders In the Twenty sixth he shews the Antiquity of the Sacrament of Marriage In the Twenty seventh he enquires in what Marriage consists and distinguishes a Promise of future Marriage from Marriage contracted by the present Consent of the Parties In the Twenty eighth Twenty ninth and Thirtieth he gives a farther Account of the Conditions that ought to be annexed to such a Consent as is necessary for the Consummation of Marriage In the Thirty first he explains the Advantages of Marriage which are Fidelity the Lawful Procreation of Children and the Benefit of the Sacrament and treats of the contrary Vices In the Thirty second he discourses of Matters relating to the Continency of married Persons at certain times In the Thirty third he relates divers Considerations of the Fathers with respect to the Polygamy of the Patriarchs In the Thirty fourth he treats of the Impediments that render Persons uncapable of contracting Marriage and which make their Marriage void and of none Effect In the Thirty fifth he shews that a Man may be divorced from his Wife upon the Account of Adultery and that they may be afterwards reconcil'd The Author adds that he who has committed Adultery with a Woman may marry her after her Husband's decease provided he were not accessory to his Death and did not promise his Wife to marry her in his Life-time In the Thirty sixth Section he treats of the Impediment that arises from the difference of Age and Condition between the Parties who contract Marriage In the Thirty seventh he discourses of the Injunction of Celebacy observ'd by Bishops Priests Deacons and Sub-deacons and of Pope Calixtus's Ordinance declaring such Marriages null In the Thirty eighth he treats of the Impediment of a Vow In the Thirty ninth of that of difference in Religion In the Fortieth Forty first and Forty second of the Degrees of Cansanguinity and Affinity as well Temporal as Spiritual The other Sections contain divers Questions concerning the Resurrection the State of the Elect and of the Reprobates after their Death Prayers for the Dead the Invocation and Intercession of the Saints the Circumstances of the last Judgment the several Degrees of Beatitude and Glory and the State and Torments of the Damned with which ends the Fiftieth Section of the Fourth Book by the Master of the Sentences This Work was published by John Aleaume and printed at Paris A. D. 1565. and at Lyons in 158â— It was also revis'd by Antony de Mouchy and reprinted in the same City in 1618. and in otheâ— Places The Author makes it his chief Business as we have already hinted to collect the Opinions of the Fathers concerning all the Questions discussed by him He adds very little of his own except sometimes in reconciling certain Passages which seem to be contradictory and when he cannot bring them to an Agreement he usually leaves the Question undecided He avoids to meddle with Questions concerning which the Fathers have writ nothing and scarce ever makes use of Philosophical Terms and Arguments much less of Aristotle's Authority who is often cited by the other School-men The Book of Sentences by ROBERT PULLUS is not a Collection of Passages of the Fathers Robert Pullus Cardinal as that of Peter Lombard but a Theological Work in which he himself resolves certain Questions which are propos'd either by Ratiocination or by Proofs taken out of holy Scripture This Author sir-nam'd Pullus Pullen or Pully being an English Man by Nation passed over into France and flourished in the Schools of Paris He return'd to England about the Year 1130. and there re-established the University of Oxford in 1133. He was made Arch-deacon of Rochester and although he enjoy'd that Benefice yet forbore not to go back to Paris where he resided in Quality of Professor of Divinity However his Metropolitan thought fit to recall him and not being prevail'd with even upon St. Bernard's Request that he might still remain at Paris caus'd the Revenues of his Arch-deaconry to be seiz'd on to oblige him to return to England Whereupon Pullus appeal'd to the See of Rome and having much Interest in that Court was not only vindicated against the Archbishop but also invited to Rome by Pope Innocent II. and created Cardinal and Chancellor of the Church of Rome by Lucius II. in 1144. This Dignity was enjoy'd by him till the Third or Fifth Year of the Pontificate of Eugenius III. when he died A. D. 1150. Cardinal Pullus's Book of Sentences is divided into Eight Parts in the First of which he treats of the Existence of God of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity and of the Divine Attributes In the Second of the Creation of the World of the Angels of the Nature of Man of the Origine of the Soul of Adam's Fall of the Corruption of human Nature and of Original Sin In the Third of the Law of the Circumcision of the Law of Grace and of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. He continues his Discourse concerning that Mystery in the Fourth Part where he also treats of Faith Hope and Charity of Purgatory and of the State of Souls after their Separation from their Bodies In the Fifth he treats of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ of the Gift of Faith of the Sacraments of Baptism of Confirmation of the Remission of Sins of Charity and of Sin In the Sixth Part he discourses of the Effects of Sin of Concupiscence of Ignorance and other Punishments of Sin of the Temptations of the Devil of the Assistance of good Angels and their Functions
understand what they answer to the Priest Lastly They reject all the Exorcisms and all the Benedictions of that Sacrament They Likewise reject the Sacrament of Confirmation and wonder that only Bishops are allow'd to Administer it Concerning the Sacrament of the Eucharist they say That the Priests who are in any Mortal Sin cannot Consecrate and that Transubstantiation was not effected in the Hands of him who Consecrated Unworthily but in the Mouth of him who received the Eucharist Worthily and that one might consecrate on a common Table according to what the Prophet Malachy says They shall offer in all Places a pure Offering in my Name They likewise condemn'd the Custom of Christians who Communicated only once a Year because themselves Communicated daily They said That Transubstantiation ought to be made with Words in the Vulgar Tongue That the Mass was nothing because the Apostles never said it and they only said it for their own Interest They receiv'd not the Canon of the Mass but only made use of the Words of Jesus Christ in the Vulgar Tongue They call'd the Chanting of the Church an Infernal Crime They rejected the Canonical Hours They maintain That the Offering made to the Priest at Mass signifies nothing and disapprov'd of kissing the Pyx and the Altar About the Sacrament of Pennance they said That no body could be absolv'd by a Wicked Priest and on the contrary a good Laick has that Power That they remit Sins and confer the Holy Ghost by the Imposition of Hands That it was better to confess one's self to a good Laick than to a bad Priest That they ought not to impose large Pennances but to follow the Example of Jesus Christ who said to the Adulteress Go and sin no more They reject the Publick Pennances and the Annual general Confessions They likewise cast a blemish on the Sacrament of Marriage by maintaining That it was a Mortal Sin for a Man to have to do with his Wife when she was past Child-bearing They did not acknowledge the Spiritual Alliance nor the Impediments of Affinity and Consanguinity appointed by the Church no more than those of Publick Order and Decency They hold That Women have no need of Benediction after their Lying in That the Church was in the wrong in prohibiting the Clergy from Marrying and that they who live continently do not Sin by Kisses and Embraces They do not approve of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction because it was only given to the Rich and ought to be administred by a great many Priests That all the Laicks are as so many Priests That the Prayers of Wicked Priests signify nothing They laugh'd at the Clerical Tonsure They say That the Laicks ought not to pray in Latin that all the Laicks even the Women may Preach That whatever is not in the Scriptures is Fabulous They Celebrate and Administer the Sacraments in the Vulgar Tongue They learn by heart all the Text of the Scriptures and reject the Decisions and Expositions of the Fathers They despise Excommunication and have little or no regard to Absolution They laugh at Indulgences and Dispensations They do not allow of any Irregularity They believe no other Saints but the Apostles and invocate no Saints but God alone They despise the Canonizations Translations and Vigils of the Saints They laugh at the Laicks who make choice of Saints in the Lots which they draw upon the Altar They never say any Litanies They do not believe the Legends They ridicule the Miracles and have no esteem for Relicks They look upon Crosses as Common Wood. They Teach that the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and the Apostles is sufficient to Salvation without being oblig'd to observe the Laws of the Church and that the Tradition of the Church is the Tradition of the Pharisees They do not allow of any Mystical meaning in the Scriptures nor in the Practices or Ceremonies of the Church In the Third place these are the Errors which they held concerning the Usages of the Church They despis'd all the approv'd Customs which are not to be met with in the Gospel such as the Festivals of Candlemass and Palm-Sunday the Reconciling of Penitents the Adoration of the Cross the Festival of Easter with those of Jesus Christ and the Saints They say That all Days are equal and work on Holy-days as well as on other Days They do not observe the Fasts of the Church They despise the Dedications the Benedictions and the Consecrations of Wax-Tapers Boughs Chrism Fire the Paschal Lamb Lying-in-Women Pilgrims Holy Places Sacred Persons Ornaments Salt and Water They would have no Wall'd Church and disapprove of the Dedication of Churches and Altars and their Ornaments the Sacerdotal Habits the Chalices and the Corporals They would not have any lighted Tapers nor any Incense offer'd nor any Holy Water us'd They condemn Images the Chanting of the Church Processions on Festivals or Rogation-Days They find fault That a Priest is allow'd to Say many Masses on one Day They make Merry during the time of Interdiction They go not to Churches and perform the Duties of Christians only in appearance and Hypocritically They Condemn the Ecclesiastical Burial the Ceremonies of Interrments the Masses and Prayers for the Dead and the Confraternities They deny Purgatory and maintain That there are only Two States after Death one for the Good and Elect in Heaven and the other for the Reprobate and Damn'd in Hell They Teach That all Sin is in its own Nature Mortal and that there is no such thing as a Venial Sin They pretend that it is Unlawful to Swear whereupon those that are perfect among them chuse rather to Die than to Swear Those who are not so perfect Swear but do not think themselves oblig'd to keep their Oath and look upon those who exact it of them as more guilty than Homicides They Condemn all Princes and Judges being perswaded That 't is not Lawful to Punish Malefactors Lastly They Condemn the Ecclesiastical Judgments Pelicdorfius who Wrote about an Hundred Years after Rainerius against the Vaudois relates the Original of them after the same manner and observes That at first they only oppugn'd the Discipline and the Ceremonies of the Church without reflecting on the Sacraments but that afterwards they thought â—it to hear Confessions to impose Pennances and to grant Absolution and that within a while after some among them intruded to Consecrate the Body of Jesus Christ and to Communicate to others but that several of their Sect had disapprov'd of that Conduct The Errors of the Vaudois which Pelicdorfius refutes in his Work are 1. That the Sacerdotal Order was sunk ever since the time of St. Sylvester and that the True Faith was obscur'd and only a few Elect in the World 2. That the Priests and the other Clergy of the Church of Rome being Fornicators Usurers Drunkards c. have not the Holy Ghost cannot Confer it and are not to be Obey'd 3. That the Blessed Virgin and the Glorify'd
