SECT. IX.

H. T. in his catalogue from the year of Christ 500. reckons up thirteen chief Pastors, one general Council, the second Constantinopolitan Pope Vigi∣lius prefiding (Fathers 165. An. Dom, 553.) against Anthimius and Theo∣dore: but Bellarmine himself confesseth lib. 1. de concil. c. 19. that Eutychius of Constantinople was President there, though Vigilius Bishop of Rome was then at Constantinople, As for that which Bellarmine cites out of Zonaras in the life of Justinian, he cites it maimedly. For Zonaras said not that onely Vigilius was Prince of the Bishops who were present, but with him Eutychius of Constantinople and Apollinaris of Alexandria. What H. T. mentions of the definitions of the council is nothing against the protestants, nor for the Pa∣pacy.

That which he allegeth out of the third council of Carthage is disorderly placed in the sixth age, it being held, as is said, in the year 397. and is of doubtfull credit, sith it mentions Pope Boniface as then living, though he sat not, according to Onuphrius, till the year 419. but it matters not what it was, sith it was but a provincial Synod: and of the canons cited by H. T. the first is onely about a point not of Faith, concerning the celebrating the Mass, Fasting; the other, which terms the Apocryphal books as canonical, may be expounded, according to Hierom's distinction, that they are canonical to form manners, not to inform faith. Yet this may be observed by the way, that the six and twentieth Canon of the third Council of Carthage, which was autho∣rized by the sixth general council holden at Constantinople, in Trullo, as it is Page  21 alleged by Gratian in the Decrees dist. 99. de primatibus, and by Pope Pelagius approved, denies to any the title of Chief Priest, or Prince of Priests, but al∣ows onely this Title, Bishop of the first See: whereupon the Gloss saith, that even the Bishop of Rome was not to be called the Universal Bishop.

The determination of the Council of Mileris about Childrens Baptism is disorderly placed in the sixth age, being said to be held in the year 402. and be∣ing no general council about a point not gainsaid by most protestants, is imper∣tinent to prove a succession of assertors of the Roman Doctrine opposite to the protestants.

That which he allegeth out of the Caesar Augustan Council, which decreed that Virgins should not be vailed till after forty years probation, makes against the Papists, who in the Trent council, allow it sooner, and practise the vasting of them afore they are twenty years old.

That which he adds of Pope John the first his Decree, that Mass ought not to be celebrated, but in places consecrated to our Lord, unless great necessity should enforce it, because it is written, See thou offer not thy holocausts in every place, which the Lord thy God hath chosen, Deut. 12. shews the Popes ignorance or Judaism, who applies this to the Mass, which was meant of Jewish sacrificing in the Levitical Law, and makes the Mass to be an offering of an holocaust, and every place consecrated by a bishop, the place that God chooseth, and also the vanity of this Scribler, who puts in his catalogue such an impertinent testi∣mony to prove a succession of the assertors of the Roman faith, which I scarce think any sober papist would make any part of his faith against protestants, nor do I think the papists in England would be content to be tied to that Law.

In that which he adds of Catholick Professors to the year 600. he doth not shew that they acknowledged the bishop of Rome's supremacy or the now Ro∣man faith. Yea Columbanus in this age, and after Aidanus, Colmannus, and others lived and died in opposition to the Romans about Easter.

That Austin the Monk converted England, is onely true of some part of it, and it is true also that he did in many things pervert them, and it is said he was an instigator of the murder of many British Christians better than himself: but that either he, or Pope Gregory that sent him, held the same supremacy of the pope, which now popes claim, or the now-Roman faith opposite to the protestants cannot be shewed. On the contrary, it is manifest enough, that Gregory the great refused the Title of Universal Bishop, as profane, and sacrile∣gious, and accounted the assumer of it to be a fore-runner of Antichrist, lib 4. epist. 32, 34, 36, 38, 39. & lib. 6. epist. 30. he allowed not Worship of Images in his Epistle to Serenus bishop of Marseiles, he allowed priests wives, nor did tie men to follow the order of the Roman church, which shews the popes then not to have been altogether so bad as in the next age. In which and through∣out the rest of his Catalogue he can hardly shew a Pope that lived either the life of a Christian, or did the Office of a pastour of the church of God, if any, sure not many: but in stead of Christian pastours a generation of men of an ambitious and luxurious spirit, contending with Emperours and Bi∣shops for worldly greatness, persecuting godly Christians, living in pomp, ri∣ot, and all kinde of wickedness, are set down as chief pastours of the universal church.

