NO. VI. 150 The three points of the liberty claimed for the Church. APPENDIX. Whether they would or no. These were the beginnings of the Christian religion when first born, this the infancy of the Church of Christ, which was rendered happy by torments, glorious by ignominy, rich by contemning riches, and august by a crown, not of empire, but of martyrdom. And yet this holy Church and beloved of God, knew no other liberty but spiritual, which the ancient fathers call Christian. This, as was said above, is nothing else but a vehement desire of serving God; and those first Christians inflamed with that desire, notwithstanding all their princes' endeavours to hinder them, held their communions, and convened their synods, at first indeed privately, but afterwards daring to break out into the open light, they intrepidly exercised all the parts of ecclesiastical discipline with a holy liberty: for they had learned of the Holy Spirit, and by the example of St. Peter and the rest of the Apostles, Acts 5. 29. that God was to be obeyed rather than men. Nor indeed did they know any other title of that liberty which they used; for as to that which is now called the liberty of the Church, and is defended with so much zeal, as if it were a certain palladium of the Christian religion, and is commended and augmented daily, those pious souls did not know so much as the name of it. That there are three principal heads of this ecclesiastical liberty, appears from the definition of it above collected, viz., the empire of the pope of Rome over all secular dignities, the exemption of ecclesiastics from all civil power, and the subjection of the laity to their command in every thing. 1 ["forWhich of these can we find in the primitive Church? to wit' sooth," sci- the emperors were under the government of the popes of licet, orig.] Rome, who all down to Sylvester, except a very few, ended their lives by cruel torments at the command of those princes. If those magnanimous heroes thought that the government of the world, as we are now taught, did belong to them by divine right, why did not they give some signification of it, at least at that time, when the multitude of believers had been sufficient to have asserted their dominion? for that they were able to prosecute their right by arms was shewed many ages after by Gregory II., by whose example afterwards almost innumerable other popes have waged very None of these could exist in the first centuries. 151 DE LIB. SECT. V. dreadful wars with princes for the pontifical dignity. And CASAUBON as to what many now say, that the authority of the Roman pontiffs is only over believing, not unbelieving emperors, and that therefore it was necessary for them to dissemble this right till the times of Constantine the Great, that is both false and very ridiculous: for we do not speak here of the spiritual power, in regard of which even princes bowed their heads to the bishops, as Gelasius said. But why should Constantine's power in civil matters be less full and free than that of his father Constantius, or of Dioclesian, or any other of the former emperors? And there is also the same reason with respect to the exemption of the clergy. For as he is to be accounted an enthusiast who pretends that they enjoyed that privilege before there were Christian princes; so they that exempt them from subjection to such princes act both unjustly and ridiculously: to say nothing of their manifest impiety, who (as I shall shew in the sequel) miserably wrest the most plain words of the holy Scripture, to make them speak their own sense. But they who refer the original of this ecclesiastical liberty and immunity to the laws of Zephyrinus and Caius, or of other popes, laws made amidst the very flames of a cruel persecution, if they had any thing of right judgment left, would never traduce these holy men with a suspicion of so absurd an ambition. For it cannot be denied to be most absurd, that those popes should attempt to take off the yoke of that civil power from others, to which they themselves were so much subject, that themselves were led forth to suffer punishment at the command of their most barbarous princes. And to what purpose is it to speak of those services performed by the laity towards the ecclesiastics, which at that time were so much the more willingly paid as they were less demanded. The Apostle writing to the Galatians says, "I bear you record, that, if it Gal. 4. 15. had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me." as his Epistles shew, nor the would burden the Churches e [S. Zephyrini papæ (A.D. 201) Epistolæ duæ (supposititiæ) ap. Concilia, tom. i. col. 620, sqq.] But neither was that Apostle, rest of the Apostles such as of God with superfluous exac f [S. Caii papæ (A.D. 283) Epistola decretalis (supposititia,) ibid., col. 912.] NO. VI. 152 The existence and growth of evil in the Church; APPENDIX. tions, and fresh demands of services without end, as was afterwards done. And when the first bishops of the Church, being men of great sanctity, did wholly conform themselves to this example, there is no doubt but the people also on their side were most ready to pay all those observances which were required of them: for those pious pastors, contenting themselves with what was necessary, neither coveted to lord it over the people under them, nor over one another: but as St. Cyprian says, "Every one governed that portion of the universal flock which was allotted to him, as one that was to render an account of what he did to the Lord." But in truth the Church of God is not without reason compared to a field in the holy Scriptures: this field at first, sowed with good seed, and cultivated