was always co-existent with the Father and Equality with the Father r And his equality with the Father In the fourth Book ch 8. he says that the Son is the measure of the Father because he comprehends him He seems to have said something contrary to this lib. 2. where he says that the Father is greater than the Son that he knew not of the day of Judgment And in another place he says that the Father is invisible and the Son visible But as to the first passage there is no more difficulty in it than in that of S. John and he speaks there of Jesus Christ considered as a Man And the second ought to be understood after the same manner as we have explained a like passage of S. Justin. It is yet more favourable to us because he says that the Son makes the Father visible Visibile Patris Filius Which shews that the Father and the Son are of the same nature In the Second Book s In the second Book Lib. 2. c. 51 c. principally in the 59 60 61 62 63 and 64. where he speaks of the Immortality of the Souls of the Just. See likewise Chap. 37. and 73. of the fourth Book and Lib. 5. c. 32. he Treats at large â—onccerning the Faculties of the Soul he conceives that it is distinguished from the Body and that it is of a different Nature he there refuâ—es the Metempsychosiâ— or Transmigration of Souls out of one Body into another and proves that those of the just shall subsist Eternally But 〈◊〉 sâ—…s to have believed as well as S. Justin that they are immortal only through Grace and that those of the wicked shall cease to be after they have been tormented for a long time He maintains also another particular Opinion that the Souls assume the Figure of their Bodies but this word Figure may be understood of some peculiar Quality of the Soul He Discourseth in many places of the Fall of the first Man and of the lamentable Consequences of his Sin t Of the lamentable consequences of his Sin Lib. 3. c. 20 33 34 and 35. and in several places of the fifth Book he teacheth that to repair this 〈◊〉 and for the Redemption of Mankind the Word was made Man and that 〈◊〉 is through Grace that he hath merited for us by his Passion that all Men may be saved u That all Men may be saved Lib. 3. cap. 18 20 22 and 33. Lib. 4. chap. 5. As for the State of Souls separated from their Bodies he determined that they were conveyed into an invisible place where they expected the Resurrection of the Body and that the Just after having Reâ—gned with Jesus Christ on Earth during the space of a Thousand years and enjoyed temporal Pleasures should enter into Heaven to possess Eternal Happiness x To possess eternal happiness Lib. 5. c. 31 32 c. He imagined also that our Saviouâ— descended into Hell to preach the Faith there into the Patriarchs and to the ancient just Men as well Jews as Gentiles and that they that believed at his Preaching should be reckoned in the number of the Saints y Number of the Saints Lib. 4. c. 39 and 45. Moreover he maintained some other particular Opinions he believed for Example that Jesus Christ lived above Fifty years upon Earth z Above fifty years upon Earth Lib. 1. c. 40. c. and that as Man He was ignorant of the Day of Judgment c. He approves the Judgment of S. Justin that the Devil knew not his Condemnation before the coming of Jesus Christ aa Before the coming of Jesus Christ. Lib. 4. c. 78. He asserts that the Saints shall undâ—rstâ—nd by little and little those things whereof they had no knowledge in their Entrance into Happiness bb Whereof they had no knowledge in their Entrance into happiness Lib. 2. c. 47. Lastly he imagines that God sent Enoch to the Angels cc To the Angels Lib. 4. c. 30. whom he conceives to 〈◊〉 câ—rporeal The ancient Propagators of Christianity ought to be excused for these sorts of Opinions thâ—… being scarcely one of them that had not admitted some Notions almost like these The Style of S. 〈◊〉 as far as we can judge by that part of his Works which as yet remains is succinct clear and 〈◊〉 but not very sublime He declares himself in his Preface to the First Book That the Elegancy of a poâ—â—e Dissertation ought not to be sought for in his Works because residing among the Celtae it is impossible but that he should â—nter many barbarous Words that he did not affect Discourse with Eloquence 〈◊〉 Ornament and that he knew not how to perswade by the force of his Expressions but that he wrote with a vulgar Simplicity He takes more pains to instruct his Reader than to divert him and he endeavours more to convince him by the Matters which he propounded than by the manner of Expressing them It cannot be doubted but that he was a very profound Scholar in all sorts of Knowledge as well prophane as Sacred he perfectly understood the Poets and Philosophers dd The Poets and Philosophers It is certain he understood Homer very well since he collects several Verses taken out of different places to describe the carrying away of Cerberus lib. 1. And as for the Pagan Philosophers he knew them so very thoroughly that in the second Book ch 11. he discovers all that the Valentinians had borrowed from each of them We need only read over his first Book to be sufficiently persuaded that he had very particularly applied himself to know all the Opinions of the Hereticks One sees by the Histories which he cites as well in his Books as in his Letter to Victor how well he was verst in History and in the Discipline of thâ— Church there was no Heretick of whose Doctrine and Arguments he was ignorant he had an exquisite knowledge of the Holy Scriptures he retained an infinite number of things which the Disciples of the Apostles had taught by word of mouth Lastly he was exceeding well versed in History and in the Discipline of the Church so that nothing can be more literally true than what is attested of him by Terâ—dlian Irenaeus â—â—â—niuâ— Doctrinarum Cariosissimus explorator Moreover his Learning was accompanied with a great deal of Prudence Humility Efficacy and Charity and it may be justly affirmed that he wanted nothing that was necessary for the Qualification of a good Christian an Accomplished Bishop and an able Ecclesiastical Writer However the Learned Photius had reason to take notice of one defect which is common to him with many other ancient Authors that is That he weakens and obscures if we may so term it the most certain Truths of Religion by Arguments that are 〈◊〉 very solid ee Arguments that are not very solid Phot. God 120. Etsi in aliquibus Ecclesiasticorum dogmatum certa veritas spuritis rationibus
give their Children good Education In the 60th Homily upon S. Matthew he blameth the Carelesness of Parents in the choice of a Tutour Lastly In the 21st and 22d Homilies upon the Epistle to the Ephesians he admonishes Fathers to be less sollicitous about their Children's getting School-learning and to take more care that they be taught Piety and the Christian Religion Read the 59th Homily upon S. Matthew the 9th upon 1 Tim. and the 1st upon Rom. where he discourseth of the Duties of a Master in a Family in relation to his Wife Children and Servants He observes in the 15th Homily upon the Epistle to the Ephesians That a Mistress is not to abuse her Maid-servants See also the 16th Homily upon the 1st Epistle to Timothy Of Afflictions S. Chrysostom not only teaches us that we ought to bear the losses sicknesses and other afflictions that may happen in this World patiently But he shews besides that they are the portion of all good Men He gives Eight Reasons for it worth reading in the Homily upon these Words of S. Paul to Timothy Use a little Wine in the 4th and 5th Discourses concerning Statues in the 28th Homily upon the Epistle to the Hebrews in the 33d upon S. Matthew in the 8th upon 2Tim and in the 28th and 29th Homilies upon the Epistle to the Hebrews Of Death S. Chrysostom's Homilies are full of excellent Instructions concerning Death wherein he shews that instead of fearing Death a Christian ought to desire it To what purpose saith he in the 5th Homily of Statues should a Man fear sudden Death Is it because it brings us the sooner to our Haven and hastens our passage to an happy life What folly is this We expect eternal felicity and those good things which no Eye hath seen no Ear heard and which never entred into the Heart of Man and yet we doe not only put off the fruition of them but we fear it yea we abhor it He tells us in other places That this life being but a journey a train of Miseries a banishment from our own Country c. we should be very miserable if it never were to end See the 21st and 32d Homilies upon Genesis the Discourse upon these Words of S. Paul Be not sorry for the death of your Brethren where he carries this Notion further and saith That we should be as glad to go out of this World as Criminals are to get out of Prison See the 1st Homily upon Genesis the 14th upon the Epistle to Timothy and the 7th upon the Epistle to the Hebrews Last of all He hath one Sermon to prove that Death is not to be feared From these Principles he concludes in several places that we ought not to weep for the Dead but on the contrary rejoyce for that they have quitted this miserable life to enter into one which is both eternal and happy See the 34th Homily upon S. Matthew the 62d upon S. John the 21st upon the Acts the 6th upon the Epistle to the Thessalonians and the 4th upon the Epistle to the Hebrews Christian Maxims which S. Chrysostom lays down and maintains in his Sermons WE ought not to be addicted to the Goods of this World Hom. 2. upon Matthew Persons who are not vertuous will receive no advantage from the Vertues of others Hom. 〈◊〉 in Matthew The Vertue of our Relations will doe us no good if we our selves want Piety Hom. 10. on Matt. Men ought to exercise themselves in the practice of all Vertues Hom. 11. on Matthew No Mercy is to be looked for after Death but only severe Justice there is no middle place between Hell or Heaven Hom. 14. upon Matthew He that reflects upon the joys of Heaven will find it easie to practise Vertue Hom. 16. upon Matthew The Commandments of God are not impossible to those that are willing to keep them Hom. 21. on Matthew Nay they are easie with God's grace Hom. 56. and 76. on Matthew and 87. upon S. John Let him that is in the State of Grace not trust too much to his own strength lest he fall neither let him that is fallen despair Hom. 26. and 67. upon Matthew Spiritual advantages are to be preferr'd before those things that otherwise seem to be most necessary Hom. 26. upon Matthew A Man of an ill life is worse than a dead Man Hom. 26. upon Matthew Passionate intemperate debauched and covetous Men are worse than those that are possessed with the Devil Hom. 28. upon Matthew The Yoke of Vertue is light and easie that of Sin is heavy and troublesome Hom. 38. upon Matthew and 88. upon John We ought to examine and be sorry for our faults and not be concerned for those of other Men. Hom. 24. upon Matthew and 60. upon S. John Vertue is more to be esteemed than Miracles Hom. 46. upon Matthew To feed the Poor is better than to give Ornaments of Gold or Silver to the Church Hom. 50. upon Matthew He that offends another wrongs himself more than the other Hom. 51. upon Matthew A Man that is addicted to worldly things is in the most unhappy slavery that can be Hom. 58. upon Matthew It is better to adorn our Souls with Vertue than the Body with rich Clothes Hom. 69. upon Matthew A Soul polluted with Crimes stinks worse than a putrefied Body Hom. 57. upon Matthew It is to no purpose to have been Baptized and to be in the true Church unless we lead our Lives conformably to the Doctrine of the Gospel and our Baptismal profession Hom. 6. and 10. upon John Whatever appears great in this World is nothing before God Hom. 44. in Joan. Nothing ought to be better husbanded than Time Hom. 58. upon John We should not ask of God temporal but spiritual Goods Hom. 43. and 54. upon John A Christian ought to work not only for himself but also for others Hom. 20. upon the Acts. It often happens that those who design to afflict the Righteous and hinder the purposes of God concerning them doe further them when they do not intend it Hom. 49. upon the Acts. The loss of worldly Goods ought not to be lamented but that only of the joys of Heaven Hom. 10. upon the Romans We ought to doe that which is good in this World and not depend upon the Prayers of our kindred and friends after death Hom. 42. upon 1 Cor. The Salvation of others ought to be preferred before our own satisfaction Hom. 29. upon 2 Cor. Vertues are like Treasures they must be hid to be kept If they be exposed publickly there is danger of losing them Hom. 3. upon Matthew To be Master of one's own Passions is true liberty Hom. 17. upon 1 Tim. Nothing is to be lamented but Sin Hom. 3. upon the Hebrews No Man is offended but by himself See his Discourse upon this Paradox and his Letters Passim It is easie to get Vertue and preserve it too Passim It is more easie to live well than ill
they are 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 H◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon Original Sin upon the Fall of Mâ—â—â— and Angels upon the 〈◊〉 of a 〈◊〉 of Baptism and Grace upon the Distinction of Veâ—ial and 〈◊〉 Sâ—â—s upon the Eternity and the Inequâ—lity of the Pains of the Daâ—â—ed upon the Exâ—… of the VVill of God to save Men upon Fâ—â—e-Will and upon the State of Souls till the Day of Judgment Having thus explained what concerns Faith he comes to Hope and he â—â—â—th That Christians â—â—â—ght to Hope in God alone and that whatsoever we Hope for is coâ—prehended in the Lord's Prayer upon which he makes some Reflections Lastly he treateth of Charity without which he pretends That no Man can be Rigâ—…eous To which he 〈◊〉 all the 〈◊〉 of God and Advices of the Gospel This Book was written after St. Jerom's Death who dyed in 420. as is plain by the 87th Chapter where St. Augustin speaks of him as one dead The Book intiâ—â—led The Câ—â—bâ—â— of a Christian has much the same Design with the foregoing St. Augustin coâ—posed i◠〈◊〉 after he was a Bishop in a plain Stile that it might be the more proper to instill the Doctrine and Prâ—â—â—pts of Christian Religion into those Christians who were not Skilfull in the Latin Tongue He exhorts them at first to fight against the Devil Then he shews Thâ—â— Men get the Victory over him when they overcome their Passions and bring their Bodies under Subjection which is only done by submitting to God to whom every Creature ought to be subject either Willingly or out of Necessity He adds That in this Combat Man is armed with Faith and with the Assistances which Christ meâ—â—â—ed for us by his Death At last he runs through the Articles of the Creed and refutes the contrary Herâ—sâ—â—s The Book of Instruction for these that have no Knowledge of our Religion was written at the Request of a Deacon of Carthage who desired of St. Augustin Rules and a Method to Caâ—eâ—â—iâ—e his People acceptably and usefully The Father comforts him at the beginning upon his being very often not pleased with his own Discourses since it sometimes happens that a Discourse which displeases the Speaker is very acceptable to the Hearers He adviseth him to teach them cheerfully and not to be tired with it and then furnishes him with Rules how to instruct them right in their Religion He saith in the first place That perfect Instruction should begin at the Creation of the World and end with the present Age of the Church Bâ—â— for this there is no need of learning by heart or reciting all the Books of the Bible one needs only chuse the best the most admirable and most diverting Passages He layeth down in the second place his usual Rule That every thing