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Christians have ever esteemed Synods so necessary, that they have been very careful to assemble them when the good of the Church required it; for as Eusebius saith in the 51 chap. of the Book of the Life of Constan∣tine, Great Controversies cannot be determin'd but by Sy∣nods: At the beginning, and even during the heat of Persecution, when there arrived any trouble in a parti∣cular Church, all the others concern'd themselves in it, and the Ministers by a meer movement of Charity, and without any form of Convocation, assembled of them∣selves, to make Peace, and to compose Differences: And in these Assemblies Humane Passions being bani∣shed, and Jesus Christ there presiding by his Holy Spi∣rit, they consulted together, and resolv'd without Ce∣remonies and Formalities, what was expedient. It is much after this Method they proceeded against Paul of Samosatia Bishop of Antioch, when he had published his Impiety, * 1.1 the Pastors of Churches as Eusebius saith, being run thither from all parts, as against an Enemy, which destroy'd the Flock of Christ. And I can't tell if the Synod of Iconia in Phrygia mentioned by Fer∣millian Bishop of Caesaria in Cappadocia, was not of the same kind of those held against Paul of Samosatia in the same Century; * 1.2 for he saith, they were assembled in that place, from Gallacia, Cilicia, and other adjacent Provinces, to confirm what had already been concluded touching the reiteration of the Baptism of Hereticks.
But what Bishops did at first by a principle of Chari∣ty, they were in time obliged to do also by Duty, the Cannons requiring it of them: In effect the V. Cannon of the First Council of Nice, appoints to hold Synods