Chap. 2. the. 39. Diuision.
And Socrates sayth of the Church of Rome and Alexandria, which were the most famous Churches in the Apostles tymes, that aboute the yeare. 430. the Romane and Alexandrian By∣shops (*) leauyng the sacred function were degenerate to a secular rule or dominion, wherevpon we see, that it is safe for vs to goe to the Scriptures, and to the Apostles tymes, for to fetche our gouernment and order: and that it is very daungerous to drawe from those ryuers the fountaynes wherof, are troubled and corrupted, especially when as the wayes whereby they runne are muddier and more fennie, than is the head itselfe.
You falsifie the wordes of Socrates, for thus be sayth, For euen till that tyme the Nouatians florished maruellously at Rome, and had manye Churches and had gathered muche people. But enuie tooke holde of them, when as the Byshopprike of Rome and of Alexandria nowe a good whyle was passed beyonde the Limites of Priesthoode to an out∣warde Dominion. He sayth not leauing the sacred function, were degenerate to a se∣cular rule and dominion, as you translate it.
But why doth Socrates burste out into thys reprehension of them, euen bycause they expelled the Nouatian heretikes, of whome Socrates was a fautor, as it may ap∣peare in Nicephorus, wherefore he dothein that place affectionately, and vniustly re∣proue both the Byshop of Rome, and Alexandria, for stoutly resisting those heretikes and expelling them from their Churches, especially they nowe increasing to so great a multitude, as it may séeme by Socrates wordes they dyd. And althoughe the words of Socrates whiche I haue alreadie recyted iustifie this to be true, yet doth his words followyng declare the same more euidently. For he commendeth the Byshop of Con∣stantinople bycause he friendly interteyned the Nouatians, & suffered them quietly to remayne wythin the Citie, and yet it is certayne, that the Byshop of Constanti∣nople, had as large authoritie as the Byshop of Alexandria, wherefore Socrates in thys poynt is no more to be beléeued against those Byshops, than you are against the Byshoppes in thys Churche, whose authoritie you maligne vpon the lyke occa∣sion.