ought to be referred to Charity That Care must be taken that the Aâ—ditor may believe what is spoken Hope what he Believes and Love what he Hopes for And he would have him inspired with a wholsome Fear of God's Judgments and kept from all prospects of temporal Interest and Advantage that he might have by being a Christian. He observes That the same Method is not to be followed with the Learned as with the Ignorant and he lays down very prudent Rules how they are to be dealt withal He shews what Things commonly tiâ—â— the Heareâ—â— and he gives excellent Remedies how they may be avoided and at last makes Two instructive Speeches one pretty long the other shorter but composed with a great deal of Art to serve for an Example or Pattern of such Instructions as ought to be given This Treatise shews That to instruct Men well in Religion is an harder Task than most Men imagine and that the Method formerly used was nobler and larger than that which is now observed This Book is of the Year 400 or thereabouts Though St. Augustin does not mention his Treatise of Continency in the Review of his Works yet he owns it in the 262d Epistle and Possidius reckons it among his VVorks This Book is a Discourse upon these VVords of the 140th Psalm Set a Watch O Lord before my Mouth and keep the Doors of my Lips O let not my Heart be enclined to any evil Thing let me not be occupied in ungodly Works with the Men that work Wickedness He shews That true Continency consists in suppressing ones Passions and he recommends the Necessity of Grace to overcome them He speaks against the Proud who excuse their Sins and particularly against the Manichees who charged their Sins upon an evil Nature that was in them This Sermon is thought to be of the Year 395. or thereabouts Both the following Treatises are written against the Errour of Jovinian This Enemy of Virginity had drawn aside several Roman Virgins from their Design of continuing so and perswaded them to marry saying to them Are you better than Susanna or Anna or so many other Holy Women Though Jovinian's Opinion was rejected at Rome yet this Heretick's Disciples gave out That none could refute him without condemning Marriage To undeceive those that were of this Opinion St. Augustin writ a Book intituled Of the Advantage of Matrimony before he undertook to speak of the Excellency of Virginity Wherein he saith first That the Union betwixt the Husband and the Wife is the most Ancient and the most Natural After that he examineth a Question rather Curious than Useful namely How Men could have had Children had they persisted in the State of Innocence He observes a Four-fold Advantage in Marriage The Society of both Sexes the Procreation of Children the good Use of Lust which is regulated by a Prospect of having Children and the Fidelity which Husband and Wife preserve towards each other He saith That every Union between a Woman and a Man is not Marriage He doth not think That this Name is to be given to that Union whose aim was only to satisfie their brutish Passion if they endeavoured to prevent their having Children He declares That Man guilty of Adultery who should abuse a Virgin when he has a Design of Marrying another As for the Young Woman he judgeth her guilty of Sin but not of Adultery if she is true to that Man and Designs not to marry when he leaveth her Nay he preferrs her before several married VVomen who abuse Matrimony by their Intemperance He doth not excuse from venial Sin either the Man or the VVoman who have another Prospect in Marriage than the begetting of Children In a word he distinguishes Three Things in Marriage The Fidelity which married Persons owe one to the other which is of natural Right the Procreation of Children which ought to be the end of Marriage and the Sacrament â—r mysterious Signification which makes it indissoluble For which Reason he determines That though humane Laws permit a Man to marry again when he is divorced from a former Wife yet it is not Lawful for Christians to whom St. Paul forbids it He concludes That Marriage is
doth not only help Man to do Good when he is willing but makes him willing to do it that the Saints of the Old Testament were only justified by Faith in Jesus Christ that Baptism is not only necessary to Children to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but also to obtain a share in Life eternal out of which they are excluded by original Sin alone In the Two next Books he refutes almost the same Calumnies contained in the other Letter of the Pelagians The Two First are about Free-Will and Marriage St. Augustin adds nothing to what he had said in the fore-going Book In the Third they taxed the Catholicks with introducing Fatality St. Augustin shews the difference betwixt Grace and Fate In the Fourth they accused them of maintaining That the Law was not given to Justifie Man but to render him more Sinful St. Augustin tells them That they did not understand the Opinion of the Church in that Point that the Law was given to teach what ought to be done but that it is Grace which makes us obey the Law and so the Law doth indeed shew what Righteousness is but doth not make us practise it Fifthly They upbraided the Catholicks with believing That Baptism did not remit all Sins so that Men continued partly God's Children and partly the Children of the Devil St. Augustin replies That Baptism doth indeed remit all Sins but it doth not cure Nature of its Weaknesses and Imperfections That the Righteous may and do Sin often without becoming therefore the Children of the Devil because there is no Man so Righteous as that he sinneth not The Sixth Calumny is concerning the Old Testament St. Augustin answereth That the Righteous who lived under the Old Testament were justified through the Grace of the New whereof the Old was only the Figure The Seventh is that the Apostles and Prophets were not perfectly Holy but only less criminal than others St. Augustin answers That they were truly Righteous through Faith and Charity but they had not all the perfection of Vertue which now they have in the other Life He utterly rejects the Ninth Calumny whereby they accused the Catholicks of saying That Jesus Christ had been subject to Sin The Tenth Calumny was expressed in these Terms They affirm That Men shall begin in the next Life to practise the Commandments which they did not practise in this St. Augustin opposes it shewing That they put an ill Construction upon a Catholick Truth which is That the Vertue and the Righteousness of Men shall only be perfect in the next Life In the last Book St. Augustin refutes the Pelagian Doctrines and shews That under pretence of commending Nature Marriage Free-VVill the Law and the Saints of the Old Testament they advanced very dangerous Errors to which he opposes several Testimonies of St. Cyprian and of St. Ambrose The Book of Grace and Free-Will was written by St. Augustin in the Year 427. upon a Dispute which happened in the Monastery of Adrumetum against those who fearing least by the Doctrine of Grace Free-VVill should be denied do indeed deny Grace by defending Free-VVill because they suppose that Grace is given according to Merit This last Error St. Augustin chiefly opposes in this Book shewing That the beginning both of Faith and good Resolutions is an effect of Grace The reading of this Book did not settle Peace among those Monks For there was an Objection proposed which was obvious enough to every Man's understanding If no Man can do Good without the Grace of God and this Grace cannot be merited no Man is to be reproved or corrected for not doing his Duty since it is not in his Power to do it because he wants Grace and cannot deserve it St. Augustin perceiving the Difficulty of this Objection for the Solution thereof composed the Book of Correction and Grace wherein without retracting any thing of what he had formerly said he affirms That Admonition is to be used 1. Because it may happen that God will touch the Heart of him that is reproved 2. Because Sinners sin voluntarily and without Compulsion and that they cannot complain that God hath denied them his Grace or the Gift of Perseverance since he owes his Grace to no body He does not content himself with Answering the Objection but further explains and confirms his Principles by shewing the difference betwixt the Grace of Adam in the State of Innocence and that which is necessary to Man in the state of fallen Nature He speaks also of the Gift of Perseverance which is not granted unto all and of the Power of Grace and the free Predestination of the Elect. He again insisteth upon the same Matter and upon the same Principles in both the Books which he writ in answer to Hilary's and Prosper's Letters The First is of the Predestination of the Saints and the Second of the Gift of Perseverance Wherein he demonstrates That the beginning of Faith and good Purposes is the Gift of God and that so our Predestination or Vocation does not depend upon our Merits The Second Book concerns the Gift of Perseverance which he shews to depend equally upon God as the beginning of our Conversion St. Augustin composed these Treatises in the Year 429. St. Augustin's last Effort against the Pelagians fell upon Julianus his old Adversary who to maintain the Quarrel he had begun composed Eight Books against St. Augustin's Second Book Of Matrimony and Concupiscence St. Augustin having received Five of them from Alypius undertook to write against them and was engaged about the Fourth when he writ the â—â—4th Letter to Quodvultdeus in the Year 428. It is probable that Alypius sent him the other Three but St. Augustin answered but Six and this Work remains imperfect as Possidius affirms The Six Books of St. Augustin were published by F. Vignier from a Manuscript of the Abby of Clervaux which in all probability will be revised and corrected in a new Edition from some other Manuscripts These Books are written by way of Dialogue There St. Augustin produces Julianus's own Terms and Answers them plainly and in few Words We referr'd to speak of St. Augustin's Four Treatises Of the original of the Soul to this place because they were not written properly against the Pelagians though St. Augustin handleth there some Questions that have some relation to the Dispute betwixt them Therefore I think that it had been more proper to have set them at the end of the Sixth Volume than in this place The occasion and subject of these Four Books is this A Priest of the Province of Mauritania Caesariensis one Victor who was Surnamed Vincentius from a Donatist Bishop Successor to Victor of that Name whose Memory that Priest who had been a Donatist did reverence very much This Priest I say having met in the House of one Peter a Spanish Priest with a Writing of St. Augustin's wherein this Saint had set down his usual Doubts about the Soul 's Original wrote two Books
Church of Rome and Africk yea and of all Orthodox Christians in the World That the cause why these Persons acted in this manner was That they could not endure what had been opposed against those things which in their Conferences they had started against S. Austin's Doctrine That they knew well enough that if they came to produce their Maxims in any Council a great number of S. Austin's Writings would be objected against them which would evidently prove that we ought to attribute all the Glory of the Good we do to the Grace of Jesus Christ and not in the least to the freedom of our Wills In sum That he hoped through the Mercy of God that he would not for ever deprive those of his Illumination whom at present he permitted to forsake Christian Humility that they might follow the bent of their own Wills The Error of these Persons consists in asserting That our Vertues and Holy Lives spring from Nature or if they proceed from Grace it had been preceded by some good Action or Election of the Will which had deserved it S. Prosper undertakes to confute this Opinion by proving from Testimonies of Holy Scripture that since the Fall of Man the Free-will hath no Power to do any good or to deserve any thing unless assisted by the Grace of Jesus Christ and that all Men being faln into a state of Perdition through the sin of Adam nothing but the gratuitous Mercy of God could deliver them To prove this Doctrine he brings the Example of Children who die Unbaptized and of those Nations to whom the Gospel hath not been Preached He adds That Grace doth not destroy Free-will but that it restores and changes it That of it self it can do nothing but Evil and all the Work it doth tends to Man's Destruction That Grace cures it and makes it act and think otherwise but he teaches at the same time that its Recovery proceeds not from himself but from his Physician Lastly S. Prosper refells the Calumny with which they had blackned the Doctrine of S. Austin by accusing it of introducing a Fatality and admitting two Natures in Man He maintains That he never asserted any thing like to those Errors That neither himself nor his Scholars hold That any thing happens through Fate but they assure us that all is ordered and ruled by Divine Providence That they allow not two Natures in Man the one good and the other bad but only one Nature which having been created perfect is faln from that Perfection by the sin of the first Man and is become subject to Eternal Death but Jesus Christ hath restored it by a second Creation and secured its Liberty by preventing it and helping it continually He concludes by exhorting him to whom he wrote to read carefully S. Austin's Works if he desired to be well instructed in the sound Doctrine concerning the Grace of Jesus Christ. But the Adversaries of S. Austin were not contented to divulge scandalous Reports against his Doctrine but they set down in writing the pernicious Consequences which they thought might be drawn from it Vincentius who was perhaps the famous Monk of Lerins of whom we have spoken put out sixteen erroneous Propositions which he pretends to be maintain'd by S. Austin and his Scholars This