Ductor dubitantium, or, The rule of conscience in all her generall measures serving as a great instrument for the determination of cases of conscience : in four books / by Jeremy Taylor ...

RULE XIV. The Canons of the ancient General and Provincial Councils are then laws to the Conscience when they are bound upon us by the authority of the respective Governours of Churches.

A General Council is nothing but the union of all the Ecclesiastical pow∣er in the world.* 1.1 The authority of a General Council in matters of Government and Discipline is no greater, no more obligatory then the au∣thority of a Provincial Council to those who are under it. A General Council obliges more Countries and more Dioceses, but it obliges them no more then the Civil and Ecclesiastic power obliges them at home A General Council is an Union of Government, a consent of Princes and Bi∣shops, and in that every one agrees to govern by the measures to which there they doe consent: and the consent of opinions addes moment to the laws, and reverence to the sanction; and it must prevail against more objections then Provincial decrees, because of the advantage of wisdome and consul∣tation which is suppos'd to be there, but the whole power of obliga∣tion is deriv'd from the Authority at home. That is, if twenty Princes meet together and all their Bishops, and agree how they will have their Churches governed, those Princes which are there and those Bishops which have consented are bound by their own act, and to it they must stand till the reason alters, or a contrary or a better does intervene; but the Prince can as much alter that law when the case alters, as he can abrogate any other law to which he hath consented. But those Princes which were not there, whatever the cause of their absence be, are not oblig'd by that General Council; and that Council can have no authority but what is given them by consent, & therefore they who have not consented, are free as ever.

The Council of Florence,* 1.2 so called because, though it was begun at Ferrara, yet it was ended there, Pope Clement 7^th calls the eighth General Council in his Bull of April 22^th 1527.* 1.3 yet others call it the 16^th: but it was never receiv'd in France, as Panormitan* 1.4 tells us: for the King of France did forbid expressely and upon great penalties that any of his sub∣jects should goe to Ferrara to celebrate that Council; and after it had been celebrated, and Charles the 7^th was desir'd by Pope Eugenius to accept it, he told the Legates plainly, that he had never taken it for a Council, and he never would. The Council of Basil, though the King of France had sent his Embassadors thither, and had received it as a Council, yet he approved it but in part, for he rejected the last thirteen sessions, and approv'd onely

the first two and thirty;* 1.5 some of them as they lie, others with certain forms and qualifications: and this was done to fit and accommodate them to the exigencies of the times and places and persons,* 1.6 saith Benedict a French lawyer. And upon the like accounts the last Council of Lateran is there rejected also. Thus in England we accept not of the Council of Trent, and excepting the four first General Councils, which are established into a Law by the King and Parliament, there is no other Council at all of use in England, save onely to entertain scholars in their arguments, and to be made use of in matters of fact, by them to understand the stories of the Church. Where any thing else is received into custome and practice of law, it binds by our reception, not by it's own natural force.

But I have already spoken sufficiently of this thing* 1.7.* 1.8 I now onely mention it to the purpose that those religious and well-meaning, persons who are concluded by the canon of an Ancient Council, and think that whatever was there commanded it layes some obligation upon the Consci∣ences of us at this day, and by this means enter into infinite scruples and a restlesse unsatisfied condition, may consider that the Ancient Doctors of the Church had no jurisdiction over us who were born so many ages after them; that even then when they were made they had their authority wholly from Princes and consent of Nations; that things and reasons, that juris∣dictions and governments, that Churches and Dioceses, that interests and manners are infinitely alter'd since that time; that since the authority of those Fathers could not be permanent and abide longer then their lives, it being certainly not greater then that of Kings, which must needs die with their persons, that their successors may be Kings as well as they, and not be subjects of the dead, the efficacy of their rules must descend upon succession by a succeeding authority; that therefore they prevail upon us by a new force, by that which is extrinsecal to them; and therefore in such cases we are to inquire whether the thing be good, and if it be, we may use it with li∣berty till we be restrained, but we may also chuse; for then we are to in∣quire whether the thing be a law in that Government to which we owe obedience: for that the Fathers met at Laodicea, At Antioch, at Nice, at Gangra, a thousand, 1100 or 1300 years agoe, should have authority over us in England so many ages after, is so infinitely unreasonable, that none but the fearfull and the unbelievers, the scrupulous and those who are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, of a slavish nature, and are in bondage by their fear, and know not how to stand in that liberty by which Christ hath made them free, will account themselves in subjection to them. If upon this account the Rulers of Churches will introduce any pious, just and warrantable Canon, we are to obey in all things where they have power to command; but the Canon, for being in the old Codes of the Church, binds us no more then the laws of Constantine.

Notes

• * 1.1

  1.
• * 1.2

  2.
• * 1.3

  Vide Surium in Epist. ad le∣ctorem, ante Concil. Ferrar. tom. 4. Concil.
• * 1.4

  in Tract. de Concil. Basil. circa princ. n. 6. Vide etiam Ni∣colaum de Cle∣mangiis
• * 1.5

  Vide prooemiū pragmat. sanct.
• * 1.6

  Guil. Benedict. in repetit. cap. Raynutius.
• * 1.7

  Chapter 3. Rule 7. and Chapter 4. Rule 5.
• * 1.8

  3.