with the greatest diligence by the householder, was after a very little time attempted to be corrupted by that old deceiver the devil; and from that time amongst the bright and good corn there began to grow up docks, thistles, and wild oats. Some from the known path of the right faith have deviated into unknown ways: other have changed the heat of their former zeal into a remiss lukewarmness: some have heaped up riches: many even of the very husbandmen of the Lord's field have gaped after honours, and wholly given themselves up to ambition: for no sooner had the Church a little enjoyment of peace allowed her by her external enemies, but all these intestine evils immediately breaking in upon her together in crowds, did wonderfully destroy her former beauty. St. Cyprian (de Lapsis) speaking of the most severe Decian persecution, says, "If the cause of the slaughter is known, the cure also of the wound is discovered. Our Lord had a mind that His family should be proved, and because a long peace had corrupted that discipline which was given us from heaven, this divine chastisement has raised our faith, which was fallen, and I had almost said, was asleep." The holy man afterwards describing the corruption of the [Singulis pastoribus portio gregis sit adscripta, quam regat unusquisque e' gubernet, rationem sui actus Domino redditurus. S. Cyprian, Epist. Iv. ad Cornelium, Op., p. 85.] h [Si cladis causa cognoscitur, et medela vulneris invenitur. Dominus Church at large, among probari familiam suam voluit; et quia traditam nobis divinitus disciplinam pax longa corruperat, jacentem fidem et pene, ut ita dixerim, dormientem censura cœlestis erexit.-Id. de Lapsis, Op., p. 182.] the secularity and ambition of bishops. 153 DE LIB. SECT. V. other evils mentions this as much the greatest, that bishops CASAUBON did already in that age begin to mingle secular cares with their spiritual ministry. "Very many bishops," says he', CHAP. II. "who ought to have been both a consolation and an example to the rest, despising the providence of God, became providers of secular things for themselves; leaving their sees, deserting their flocks, and wandering about through other provinces, they frequented markets, and hunted after gain; gave no relief to their hungry brethren in the Church; coveted great wealth; seized upon estates by fraud and treachery, and increased their riches by usury." And those evils are very like these, and yet more grievous, which Eusebius relates concerning the ambition of the bishops, and their desire of power, in the beginning of his eighth book, where he is explaining the causes for which God raised that most violent persecution which the Church suffered under the reign of Dioclesian. Besides at that time the discipline of the Church was fallen into so much contempt, that the authority of the spiritual sword being grown obsolete, the synod which met at Antioch about the year of Christ 275, was obliged to implore the assistance of the civil sword against the contumacy of Paul of Samosata', from Aurelian a heathen prince, and soon after a most deadly enemy to the Church. And this was the state of the Church then, when divine providence beyond all hopes was pleased to put a new face of affairs upon i [Episcopi plurimi, quos et hortamento esse oportet cæteris et exemplo, divina procuratione contemta, procuratores rerum sæcularium fieri, derelicta cathedra, plebe deserta, per alienas provincias oberrantes, negotiationis quæstuosæ nundinas aucupari, esurientibus in ecclesia fratribus (non subvenire, ed. Pamel.), habere argentum largiter velle, fundos insidiosis fraudibus ra it. CHAP. III. APPENDIX. NO. VI WHAT AND OF WHAT KIND THE LIBERTY OF THE CHURCH WAS FROM THE THE Church of God had passed near three hundred years amidst almost continual torments, adorned with a crown of martyrdom, and generally with the purple of her own blood, when it pleased our great and good God at last to rescue her from the yoke of the most cruel tyrants: for now those wished for times were come, which the Lord had promised many ages before, and His prophets had foretold, when the kings of the earth should surrender themselves and their sceptres to Messiah the king, and not only adore Him in an humble manner, but also become nursing fathers, pastors, and defenders of His Church. Therefore the Church's long servitude was at last succeeded by that liberty which Constantine the Great first procured for her, and which the Christian emperors that followed him did afterwards preserve and variously augment. But because the meaning, extent, and rights of this liberty altered according to the times, as we have shewed in the first chapter; therefore that it may be clearly and distinctly understood how that ancient liberty differed from this modern, which is so often called the liberty of the Church, we will mark the difference of times, and consider them separately. Therefore we observe three ages of ecclesiastical liberty in history, which are wonderfully different from each other. For from Constantine the Great, the first author of it, for three hundred years and somewhat more, the Church flourished under the reign of emperors and kings, contented with the sole administration of spiritual and ecclesiastical matters, and perfectly free from all contagion of temporal dominion. This is the second age of the Church, which for method sake we bound with the pontificate of Pelagius II., predecessor to Gregory the Great". After that followed another age, in which the clergy were first compelled to concern themselves in the administration of secular affairs, the exigence of the times so requiring. [The pontificate of Pelagius II. ended A.D. 590.] |