oblig'd S. Prosper to deliver S. Austin's and his Scholars Judgment upon every one of his Propositions Objection I. That our Lord Jesus Christ did not die for the Salvation and Redemption of all Mankind S. Prosper answers That it is a true Assertion that Jesus Christ died for all Men because he assumed that Nature which is common to all Men that he offered up himself upon the Account of all Men and that he hath paid a Price sufficient for their Redemption But nevertheless all Men have not a part in that Redemption but those only who have been regenerated by Baptismal Grace and are become the Members of Jesus Christ. Objection II. That God will not save all Men altho' they desire to be saved S. Prosper Answers That it may be said That God desires the Salvation of all Men altho there be some that shall not be saved for Reasons known only to himself That those that perish perish through their own fault but they who are saved are saved by the Grace of Jesus Christ. Objection III. That God created one part of Mankind to damn them Eternally He Answers That God creates no Man to Damnation The sin of the first Man hath damned many but God created them not to be damned but to be Men. He denies not his Concourse for the multiplying of Mankind He rewards many for the good that is done by them and he punishes in others the Vices that he sees them guilty of Objection IV. That one part of Mankind is created to do the Will of the Devil His Answer is That God created no Man to do the Will of the Devil but every Man is made a Captive of the Devil by reason of the sin of the first Man Objection V. That God is the Author of Evil since he is the Author of our perverse Will and hath created us of such a Nature as cannot but sin He replies This Objection is also grounded upon the Doctrine of Original Sin God hath created Nature but Sin which is contrary to Nature hath been introduced by the Apostacy of Adam Objection VI. That Man 's free Will is like the Devils which cannot do any good He answers All the difference is that God sometimes converts through his Mercy some of the vilest Sinners but the Devils are past all hopes of Repentance Objection VII That God will not have a great number of Christians to be saved nor gives them a desire so to be His Answer is They that desire not to be saved cannot be saved but 't is not the Will of God that makes them not desire it but on the contrary 't is that which stirs up the Wills of them that desire it God forsakes no Man that forsakes him not and very often converts those who have forsaken him The Three Objections and Answers which follow are bottomed upon the same Principles with the former The seven last are some Difficulties about Predestination which come all to one Head almost viz. If God hath predestined some to Salvation and others to Damnation this Predestination is the cause of all the Evil that is done and all the Faithful who are decreed to Damnation shall necessarily be damned whatsoever they do The general Answer to these Objections is this That God hath not predestined the sin of any Man He knew from all Eternity the sins which should be committed and hath decreed the punishment of sins but not the sins themselves He damns the Wicked and Impenitent but he makes them not either Wicked or Impenitent It is true he gives them not the Gift of Righteousness or Repentance but neither is he obliged to do it It is one thing to deny a Gift and another to
and very profitable Maxims The Discourse of this Author is not excellent for the Elegancy of the Expressions but for the acuteness and neatness of the Notions GENNADIUS GEnnadius a Priest of Marseille did himself make a Catalogue of his own Works at the Gennadius end of his Book of Ecclesiastical Writers I have Written saith he eight Books against all the Heresies six Books against Nestorius three Books against Pelagius A Treatise concerning the Millennium and St. John's Revelation * It is a continuation of St. Jerom's Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers from 392 where St. Jerom left off to 495 and therefore has been Printed with it at Basil in 1528 4to at Colen in 1580 at Helmstadt in 1612 4to and at Antwerp 1639. A Book of the Ecclesiastical Writers and a Treatise of the Doctrine I hold and believe sent to Pope Gelasius We have nothing of his but the two last It is needless to speak of the first here because we have Copied it out wholly in this Volume The Last which bears this Title at present Of the Doctrines of the Church hath gone a long time under the Name of St. Austin although the Authors of this Age have told us that it is Gennadius's and it carries his Name in some ancient MSS. See what we have already said when we spoke of the Additions to the 8th Tome of St. Austin's Works It is Composed in the form of a Confession of Faith but in delivering the Orthodox truths he rejects the Contrary Errors and Names the Maintainers of them The five first Articles are about the Trinity and Incarnation the four following upon the Resurrection In these last he rejects the fabulous Opinion of the Millennaries and the Errors of Origen and Diodorus and proves that there shall be but one Resurrection of the Flesh which shall be real though incorruptible He thinks that it may be said that those who shall be found alive at the day of Judgment shall not Die but shall only be Changed but it can't be asserted without an Error that the Torments of the Devils or Wicked Men shall one day have an end He is of Opinion that none but God is Spiritual that all Creatures are Corporeal although Intellectual Creatures are Immortal He rejects the Opinion of Origen about the Pre-existence of Souls as also of those that hold that they are produced by generation He says that God Creates and at the same time infuses them into the Body He asserts that only the Soul of Man exists separately from the Body that Man is made up of a Soul and Body but there is no difference of Substance in him He holds that Man was Created free but by Sin he hath lost the strength of that liberty but yet he has not quite lost the power of choosing Good and refusing Evil and to seek after his own Salvation because God exhorts him stirs him up and encourages him to do it So that the beginning of Man's Salvation proceeds from his Free-will strengthened by Grace because he can freely yield to its Inspiration but it is the Gift of God to be able to attain the end we desire that it depends upon our Labour and the assistance of God that we do not fall from the state of Grace and when we do fall we ought to impute it to our own negligence and the viciousness of the Will He passes next to the Sacraments and affirms That there is but one Baptism and that we must not Baptize them again who have been Baptized by Hereticks with the Invocation of the Name of the Trinity but they who have not been Baptized in the Name of the Trinity ought to be Rebaptized because such a Baptism is not true He neither commends nor blames the practise of those who received the Sacrament every day But he exhorts and requires them to receive the Sacrament every Sunday provided they are not linked to any Sin for those who are accustomed to any Sin are rather leaden by the guilt than purged from it by the Sacrament but yet he that finds himself averse from Sin may receive the Sacrament although he hath Sin'd which he understands as himself says of him who hath not committed any grievous or heinous Sins for whosoever hath committed any of these sort of Sins after Baptism he exhorts him to testifie his sorrow for them by performing publick Penance and so be restored to the Communion of the Church by the Absolution of the Priest if he will not subject himself to Condemnation by receiving of the Sacrament Not that I deny that Heinous Sins can be * Pardoned remitted by a Private Repentance but then it must be done by an entire change of the Custom of Living by a continual sorrow for them and not receiving the Sacrament till they had made a thorough Reformation and live altogether otherwise than they have done True Repentance is not to be guilty again of that which we have Repented of and real satisfaction consists in eradicating Sin and never more exposing our selves to Temptations In the 25 * D. Cave is of Opinion that 30 Articles of this work viz. from Art 22. to Art 51 are not Gennadius's but composed by some other hand after Gennadius's Death Article he affirms That we ought not to expect any thing Earthly in our Happiness and that the Millennary Reign of Christ is a mere Chimaera The other Articles are nothing but Explications of the precedent or concern the Discipline of the Church He speaks also of Grace and Free-will in Art 26 where he says that no Man tends to Salvation unless he be called to it and that none that are called can it obtain but by the help of God that none obtains this assistance but he that prays for it that God wills not that any should Perish that he only permits it that he may not injure Man's Freedom He adds in Art 27 and those that follow that God did not create Sin that Men commit it by their Freedom That this proves that only God is immutable That the Angels have voluntary persevered in goodness That Marriage is good when it is used for the procreation of Children or to avoid Fornication That Celibacy when it is preserved with a design to serve God is a very advantageous State and Virginity is also most excellent That it is Lawful to eat of all sorts of Meats but it is convenient to abstain from some and preserve Temperance That it is credible that Mary the Mother of God did always remain a Virgin That we ought not to believe that at the Day of Judgment the Elements shall be destroyed but only changed That the Resurrection shall not quite take away the difference of Sexes That the Souls of the Righteous go to Heaven as soon as they depart from their Bodies and then expect perfect Happiness but the Souls of Sinners are kept in Hell where they wait their Punishment That the Flesh of Man is not Naturally
to live well that their punishment may be the less He passes over slightly the Question about Predestination to Damnation He confesses that he meets not with that word used in that sense in Holy Scripture and that the great Lights of the Church abhor that expression for fear Men should think God hath made his Creatures to punish them and that he unjustly condemns Persons who have no power to avoid Sin or Damnation That nevertheless it happens that as God hath ordained the punishments which are consequent upon the Sin of the First Man so he hath ordained the punishment of Sinners yet so as they themselves are the Authors of their own Damnation That since Men agree in the Matter they should not quarrel about the Words and Expressions seeking to get an unprofitable Victory Lastly he passeth to the 3d Question concerning the Extent of the Redemption of Jesus Christ which he calls the Measure of his Blood He â—ets down and approves of the Expressions of Scripture which import That Jesus Christ died for all Men and hath redeemed all but he says that they ought to be understood as he hath explained them in which it is said He will have all Men to be saved He adds that it may be said as a probability that he died for all that are in his Church and receive the Sacraments whether they be in the number of the Elect or Reprobate He says that some Men condemn this Opinion of Blasphemy that he himself should be of that Judgment and should believe that God punishes some of the Reprobate the less for the Merits of Jesus Christ but that the Apostle speaking of the Merits of Jesus Christ that they are of no worth to those that are circumcised it seems reasonable to believe that the Death of Jesus Christ is of no worth to those that are indeed Baptized but relapse and die in their Sins and Infidelity That nevertheless that he may not render himself odious to them who hold that Jesus Christ died not only for the Good but also for Sinners he sets down a Passage of S. Chrysostome which seems to favour that Opinion and may unite all divided Minds about that Matter Jesus Christ saith that Excellent Bishop by his Doctrine and Holiness died for all not only for the faithful but all the World if all do not believe he hath done whatever was requisite on his part to save them After these Remarks Lupus concludes leaving every one to their liberty to choose what Opinion they judge truest He confirms his Opinion which he laid down in this Treatise by a Collection of Passages out of S. Austin S. Jerom and some others of the Fathers upon these three Questions This Treatise of Lupus is extant Printed by Sirmondus in Holland 1648 and 1650 and with the rest of his Works at Paris 1664. After Lupus had composed this Tract he sent a Letter to Hincmarus and Pardulus which contained Lupus's Letter to Hincmarus and Pardulus an Abridgment of his Doctrine In iâ— he says that the truest Opinion is that Predestination in regard to the Elect is a Preparative Grace and in respect to the Wicked is a withdrawing of the same Grace That all Men are born in a State of Damnation and God takes such out of that State as he pleaseth by his Mercy and leaves others in it by his Justice So that it is true that God predestines those he hardens not by impelling them into sin but by not keeping them from it That this Predestination doth necessitate neither the good or evil because both have a freedom of will which excludes a fatal necessity That the Elect who receive from God the power to will and do do freely perform all that conduceth to their Salvation and the Reprobate who are forsaken by God do voluntarily and not against their wills those actions which deserve Eternal Punishment That no Man is so silly as to say that there is a necessity where the will hath a command although it be assisted by the Grace of God or left by his just Judgment But as to Infants who dye before they come to the use of Reason it cannot be said that their will hath a part in their Salvation or Damnation because they are either