Page  23 In the seventh age he reckons up nineteen Popes, whom he terms chief Pastors: of them the second is Boniface the third, who obtained of Phocas the Emperor (who by treason had gotten the Empire, slaying his Lord Mau∣ritius and his children) the title of universal Bishop, detested before by Gre∣gory the great, as profane and sacrilegious; and Honorius the first, is the fifth condemned in the third Constantinopolitan Council, in which H. T. saith, there were Fathers two hundred eighty nine, Pope Agatho presiding, Anno Domini 680. against the Monothelites, and that in it were condemned Sergius, Paulus, Petrus, Cyrus, and Theodore, who most impiously taught, but one will and operation to be in Christ. But this Author deceitfully conceals it, that the same Council in the thirteenth action, did solemnly condemn Honorius the Pope of old Rome as a Monothelite together with the rest; and again in the Greek edition the first Chapter, and that Pope Agatho in his Epistle to the sixth Council, doth anathematize his predecessor Honorius as a Monothelite, and Pope Leo the second, in his Epistle to Constantine the Emperor, inserted in the eighth action of the sixth Synod, which was also done in the second Nicene Council, termed the seventh synod in the last action.

As for that which H. T. adds of the definitions of the sixth Council against Priests marriage, not giving grapes, mingling water and wine, adoration of the Crosse, consideration in him that binds and looseth, invocating Saints; it is not worth while to insist on the examination thereof, partly because some of the de∣finitions serve not the purpose; for though it be granted, that there ought to be a particular knowledge of the sin of him that is to be absolved by his con∣fession of it, yet is not thereby the necessity of Popish auricular confession proved, or the Priests power judicially and authoritatively to absolve, and remit sins established, partly because they are not all points of faith, but either of disciplin, as about the marriage of men in orders, or of Ceremonies, as about the mingling of water and wine in the Eucharist; and partly because it is doubtful whether those Canons are truely ascribed to that Council, there be∣ing some reasons tending to the contrary, and partly because if they were their determinations, there is little reason to ascribe any authority to them, after the first six hundred years barbarism, and many corruptions being gotten into the Christian Churches, and the simplicity of the Christian profession very much changed into contentions about Bishops Sees, Ecclesiastical privi∣ledges, humane ceremonies, and such like abuses: yet, were all granted which he allegeth of the councils definitions, neither the now Roman supremacy nor faith is proved, nor from the Catholick professors, as he terms them, or Nati∣ons converted are either of them avouched in that age.

In the eighth Century things grew worse. In it H. T. reckons thirteen Popes, among whom there's not a man, of whom their own writers relate any thing that belongs to the Pastors of the Church of Christ, to wit, the Preach∣ing of the Gospel; but their intermedling with the business of the Empire and Kingdoms, making Kings monks, contentions about images in Churches, enlarging their dominions, building walls, making decrees about shaven crowns and such like toyes... Two Popes, Zacharias and Stephen the second, can hardly be acquitted from being sinfully instrumental in the deposing of Childerick King of France, and the traiterous usurpation of Pepin.

