A new history of ecclesiastical writers containing an account of the authors of the several books of the Old and New Testament, of the lives and writings of the primitive fathers, an abridgement and catalogue of their works ... also a compendious history of the councils, with chronological tables of the whole / written in French by Lewis Ellies du Pin.

Of Ecclesiastical Moderation.

ST. Gregory declares in Letter 1. of Book 7. That he always abhor'd the ways of Cruelty that were us'd for planting Religion; that, if he had pleas'd, he could have destroy'd the whole Na∣tion of the Lombards, but that it was not the Spirit of the Church.

He desires that Justice and Equity may be observ'd towards the Jews, as well as among Christians, and that no injury may be done unto them. Here follow the Examples of his Moderation. He wrote to Vigilius of Arles, and Theodorus Bishop of Marseilles, That the Jews ought not to be com∣pell'd to be baptiz'd, lest the sacred Fonts of Regeneration to a Divine Life by Baptism, should be to them the occasion of a second Death more deadly then the first, B. 1. Ep. 45. He would have them allur'd by Moderation, B. 1. Ep. 11. He does not approve the Zeal of a Jew newly baptiz'd, who on the next day after his Baptism, thought sit to carry an Image of the Virgin, a Cross, and a white Garment in the Synagogue, to endeavour the Conversion of the Jews, and to take from them the Place of their Assembly. He desires that these things may be remov'd out of the Synagogue, and that it may be restor'd to the Jews, B. 7. Ind. 2. Ep. 5.

He blames the Bishop of Terracina, who had hindred the Jews from celebrating their Festivals in the City, and had driven them out of it, appointing them another Place for holding their Assemblies, B. 1. Ep. 34. He orders that the Price of their Synagogues which they had invaded should be resto∣red unto them, B. 7. Ind. 2. Ep. 59.

He complains of John the Younger, That he had suffer'd the Priests of Constantinople to be a∣bus'd, without concerning himself in their Defence: and he adds, that 'tis a thing unheard of to force People by beating them with a stick to receive the Faith: Inaudita est praedicatio, quae verberi∣bus exigit fidem.

He would have Hereticks easily receiv'd, B. 1. Ep. 14. And the better to entice such Idolaters as were lately converted, he permits that the Festival days which were wont to be kept near the Churches, should be observ'd in that Place where they had been accustomed to make their Feasts of Meats offer'd unto Idols, B. 9. Ep. 71.