saved by the Grace of Baptism or damned by the Sin of the First Man This Letter is among his Epistles Printed by Massonus at Paris 1588 and in the forementioned Edition of all his Works It is easie to see that this Author although he was of S. Austins Judgment yet manages his Expressions so warily that he may offend neither side but bring them to an Agreement but it happened to him as it ordinarily does to them that are Mediators for Peace though they carry themselves never so wisely and cautiously and have often Reason of their side they are disliked by both Parties at variance Gotteschalcus a very rough and severe Man blamed the mildness which Lupus Servatus had used and the moderate Expressions which he had brought That Man saith he in a Letter written to Retramnus is so cautious and moderate and hath so cunningly answered the 3 Questions of which he speaks in his Book that he agrees not throughly with either Party Hincmarus and Pardulus were not better satisfied but accused him of Opinions unworthy of the Mercy and Goodness of God which forced him to write his Letter to Charles the Bald to explain his Lupus's Lâ—tter to Charles the Bald. Judgment more clearly in that Dispute It contains an Abridgment of his former Treatâ—se concerning the Fall of all Men in Adam concerning the Election which God is pleased to make of some concerning Predestination and Reprobation concerning the Assistance which God is pleased to give Men through his mere Mercy concerning the Just desertion of the Wicked concerning the loss of Man's free will to do good concerning the Efficaciousness of Grace and the Death of Jesus Christ for all Men. Which last Article he explains more largely for after he hath cited somâ— Passages of S. Austin to prove that when he says that Christ died for all Men he ought to be understood of those only that are saved he opposeth the saying of S. Chysostome against them but we must observe that he is not of his Judgment by taking notice that he saith with all due respect to him that he did not well understand that place of Scripture and that he hath not proved his Opinion by any Testimony Lastly he rejects the Authority of Faustus as a Bishop who was in an Error and says that we must keep to the Judgment of S. Austin S. Jerom and other Fathers commended by Pope Gelasius and advises the Emperor to call a Councel of Learned Men about these Questions who may Examine whether he speaks Reason or no. This Letter is also extant in the fore-mentioned Editions of his Works At the same time Retramnus a Monk of Corby who had also been consulted by the Emperor
Differences between this Pope and the Emperor Henry and other Princes of Europe With an Abstract of his Letters THERE happen'd no disturbance among the People upon the Death of Pope Alexander For Hildebrand who had the whole Power in his own Hands gave such Gregory VII good Orders that all was still and quiet He order'd a Fast to be kept and Prayers to be made for three Days together before they consulted about the Election of another Pope But at the very time of Interring the Corps of the deceased in the Church of S. Saviour April 22 in the Year 1073. being the very Day of his Death the People being mov'd thereto proclaim'd Hildebrand Pope and put him into the Possession of the Holy See The same Day he acquainted the Prince of Salerno of his Election and pray'd him to come to Rome to defend him This is what he says himself about the manner of his Election But he withal declares that it was much against his Will and that he was very Angry at it His Adversaries tell us quite another Story and say That they were his Soldiers and other of his Creatures who made this tumultuary Proclamation That neither the Cardinals nor the Clergy nor the most considerable among the People had any Hand in it However there is an Act of Election in the Name of the Cardinals and the Clergy of Rome made in the presence of the Bishops and Laity which bears date the very Day of his Election However the Case was it must be own'd that this Election was very Precipitate and that Didier Abbot of Mount Cassin and Cardinal had a great deal of reason for the Reply he made to Hildebrand who check'd him for coming too late when he told him that it was himself who was too hasty since he took possession of the Holy See before the Pope his Predecessor was lay'd in his Grave And Hildebrand himself has acknowledg'd the Fault of this Election which he casts upon the People and maintains that he had no Hand in it He was of Tuscany of the Borough of Soana the Son of a mean Artificer if most Historians may be credited He spent the first Years of his Life in Rome where he had for his Master Laurence Arch-bishop of Melpha and was extreamly in the favour of Benedict IX and Gregory VI. He attended the latter in his Banishment to Germany and after his Death retir'd into the Abby of Cluny where he abode till such time as Bruno Bishop of Toul who was nominated for Pope by the Emperor Henry going through France took him along with him to Rome not questioning but by the Acquaintance and Interest which he had in that City he might be very serviceable to him He was no sooner return'd but he renew'd his Familiarity with Theophylact or Benedict IX and grew within a while so Rich and Powerful that he became Lord and Master of all Affairs and the Popes were in a manner his Dependents It was he who negotiated the Election of Victor II. between the Emperor and the Romans and under Victor's Pontificate he was sent Legat into France He turn'd out Benedict IX and caus'd Nicholas II. to be Elected in his stead who made him Arch-deacon In a Word it was by his means that Cadalous was turn'd out and Anselm Bishop of Lucca ordain'd Pope under the Name of Alexander II. It was he who supported that Popes Interest and having taken upon him the Character of Chancellor of the Holy See had the absolute Administration of all Affairs both Ecclesiastical and Civil as well as the entire disposal of the Revenues of the Church of Rome during his Popedom Hildebrand foreseeing that his Election might be molested because it had been carry'd on so precipitately and without the Consent of Henry King of Germany he forthwith wrote to him about it and requested by his Deputies that he would be pleas'd to confirm it assuring him that he had been elected against his Will and that he put off his Ordination till such time as he was inform'd of his Will and Pleasure King Henry took some time to consider on it and sent Count Eberhard to Rome to learn after what manner that Election had been carry'd on Hildebrand shew'd so many Civilities to this Count that he wrote to the King in his behalf And Henry perceiving that it signified nothing to oppose his Election because he was more powerful in Rome than himself gave his Consent to it By this means Hildebrand was ordain'd Priest and afterwards Bishop of Rome in June Anno Dom. 1073. At his Ordination he took upon him the Name of Gregory VII in honor to the Memory of John Gratian his old Patron who had assum'd the Name of Gregory VI. when he was seated upon the Papal Chair No sooner was this Man made Pope but he form'd a design of becoming Lord Spiritual and Temporal over the whole Earth the supreme Judge and Determiner of all Affairs both Ecclesiastical and Civil the Distributer of all manner of Graces of what kind soever the Disposer not only of Arch-bishopricks Bishopricks and other Ecclesiastical Benefices but also of Kingdoms States and the Revenues of particular Persons To bring about this Resolution he made use of the Ecclesiastical Authority and the Spiritual Sword which God had put into his Hand not only to maintain the Faith and Discipline of the Church to reform Abuses and to punish those who were guilty of Spiritual Offences but he likewise made use of it to deprive Kings of their Kingdoms Princes and Lords of their Estates and Revenues to render them his Tributaries to dispose at his pleasure all that belong'd to them and to force them to do whatsoever he desir'd to engage Arch-bishops and Bishops to pay him a blind Obedience and to do nothing in their own Diocesses without his Order He liv'd in times very lucky for him and very proper to establish his Pretensions the Empire of Germany was weak France govern'd by an Infant King who did not much mind the Affairs of State England newly Conquer'd by the Normans Spain in part under the Government of the Moors the Kingdoms of the North newly Converted Italy in the Hands of a great many petty Princes all Europe divided by several Factions so that it was easy for him in such a juncture to establish his Authority But this undertaking created a World of Business to him and engag'd him in Contests with a great many European Princes The most considerable was that which he had with Henry King of Germany which lasted all his Popedom and was of very pernicious Consequence both to the Church and the Empire The account of which is as follows Henry the Fourth King of the Germans of that Name since Henry the Falconer succeeded An Account of the Difference between Henry and Gregory VII as we hinted before his Father Henry in the Year 1056. being then about five Years old His Father at his Death recommended him to Pope
all sorts of Sins and in the last he maintains that a Man who has once assum'd the Monastick Habit and liv'd for some time in a Monastery cannot return to a secular course of Life altho' he made no express Profession nor receiv'd the Benediction These Letters are follow'd by several Tracts about divers Ecclesiastical Affairs the First of which is a Treatise of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in which he endeavours to prove the changing of the Bread and Wine into our Saviour's Body and Blood in the Eucharist so that after the Consecration nothing remains of the matter or substance of the Bread and Wine but only the outward appearances and that 't is really the very same Body of Jesus Christ that was born of the Virgin Mary and which suffer'd on the Cross. He adds That the Wicked receive it in the Sacrament but do not receive the Effects nor Graces of it which are only bestow'd on those who are in a state of Righteousness The Second is made about the Election of Bishops and against the Investitures He maintains in the former that as Baptism makes a Christian so Election and Consecration Constitute a Bishop and as it is impossible to be a Christian without receiving Baptism so it is likewise impossible to be a Bishop without Election and Consecration That those two Qualifications are so absolutely necessary that Consecration without Election and Election without Consecration are not sufficient to make a Bishop That Consecration supposes a Canonical Election and that whosoever receives it without being Canonically Chosen is rather Cursed than Consecrated by reason that nothing can disannul the Order of Election and Consecration establish'd by Jesus Christ who himself chose and consecrated his Apostles That the Clergy supply our Saviour's Place in the Election and the Bishops in the Consecration That all the other Christians have a right to demand a Bishop but they cannot Elect nor Consecrate him That upon that account all those who aspire to Ecclesiastical Preferments by any other means than Canonical Election subvert the Order of the Church That the Church of Rome cannot dispense with that Institution or permit it to be done otherwise because the Pope cannot do that which St. Peter himself had no power to do Now Jesus Christ only empower'd St. Peter to bind that which ought to be bound and to loose that which was of necessity to be loosed and not to loose that which ought to be bound or to bind that which ought to be loosed and when St. Peter was about to act otherwise St. Paul tho' a Novice in the Faith withstood him to the Face Lastly that the Church of Rome ought not to repeal the Laws established in the Holy Scripture but to maintain them nor to make use of the Power given by Jesus Christ according to a capricious Humour but according to our Saviour's Tradition Afterwards he passes to the Investitures and says That to know the Doctrine of the Catholick and Apostolick Church as to that Point 't is requisite only to peruse the first Article of the Council held under Gregory VII in which that Pope excommunicates and treats as Hereticks all those Clergy-men who shall presume to receive the Investiture from the Hand of Laicks That that sort of Heresy is a more heinous Crime than Simony in regard that Simony is only practis'd in secret but the Investitures are always made publickly That the Apostles forbid Laicks to assume the Power of conferring Ecclesiastical Orders and that therefore the Investiture which is a Sacrament or sacred Sign by which the Bishop is distinguish'd from other Men and put in possession of the Government of the Church ought not to be receiv'd from the Hands of Laicks but from that of the Clerk who perform'd the Consecration And in fine that Lay-men who cannot administer the Sacraments of the Church ought not to deliver the Ring and the Pastoral Staff which are Sacraments such as the Salt and Water the Chrism and the Consecrated Oils when they are Administer'd by those who have a rightful Power and with the requisite Ceremonies The Third Tract is written in like manner against the Investitures in which he repeats the same Arguments and concludes that they are to be reputed no less Heresie than Simony He continues to handle the same Matter in the Fourth Tract and proves that Kings cannot confer the Investiture even of spiritual Benefices with the Ring and Staff because it is an Ecclesiastical Ceremony and that to speak properly they cannot bestow the Investiture of Ecclesiastical Possessions by reason that they already belong to the Church But he acknowledges that after a Canonical Election and Consecration they may grant the Royal Investiture of Church Revenues and put him that has the Title in possession of them affording him their Assistance and Protection which may be done by certain outward Signs that are not at all prejudicial to the Rights of the Church And lastly that it is not expedient to Exccommunicate Princes upon that account in regard that such proceedings would occasion a greater Mischief In the following Tract he lays down a Principle which also has relation to the business of Investitures viz. That Condescension may be sometimes allow'd and the granting of Dispensations but 't is requisite that it be done with a good intention for the Benefit of the Church or in case of necessity and not for Mony or Favour and that that which is absolutely evil ought never to be tolerated or permitted In the Sixth he maintains three Principles viz. That the Church ought to be Catholick Free and Chaste That Quatenus Catholick it can neither be Bought nor Sold that as it 's Free it ought not to be brought into Subjection to any Secular Power and that as 't is Chaste it ought not to be corrupted with Presents The Seventh Tract contains certain Allegorical Explications of the Ark of the Covenant and of the Tabernacle with reference to the Church In the Eighth he explains what are the effects of Baptism Confirmation Extreme Unction and the Eucharist He says That Baptism remits Sins by the Vertue-of the Holy Ghost That in Confirmation the Holy Ghost is invoked that he would vouchsafe to take up his abode in the Habitation which he has Sanctified that he would also Defend and Protect it That that Sacrament is Administer'd by the Bishops to shew that it gives the highest Perfection That the Extreme Unction of Sick Persons confers on them Remission of Sins to the end that Christians may obtain Mercy both in their Life time and at the hour of Death And lastly That in the Communion of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ the Christian Soul is Healed of all the Diseases of its Vices re-establish'd in a State of Everlasting Salvation and made one Body with Jesus Christ. In the Ninth he Treats of the re-iteration of the Sacraments and says That those are not reiterated in which it seems as if there