As for the second Nicene Council, in which H. T. saith, were three hundred Page  24 and fifty Fathers, Pope Adrian presiding, Anno Domini 787. against image breakers, in which were decreed for images in Temples, and the veneration and worship of the Saints, Reliques, Images, and the Council of Sens about tra∣ditions, though these things are but a few of the Popish doctrins, yet we grant, that then the Popes had gotten to such heighth as to justle Emperors, and that the Churches in Communion with the Papacy were in that age and the following so corrupt, as that traditions of men and decrees of Bishops were more regarded than the written Word; and that thereby placing of images in Temples, and their worship got into the Christian Churches to the pro∣moting of that Idolatry in the Roman Church, which hath made her the mother of harlots, and of abominations of the earth: yet this was not done without opposition, not only in the Greek Empire, but also in the Western: Charles the great calling a Council at Frankford, which condemned the second Nicene Council.

And for the Catholick Professors, such as venerable Bede and others, though they were tainted with the superstitions of those times about monkery, and ceremonies, and ecclesiastical dignities and orders, yet that they held the now Roman faith cannot be demonstrated, nor that the Nations mentioned to be converted were converted to it. And for the miracles mentioned there is no credit to be given to them, many such tales having been made, or such mira∣cles counterfieted in those dayes for deceiving the ignorant people: nor were they done in such manner and to such purposes, as the miracles of Christ and his Apostles were by which the Gospel was confirmed.

In the nineteenth age H. T. reckons up eighteen Popes, omitting the men∣tion of one of them as a woman; though a great number of Popish writers set her down as Pope, and relate the story of her sitting in the chair some years, till she travailed with child in procession. But if that were not true, yet the things related by themselves of Formosus, Stephanus, Romanus shew cruelty and wickedness in the Popes of that age, one hating and undoing what another had done, and thereby shewing that they were rather of Cadmus, than St. Peters race.

And for the fourth Constantinopolitan Council (Fathers one hundred and one) Pope Adrian presiding, Anno Domini 869. against Photius, and for the Pope and images, and against temporal Princes medling in the election of Bi∣shops; it is an argument, that the Roman Bishops were gotten then by many wicked practices to a great heighth of unjust power. And the deposition of Photius for reproving the Emperor, together with his opposition of the Pope (whose works extant do shew him to have been of more worth for learning than any Pope in that age) and the Epistle of Ulderick Bishop of Auspurg to Pope Nicolas the first, in which he rebukes the wickedness of Popes in denying marriage to the Clergy, do prove that the doctrin and tyranny of the Popes of Rome, did not freely pass without controul even in that age, which by the con∣fession of Genebrard himself, Chron. l. 4. was an unhappy age for want of any writer of worth in the Latin Church.

As for the Catholick professors mentioned by H. T. in this age, that they were all of the Roman church, or professed her faith is not shewed: not that the Nations converted, were either converted by the Roman Bishops, or owned their now claimed supremacy or professed faith; H. T. saith the Russians were Page  25 converted by a Priest sent by the Emperor Basilius, and therefore had their con∣version from the Greek church whom they followed, and with whom they now hold communion, not acknowledging the Bishop of Romes supremacy to this day, and therefore that instance is manifestly against H. T. his purpose.

In the tenth age are reckoned twenty six Popes, whereof there's scarce any that may be termed a Christian, much less a chief Pastor of the Christian churches. Their own stories tell us of some of them that got the Popedome by means of Mororia a notorious whore, others by cruel practises: one, to wit Sylvester the second, by the help of the Devil, whose agents they were in bringing a deluge of ignorance and wickedness into the world, which made that age to be termed a miserable age, in which were neither famous writers, nor Councils, nor Popes that cared for the publick, by Bellarmin in his book of Eccle∣siastical writers, and of it H. T. here saith, in this tenth age or century I find no general council, nor yet provincial in which any controversie of moment was de∣cided. So that by his own confession, his catalogue of councils fails him. And for his succession of chief Pastors, it is of such persons and so uncertain a succession, and by such irregular ways, as yeilds proof that Rome was the Synagogue of Satan, not the church of Christ. Of the catholick professors added, some of them, as Dunstan, &c. were such, as it may be well doubted whether they are in heaven or in hell. And for the Nations converted, it is not proved they were of the now Roman faith.