Letter in which that Pope excites the Count of Flanders to make War with the People of those Territories An Answer to the Inhabitants of Trier concerning the Fast of the Ember-Weeks The Book of Ecclesiastes in Heroick Verse according to the literal allegorical and mythological Senses The continuation of Eusebius's Chronicle after St. Jerome to the Year 1111. A Treatise about the Reformation of the Cycles and another of Illustrious Personages in imitation of St. Jerom and Gennadius Of all these Works there only remain in our Possession the continuation of St. Jerom's Chronicle from A. C. 381. to 1112. The Treatise of Ecclesiastical Writers The Letter written in the Name of the Clergy of Liege and Cambray And the Lives of St. Sigebert St. Guibert and St. Maclou referr'd to by Surius This Author is very accurate in his Writing and attain'd to considerable proficiency in the Study of the Liberal Sciences and in all sorts of Humane Learning HONORIUS SOLITARIUS A Scholastick Divine of the Church of Autun HONORIUS a Priest and Scholastick Divine of the Church of Autun sirnam'd the Solitary flourish'd under the Emperor Henry V. A. D. 1120. We have little account of his Honorius Solitarius a Scholastick Divine of Autun Life but many of his Works are still extant The most considerable is his Treatise of the Lights of the Church or of the Ecclesiastical Writers first published by Suffridus and afterwards by Aubertus Miraeus in their Collections of Authors who wrote those that treated of Ecclesiastical Affairs Honorius has divided this Work into four Books the Three first of which are only an Abridgment of the Treatises on the Ecclesiastical Writers by St. Jerom Gennadius and Isidorus He gives an account in the last of some Authors since Venerable Bede to his time This Treatise contains almost nothing else but the Names and Characters of the Authors and the Titles of their Works It is follow'd by another Treatise of the same Nature containing the Names of the ancient Hereticks and their principal Doctrines Printed at Basil in 1544. To these two Treatises may be added a Chronological Table of the Popes from St. Peter to Innocent II. which is extant among the other Works of this Author The Treatise call'd The Pearl of the Soul or Of the Divine Offices is divided into four Books In the First he treats of the Sacrifice of the Mass Of its Ceremonies and Prayers Of the Church Of its Parts and Ornaments Of the Ministers of the Altar and their Habits c. In the Second he discourses of the Canonical Hours and of the Ecclesiastical Offices for the Day and Night In the Third of the principal Festivals of the Year And in the Fourth of the Concord or Agreement of the Offices of the whole Year with the particular Days and Times on which they are celebrated These Books are full of a great number of Arguments and mystical Explications that have no other Grounds but the Author's Imagination They were printed at Lipsick A. D. 1514. and in the Collections of the Writers who have treated of Ecclesiastical Offices The Treatise of the Image of the World is divided into three Books In the First of these he treats of the World and of its Parts In the Second of Time and its Parts and the Third is a Chronological Series of Emperors Kings and other Sovereign Princes from the Creation of the World to the Emperor Frederick Barberossa The Piece that bears the Title of The Philosophy of the World divided into four Books is a Treatise of the System of the World and of its principal Parts It is follow'd by another Tract of the same Nature touching the Motion of the Sun and Planets The Treatise of Predestination and of Free-will is written in form of a Dialogue and has for its Subject the Explication of that common Question How can Free-will be reconciled with the Certainty of Predestination He defines Predestination to be an eternal preparation to Happiness or Misery of those that have done Good or Evil He affirms That it imposes no necessity of doing either because God does not predestinate to Happiness or Misery but with respect to the Merits of the Person He rejects the Opinion of those who assert That Free-will consists in the Power of doing Good or Evil and defines it to be a Capacity of performing Righteousness voluntarily and without constraint He maintains That Man by his Nature is endued with a Power to act according to the Rule of Righteousness although he stands in need of Grace to do it and is capable of resisting that Grace He says That God made all reasonable Creatures for his Glory but that he left them free to do either Good or Evil by their own Will and that he would have all Men to be sav'd but that 't is their free Will which is the cause of their Damnation Afterwards he explains why God made Creatures when he foreknew that they would sin against him and that they would be damned Why the Word was incarnate Upon what account Mankind having deserved nothing but Punishment after the committing of Sin God leaves some in the Mass of Perdition who are damned by their free Will and saves others by his special Grace which they by no means deserv'd And how Salvation ought rather to be attributed to Grace than to free Will although free Will co-operates with Grace He observes That Children that incur Damnation are justly condemn'd to that Punishment and that those who attain to Salvation are sav'd by Grace which they never merited And as for adult Persons that they are sav'd by Grace and free Will and that those who are damned are doom'd to that Sentence by Justice and by their free Will That Predestination neither saves nor damns any Person by force although all the Elect are infallibly sav'd and the Reprobates infallibly damned But forasmuch as 't is not known whether one be of the number of the Elect or of the Reprobates that 't is requisite to use all possible endeavours for the attaining to Salvation And that the number of the Elect is certainly determined because God from all Eternity knew those who would die in that State He adds That Man since Adam's Transgression may fall by his free Will but that he cannot rise again but by Grace and that God sometimes denies that Grace to those who are too Presumptuous That every Thing which happens in the World ought to be referr'd to God either because he does it or because he permits it or in regard that he does not prevent it that he causes all things to tend to the promoting of his own Glory that he shews Mercy on whomsoever he thinks fit by affording them his Grace that he hardens others at his Pleasure by leaving them in their Wickedness and in the State of Reprobation Lastly after having made some Moral Reflections our Author concludes this Work with a Recapitulation of the Principles that he had already establish'd In
has a Guardian Angel yet owns that the same Angel may serve as a Guardian to several Persons and afterwards proceeds to examine in what particulars the Knowledge of the Angels may be augmented In the following Sections to the Sixteenth he explains the Work of the Creation In the Sixteenth and Seventeenth he treats of the Creation of Man and enquires in what his likeness to God consists when his Soul was created and in what Place he was set He discourses in the Eighteenth of the Formation of Woman and endeavours to explain why she was taken out of the Man 's Rib. In the Nineteenth he treats of the State of Immortality in which the First Man was created In the Twentieth he debates concerning the Manner how Men were to be brought into the World and how they were to be nourished in case the State of Innocence had continu'd In the Twenty first he gives an Account after what manner the Devil tempted Man He discusses in the Twenty second divers Questions relating to the Quality and Circumstances of the Sin of Adam and Eve In the Twenty third he resolves this difficult Point Why God permitted Man to be tempted knowing that he was to Fall And afterwards treats of the Knowledge with which the First Man was endu'd In the Twenty fourth he begins to discourse concerning the Free Will and Grace inherent in the First Man and treats in general in the Two following Sections of the Freedom of Grace according to St. Augustin's Principles In the Twenty seventh Section he discourses of Vertue and Merit which are the Effects of Grace and Free Will. In the Twenty eighth he confutes the Errors of the Pelagians as also those of the Manichees and of Jovinian In the Twenty ninth Section he returns to the State of the First Man and after having shewn that Man even in the State of Innocency stood in need of operating and co-operating Grace for the doing of Good he debates certain Questions about the manner how he was expell'd Paradise and concerning the Tree of Life which preserv'd him from Death In the Thirtieth Thirty first Thirty second and Thirty third he treats of Original Sin and enquires in what it consists how it is transferr'd from Parents to their Children after what manner it is remitted by Baptism whether Children contract the Sins of their Parents as Original Sin c. In the Thirty fourth and Thirty fifth he discourses of the Nature of Actual Sin In the Thirty sixth he shews that there are Sins which are both the Cause and the Punishment of Sin He makes it appear in the Thirty seventh that God is the Author of the Actions by which Sin is committed and of the Punishments of Sin although he is not the Author of Sin In the Thirty eighth he demonstrates that it is the End and Intention of the Will which renders the Action either Good or Bad and that in order to its being Good it must of necessity be terminated in God In the Thirty ninth he enquires into the Reason Why of all the natural Faculties the Will only is susceptible of Sin In the Fortieth he continues to shew that an Action to be denominated Good ought to have a good End and Intention In the Forty first he produces divers Passages of St. Augustin about the necessity of Faith and of an upright Will to avoid the committing of Sin and shews that the corrupt Will is the cause of Sin He enquires in the Forty second Whether the Will and the Action be two different Sins And Afterwards explains the Division of the Seven Capital Sins shewing that they derive their original from Pride and Concupiscence In the Forty third he relates the Opinions of St. Ambrose and St. Augustin concerning the Sin against the Holy Ghost Lastly he makes it appear in the Forty fourth Section that the Power of committing Sin proceeds from God and that the Power the Devil has to tempt us to Evil ought to be resisted The Third Book begins with the Questions relating to the Mystery of the Incarnation In the First Section the Author lays down the Reasons Why it was more expedient that the Son should be Incarnate rather than the Father or the Holy Ghost and discusses this Question Whether Two Persons were in like manner capable of being Incarnate In the Second Section he treats of the Union of the Word with the Body and the Soul In the Third he shews that the Body taken by the Word was free from the corruption of Sin that the Virgin Mary herself was then also free from Sin and that in the very moment that the Humanity of Jesus Christ was conceiv'd the Word was united to it He enquires in the Fourth Why the Incarnation is attributed to the Holy Ghost rather than to the other Persons of the Trinity and in what Sense it is said Jesus Christ was conceiv'd and born of the Holy Ghost In the Fifth Section he treats of the Union of the Person of the Son with the Human Nature and shews that the Word was not united to the Person but to the Nature In the Sixth he gives an Account of these Propositions viz. God was made Man God is Man and produces Three several Explications of them made by the Fathers The same matter is farther handled in the Seventh Distinction In the Eighth he resolves this Question Whether it may be said that the Divine Nature was born of the Virgin Mary And discourses of the two-fold Nativity of Jesus Christ. In the Ninth he produces certain Passages of the Fathers concerning the Adoration of the Body of Jesus Christ. In the Tenth he proposes this Question viz. Whether Jesus Christ quatenus Man be a Person or a Thing He maintains the Negative and afterwards proves that the Quality or Title of adoptive Son cannot be appropriated to him In the Eleventh he asserts that neither ought Jesus Christ to be call'd a Creature without adding quatenus Man In the Twelfth he discusses divers Questions viz. Whether it may be said of Jesus Christ as Man that he always was or that it was possible that he might not be God He determines that it cannot be said of the Person of Jesus Christ but only of his Human Nature In the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Sections he treats of Knowledge Grace and the Power of Jesus Christ quatenus Man In the Fifteenth and Sixteenth he proves that Jesus Christ took upon him the Infirmities of Human Nature Sin and Ignorance only excepted and that he was capable of undergoing Sufferings In the Seventeenth he explains the two-fold Will of Jesus Christ. In the Eighteenth he discourses of what Jesus Christ merited for himself and of what he merited for us In the Nineteenth he treats of Redemption In the Twentieth he enquires Why Jesus Christ redeem'd us by his Passion and Death And whether he could not have done it by some other means In the Twenty first he proposes this Question viz. Whether the Word remain'd united
suddenly expire and that the Law of the Spirit a great deal more perfect would succeed it This Doctrine spread among a great many Spiritual Men and one of â—hem made a Book to establish it to which he gave the Title of The Eternal Gospel This Piece The Book call'd the Eternal Gospel appear'd about the beginning of this Century but what is the Author's Name is not known Matthew Paris ascribes it to the Order of the Jacobines Aimeric to John the Seventh General of the Franciscans Let the Case be how it will 't is certain that a great many Monks approv'd of this Work and that some of them would have Taught this Doctrine Publickly in the University of Paris in the Year 1254 but the Bishops oppos'd it And the Book of the Eternal Gospel was Condemn'd to be The Condemnation of that Book Burnt in the Year 1256 by Pope Alexander IV. who at the same time Proscrib'd those who maintain'd the Doctrine of that Book as William of Saint Amour and Ptolemey of Lucca assure us All the Errors of this Book turn upon this Principle That the Law of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was The Errors of that Book imperfect in comparison of the law of the Spirit which was to succeed it For according to this Book the Law of the Gospel was to last no longer than Twelve hundred and sixty Years and consequently was upon expiring The Author of that Book advanc'd besides this several particular Errors viz. That none but Spiritual Men had the true Knowledge of the Scriptures That only those who went Bare-foot were capable of Preaching the Spiritual Doctrine That the Jews tho' adhering to their Religion shall be loaded with good things and deliver'd from their Enemies That the Greeks were more Spiritual than the Latines and that God the Father should Save them That the Monks were not oblig'd to suffer Martyrdom in Defence of the Worship of Jesus Christ That the Holy Ghost receiv'd something of the Church as Jesus Christ as Man had receiv'd of the Holy Ghost That the Active Life had lasted till Abbot Joachim but that since his time it was become useless That the Contemplative Life had begun from his time and that it should be more perfect in his Successors That there should be an Order of Monks by far more perfect which should flourish when the Order of the Clergy was perished That in this Third State of the World the Government of the Church would be wholly Committed to those Monks who should have more Authority than the Apostles ever had That those Preachers persecuted by the Clergy should go over to the Infidels and might excite them against the Church of Rome These are some of the Extravagancies which the Authors relate as extracted out of the Book of the Eternal Gospel The Maintainers of this Work are call'd Joachites or rather Joachimites in the Council of Arles 1260 The Condemnation of the Joachimites in the Council of Arles 1260. wherein their Doctrine was Examin'd and Condemn'd in these Terms Among the False Prophets who appear at this time none are more Dangerous than those who taking for the Foundation of their Folly several Ternaries in part true and making false Applications of them establish'd a very pernicious Doctrine and wickedly affecting to do Honour to the Holy Ghost do impudently derogate from the Redemption of Jesus Christ by aiming to include the Time of the Reign of the Son and his Works within a certain Number of Years after which the Holy Ghost shall Act As if the Holy Ghost were to Act with more Power and Majesty for the future than he has done yet since the beginning of the Church These Joachites by a Chimerical Concatenation of certain Ternaries maintain That the time of the Holy Ghost shall for the future be inlighten'd with a more perfect Law laying down for the Foundation of their Error this Holy and Coelestial Ternary of the Ineffable Persons of the Ever-blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost and are for establishing their Error on the Basis of all these Truths They add to this Sovereign Truth other Ternaries by asserting That there shall be Three States or Orders of Men who have had or shall have each their proper Season The First is that of Marry'd Persons which was in Repute in the time of the Father that is under the Old Testament The Second is that of Clerks which has been in esteem in the time of Grace by the Son in this Age of the World The Third is the Order of the Monks which shall be glorify'd in time with a larger measure of Grace which shall be given by the Holy Ghost Three sorts of Doctrines answer to these Three States the Old Testament the New and the Eternal Gospel or the Gospel of the Holy Ghost Lastly They distinguish the whole Duration of the World into Three Ages The time of the Spirit of the Law of Moses which they attribute to the Father the time of the Spirit of Grace which they attribute to the Son and which has lasted 1260. Years and the time of a more Ample Grace and of unveil'd Truth which belongs to the Holy Ghost and of which Jesus Christ speaks in the Gospel when he saies When that Spirit of Truth shall come he will teach you all Truth In the First State Men liv'd according to the Flesh in the Second between Flesh and Spirit and in the Last which shall endure to the end of the World they shall live according to the Spirit The Consequence which they draw from this Fiction of Ternaries is That the Redemption of Jesus Christ has no more place and that the Sacraments are Abolish'd which the Joachites have almost the Impudence to Advance by asserting That all Types and Figures shall be Abolish'd at this time and that the Truth shall appear all naked without the Veil of Sacraments Maxims these are which ought to be Abominated by all Christians who have Read the Holy Fathers and who firmly believe that the Sacraments of the Church are visible Signs and Images of Invisible Grace under the Elements of one of which the Son of God abides as he has promised in his Church to the End of the World This Council adds That tho' this Doctrine had been Condemn'd a while ago by the Holy See in its Censure of the Book of The Eternal Gospel yet because several Persons maintain'd it under a pretence That the Books which serv'd as a Foundation to that Error had not been Examin'd nor Condemn'd viz. the Book of Concordances and the other Books of the Joachites which till then remain'd undiscuss'd because they lay conceal'd in the Hands of some Monks and began then to appear in the World and to Infatuate the Minds of many it Condemns and Disapproves of those Works and prohibits the making use of them under pain of Excommunication In the Year 1240 William Bishop of Paris having Conven'd all the Regent Doctors of the University
The Propositions Condemned by William of Paris Condemn'd Ten Propositions which had been Taught as Matthew Paris observes by the Professors of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders who willing to Dispute with too much Subtilty and to dive too far into Mysteries were faln into Error by the just Judgment of God saies that Author to whom the Wisdom and Simplicity of a firm Faith is more acceptable than too great Subtilty in Divinity it being more Safe and Meritorious to receive and believe with Simplicity what the Fathers have Taught than to adhere to that which must be Prov'd and Discover'd by Humane Reason The Ten Propositions are these 1. That the Essence of God shall not be seen by Men or Angels 2. That the Divine Essence tho' the same in the Father Son and Holy Ghost yet as it is that Essence and the Form 't is one in the Father and the Son and not in the Holy Ghost 3. That the Holy Ghost proceeds not from the Son since he is Love and Unity but only from the Father 4. That there are several Eternal Truths which are not God himself 5. That the first moment the Creation and the Passion are neither the Creator nor the Creature 6. That the Wicked Angel had been Wicked from the first instant of his Creation 7. That the Souls in Bliss and even that of the Blessed Virgin her self shall not be in the Empyreal Heaven with the Angels but in the Crystalline Heaven 8. That an Angel may be in many Places at one and the same time and even every where 9. That he who is endu'd with better Natural Parts shall have more Grace than another 10. That the Devil had no Support to keep him from falling nor Adam to keep in his State of Innocence The Assembly after they had Censur'd these Propositions declar'd That Men ought firmly and without doubt to Beleive 1. That the Substance Essence and Nature of God shall be seen by the Holy Angels and the Blessed Souls 2 That there is but only one Substantial Essence and only one Nature in the Father Son and Holy Ghost even as it is the Form 3. That the Holy Ghost as Unity and as Love proceeds from the Father and the Son 4. That there is but only one Eternal Truth which is God and that no other has been from all Eternity 5. That the first Moment the Creation and the Passion are Creatures 6. That the Bad Angels have been Good and became Bad by their Sin 7. That the Souls of the Blessed and their Bodies shall be in the Empyreal Heaven as well as the Holy Angels 8. That the Angels are in a distinct Place so that they cannot be in two Places at once much less every where 9. That Grace and Glory are granted according to the Order and Predestination of God 10. That the Wicked Angels and Adam had Support to keep them from Falling tho' not sufficient to carry them on into Perfection About the same time William Professor of the Franciscan Friars having Advanc'd in a Sermon The Recantation of William the Franciscan Preach'd on the Festival of St. John Baptist in the Church of his Monastery several Propositions about Free Will and Free Grace was oblig'd to Retract the two following in an Assembly of the Doctors of Divinity of Paris 1. Free Will has a Natural Power to receive Grace but not an Effective or Co-operating Power for the entertaining of Grace 2. He who is Damn'd has never been in a State of Grace but has been always an Ishmael or a Judas never a Saint John In the Year 1270 in December Stephen Templar Bishop of Paris Condemn'd other Propositions Propositions Condemn'd by Stephen Templar Bishop of Paris Taught by several Professors in Philosophy and Divinity of the University of Paris which are Thirteen in Number 1. That the Understanding of all Men is one and the same in Number 2. That this Proposition Homo intelligit is false and improper 3. That the Will chuses and wills by necessity 4. That all Sublunary things are subjected to the Influences of the Heavenly Bodies 5. That the World is Eternal 6. That there never was a first Man 7. That the Soul of Man as being the Form of him is Corruptible 8. That the separated Soul does not suffer Eternal Fire 9. That Free Will is a Passive not an Active Power and that 't is led by the Sensitive Appetite 10. That God has no knowledge of singular things 11. That he knows nothing Externally without himself 12. That the Actions of Men are not Govern'd by Providence 13. That God cannot give Immortality or Incorruptibility to a Mortal and Corruptible Creature The Bishop of Paris order'd the Rector of the University not to suffer that Questions of Faith should be Disputed in the Philosophy-Schools and the University provided against it by a Statute made April the First 1271 by which it declar'd That all those who after they have propos'd Questions which may concern Faith and Philosophy shall Decide them against the Faith or shall maintain those Propositions true according to the Principles of Philosophy tho' contrary to the Faith shall be expell'd the University Notwithstanding this Maxim That one and the same thing may be true according to Philosophy and false according to Faith spreading it self The same Bishop being admonished by Pope John XXI forbad it in the Year 1277 and Condemn'd a great many Errors which they took the liberty to maintain under this Pretence as if there might be two Truths one according to Philosophy and another according to Faith He likewise Condemn'd a Book call'd Of Love or Of the God of Love and some Writings of Geomancy Necromancy and Witchcraft CHAP. IX An Account of the Sects of the Vaudois and Albigenses and other Hereticks Of their Errors Condemnation Adversaries of the Inquisitions Croisades and Wars Rais'd against them ABout the Year 1160. Peter Valdo a Rich Merchant of Lions being in an Assembly of his Brethren The Rise of the Sect of the Vaudois was so sensibly affected at the sudden Death of one of them that he took upon him a Resolution of altering his way of Living and explaining the Words of Jesus Christ against Riches in a Literal Sense he distributed all his Goods to the Poor of the City to make a Profession of Voluntary Poverty and to revive as he pretended the way of Living among the Apostles Several Persons having follow'd his Example they Form'd a Sect of People whom they call'd the Vaudois or Waldenses from the Name of their first Founder The Poor of Lions because of the Poverty of which they made Profession Leonists from the Name of the City of Lions and Insabbates upon the Account of certain Shoes or Sandals which they wore cut on the Top to shew their bare Feet in imitation of the Apostles as they suppos'd Valdo having some Learning explain'd to them the New Testament in the Vulgar Tongue He Instructed them so well
You have no Right to bestow Benefices and Prebends and if the Custody of the Goods of some Vacant Benefices belongs to you you ought to reserve the Profits to their Successors If you have bestowed any Benefices we declare the Donation Void and revoke the actual Possession which ensued thereon We declare them Hereticks who believe the contrary Given at the Palace of Lateran on the 5th of December in the 7th Year of our Papacy These Bulls were delivered and published in the Kingdom by the Archdeacon of Narbonne The Assembly of the States against the Attempt of the Pope The King to obviate the ill Consequences which they might have caused the short Bull to be publickly burnt on the 8th of February 1302. and called together the Three Estates of his Kingdom to advise about Ways of Self-preservation This Assembly was held in the Church of our Lady at Paris 10th of April 1302. The King proposed there the Pope's Pretensions to the Temporalties of his Kingdom and the Summons he had sent to the Prelates to appear at Rome Peter Flotte who spake for the King represented to the Assembly the pernicious Designs of the Pope the Injuries which the Court of Rome did to the Gallican Church by her Reservations by * Grants before the Death of the present Incumbents then call'd Mandata de providendo Gratiae expectativae by Civilians Much may be seen enacted against them in our Statutes especially in the reign of Edw. 3. Provisions of Archbishopricks Bishopricks and other Benefices which she bestowed on Strangers that were Non-resident and by other Methods by which she assumed the disposal of all Benefices by Impositions upon the Clergy by the right she challenged to take Cognisance and to Judge of all Causes He Protested on the King's behalf that he own'd God only his Superior in Temporals that it was his intent before the Arrival of the Nuncio if there were Occasion to regulate the Behaviour of his Officers towards the Clergy but that since he had Superseded the doing it for fear the Pope should take Advantage by it and believe it to be done at his instance and by his order The King demanded the Opinion of the Assembly upon all these Points and chiefly about his Soveraign Jurisdiction in Temporals The Nobility having withdrawn awhile to Deliberate answer'd by the Earl of Artois That they thanked his Majesty for the good Will he had to maintain the Rights and Honour of his State and declared that they were ready to expose their Lives and Fortunes in its Defence and though his Majesty would suffer or pass by these Attempts they would oppose it and said that they own'd no other Superiour but the King The Clergy was unwilling suddenly to give their Answer and desired time to deliberate more fully but the King pressing them to speak their Mind the Prelates declared That they believed themselves bound to Defend the King and the freedom of the Kingdom and that some of them were engaged thereto by Oath and others by Duty Nevertheless they besought the King to permit them to attend the Pope who had sent them a Summons but the King refused it by the Advice of the Nobility The third Estate was of the same Opinion with the Nobles This Assembly being broke up the King sent the Pope a short Answer like his abridged Bull in these terms Philip by the Grace of God King of France to Boniface who stiles The Answer of the King and States to the Pope himself Supreme Bishop little or no Greeting May your great Extravagance know that we are not Subject to any Person whatsoever in Things Temporal that the bestowing of Vacant Churches and Prebends does of Regal right belong to us that we can Appropriate the Fruits of them to our selves that the Grants we have made or shall make for the time to come are Valid that we will Maintain powerfully those that are in Possession thereof and we declare them Fools and Senseless that think the contrary The Dukes Earls and Barons of France wrote to the Cardinals the same Day That though they desired to maintain the Ancient Union which ever had been between the Holy See and the Realm of France yet they could not suffer the Attempts which Boniface made upon the They send them word what was resolved in the King and Kingdom Assembly of the States Prove that the King is not Subject to the Pope in Temporals and that the Pope has no right to send for the Prelates of the Kingdom nor undertake to reform it they represent the Prejudice the Prelates going out of the Realm would cause to the State upbraid Boniface that he has taken great Summs of Money for the Grants of Ecclesiastical Dignities that he had filled the Benefices with Persons of no Merit that he bestowed Benefices the Grant of which belonged to the King They besought the Cardinals to hinder the Consequences of this Undertaking that the Church may continue in Peace The Prelates wrote a little after the same things to Boniface informed him what passed in the Assembly the Complaints the King there made in what manner the Nobility there spake how that being asked they desired time to Consult with desire to appease his Majesty and to Establish the Union between him and the Holy See but that being obliged to answer upon the spot that they might not be looked on as Enemies to the State they had declared they thought themselves bound to Assist the King and Preserve his Person his Honour his Liberty his Rights and those of his Kingdom as well by the Oath of Allegiance which some of them had taken to the King upon account of their Fiefs as by the Duty of Faithful Subjects They added that they had besought his Majesty to permit them to go to Rome whither his Holiness had cited them but that the King and the Lords had forbid them They earnestly besought the Pope to apply a Remedy to the Mischiefs that would necessarily ensue if the Dissention which is begun between him and the King continued and prayed him to re-establish the Union and revoke the Summons he had caused to be given them by his Nuncio The third Estate wrote likewise a Letter to the Cardinals to the same Effect The Pope's Answer to the Prelates contain'd nothing but Complaints against the Assembly which the King had caused to be held at Paris and principally against Peter Flotte whom he The Replies of the Pâ—â—e and Cardinals to the King and States calls Belial semividens corpore mente totaliter excaecatus and reproaches against them that had not taken his part He affirms That the Doctrine delivered in this Assembly is Schismatical because it tends to the Establishment of two Supreme Heads and that the Design of those Persons who composed this Assembly was to separate the Gallican Church from the Union of the Church Universal and to Erect a See against the Vicar of Jesus Christ. In the
Grace Salvation and Justice Of Damnation Of Free-will Of the Chief Good Of Providence Of the Miracles of JESUS CHRIST Of the State of the Dead Upon the Gospel In Principio and several other Philosophical Tracts which were preserved in MS. in the Monastery of Admónt He adds That there is at Vienna a Tract in MS. of the same Author Of the Instruction of a Christian Prince Jacobus Cajetanus Nephew of Pope Boniface the VIIIth who was made a Cardinal An. 1295. Jacobus Cajetanus wrote a Book concerning the Jubilee every 100th Year It was published by Roseus with Notes and printed in the 13th Tome of the Bibliotheca Patrum of the Colen Edition Stephanus de Salagnac a Monk of the Order of the Preaching-Friars of the Convent of Limoges Stephanuâ— de Salagnac wrote as is credible at the end of the former Age or beginning of this A Treatise in Honour of his own Order alledging Four Things wherein God had made them principally Eminent viz. 1. For a Good and Learned Head 2. For an Illustrious and Noble Family 3. For an Honourable Name And 4. For a particular Profession Andreas Novo-Castrensis or Andrew of Newcastle an Englishman and Dominican-Friar Doctor Andreas Novo-castrensis of Divinity flourished in the beginning of this Age. He hath composed a Comment upon the First Book of the Sentences printed at Paris 1514. Bale Cent. 10. p. 44. attributes to him a Commentary upon Boethius's Book De Consolatione Philosophiae or The Comfort of Philosophy Rainerius Pisanus or de Pisâ a Divine and Lawyer of the same Order Composed a Book Rainerius Pisanus which is intituled Pantheologia or a Theological Dictionary in which all Heads of Divinity are disposed and treated on in an Alphabetical Order Jacobus Florentinus a Minorite or Grey-Friar hath added several things to this Work and caused it to be printed at Noremburg in 1473. He also printed it in the same manner at Venice in 1486. at Lions in 1519. at Bresse in 1580. and since it hath been printed at Paris with the Additions of Father Nicholas a White-Friar William de Nangis or de Nangiaco a Monk of S. Denys at Paris hath Composed a Chronicle William de Nangis from the beginning of the World to the Year 1301. But because the greatest Part of that Work was Copied from other Authors Father Luke Dacherius in the 11th Tome of his Spicilegium hath printed it no further than to the Year 1113. where he begins his Continuations which he hath made out of Sigebert of Gemblours as far as the Year 1301. adding something more out of two other Authors the one as far as 1340. and the other to 1348. This Author hath also written a Chronicle of the Kings of France the Lives of S. Lewis and Philip the Hardy which are also found in the Collections of the French Historians put out by Pithaeus and Du-Chesne Thomas Wicke a Canon Regular of S. Augustine of the Abby of Osney in England who flourished Thomas Wicke in the Reign of Edward I. hath a Chronicle of the History of England from the coming of William the Conqueror in 1066. to the Death of Edward I. in 1304. This Work is found in the last Collection of the English Historians printed at Oxford in 1687. He also wrote a Tract of the Abbots of Osney from the Foundation of that Abby which was in 1129. to the Year 1290. Henry Stero a German and a â—enedictin Monk of the Abby of Altaich Composed certain Henry Stero Annals from the first Year of the Emperor Frederick Barberossa which was in the Year of Christ 1152. to the Election of the Emperor Rodolphus in the Year 1273. and the History of the Emperors Rodolphus of Habspurg Adolphus of Nassan and Albert of Austria from the Year 1273. to the Year 1305. which was carried on by two German Monks These Works are found among the German Writers put out by Friherus and the more large Annals in the First Tome of Canisius's Antiquities Eberardus a Monk of the same Monastery and Archdeacon of Ratisbone hath continued Eberardus a Monk these Annals of Stero as far as 1305. taking almost all he has writ out of the same Author This Work is in the first Tome of Canisius's Collection Joannes de Joinville Governor of Champaigne is the Author of the Life of S. Lewis whom he Joannes de Joinville accompanied in his Expedition to the Holy Land It hath been printed several times in French but the best Edition is that put out by the Learned Mr. Du-Cange printed by Cramoisy An. 1668. Joinville lived till about 1310. Siffridus a Priest of Misnia in Saxony is a different Person from him though of the same Siffridus a Priest of Misnia Name who was of the Order of the Friars-Preachers and who flourished at the end of the Fifteenth Age. This of whom we are now speaking lived in the beginning of the Fourteenth Age. He Composed a Chronicle from the beginning of the World to the Year 1307. But Georgius Fabricius who first published it at the end of his History of Saxony Printed at Leipsick 1569. and at Jena 1598. hath pared off all the Years which preceded 457. It is found in the same manner printed among the German Historians put out by Pistorius Haito or Aito a Prince of the Family of the Kings of Armenia after he had made War with the Infidels entred the Order of the Praemonstratenses about the Year 1290. and professed in a Haito a Praemonstratensis Monastery of that Order in the Isle of Cyprus as he himself tells us in his History of his Voyage into the Holy Land which he wrote in French in the Year 1307. and was translated into Latin by Nicholas Fulke and printed at Haguenau 1529. at Basil among the Historians of the New World in 1532 and 1555. and at Helmstadt 1585. in the Second Part of the Authors of the History of Jerusalem printed by Reineccius and in Italian at Venice 1553. John the Monk Sirnamed Descranches a Native of Cressy near Abbeville a Learned Canonist John the Monk a Cardinal was raised to the Dignity of a Cardinal-Priest of the Title of S. Marcellinus and S. Peter in the Year 1294. He Founded a College of his own Name at Paris in the Year 1302. He was appointed Legate by Pope Boniface in the Contest he had with Philip the Fair. He died at Avignon the 22d of August 1313. He is the Author of the Apparatus or Commentary upon the 6th Book of the Decretals printed at Paris 1535. and at Venice 1586. with the Additions of Probus William Paris of the Order of Friars-Preachers who was constituted Inquisitor in France by William of Paris a Dominican Clement V. and who drew up the Process against the Templars is the Author of the Dialogues upon the Seven Sacraments printed at Lipsick in 1512. at Lions in 1567. under the Name of William Bishop of Paris and a