About the year 608, presently after the Saxons had received Chris- tianity, and therewithal contributed their power, some of them at least, to the furtherance of your papal claim, — : which was then set on
PROGRESS AND DECLENSION OF RELIGION. 403
foot, though in a much inferior degree unto what you have since pro- moted it unto, — it was pubUcly excepted against and disclaimed by a convention or synod of the British clergy, who denied that they otued any suhjection unto the see of Rome, or any respect but such as Christians ought to bear one towards another, and would not give place unto its authority in things of very small weight and amount. Bed. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 2, Concil. Anglic, p. 188. The sixth general council, that condemned Pope Honorius for a heretic, anno 681, with the second Nicene, anno 787, which confirmed the same sentence, do shrewdly imjieach your present supremacy. In the fourth council of Constantinople, anno 870, the Epanagnosticum of Basilius the em- l^eror to the synod, approved by them all, begins thus: " Cum divina et benignissima Providentia nobis gubernacula universalis navis com- misit, omne studium arripuimus, et ante publicas curas, ecclesiasticas conteutiones dissolvendi;" — " Whereas the gracious divine Provi- dence has committed unto us the government of the universal ship, we have taken all occasion, before other public cares, to dissolve or compose ecclesiastical dissensions." How suitable these expressions of the emperor are unto your present pretensions yourself may judge. And having mentioned that synod, which you call the eighth general council, because of its opposition to the learned Photius, I shall only ask of you, Avhether you think there was no exception made to your supremacy by that Photius, with the emperors and bishops of the east who consulted with him, and afterw^ard justified him against the censures procured against him by Popes Nicholas and Hadrian? Do not all your writers to this day complain of this ojjposition made unto you by Photius? What think you of the council of Frankfort, as- sembled by Charles the Great, which so openly condemned that doc- trine which Pope Hadrian, and the Roman clergy with him, laboured so earnestly to promote, as we shall afterward show? In the same order you may place the councils that deposed their popes, as did one at Rome, under Otho the emperor, John XII., a sweet bishop, anno 963; another at Sutrinum, anno 1046, when Cerberus, as Ba- ronius himself confesseth, ruled at Rome, anno 1044, n. 5, three popes at once domineering there. " Uno contra duos," saith Sigibert, " et duobus contra unum, de papatu contendentibus, rex contra eos vadit, eosque canonica et imperiali censura deponit;" — " One against two, and two against one, contending about the papacy, the king went against them all, and deposed them by canonical and imperial censure." Or, as Platina, Vit. Greg. VI. : " Henricus habita synodo, tria ista teterrima monstra abdicare se magistratu coegit;" — " Henry calling a synod, compelled those three filthy monsters" (Benedict, Sylvester, and Gregory) " to renounce their magistracy or papacy." Have you not heard how many synods and councils were convened
404 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
against tlie usurpations and innovations of Gregory VII., as at Worms, Pa})ia, Brixia, Mentz, and elsewhere? What think j^ou of the assembly at Clarendon here in England, anno 1164, where it was decreed, saith Matth. Paris, " Juxta antiquas regni eonsuetu- dines non licere vel archiepiscopis, vel episcopis, vel aliis personis, exire regnum absque licentia regis;" — "That, according to the an- cient customs of the kingdom, it was not lawful for any archbishops, bishops, or other persons, to depart the kingdom without the leave of the king," — that is, to go to Rome ; and that in all appeals, " Ultimo perveniendum ad regem ita ut non debeat ulterius procedi sine assensu domini regis;" — "The last is to be made unto the king, without whose assent no farther process ought to be made?" For opposition unto which decree, Thomas a Becket had the hap to be- come a traitor and a saint. The stories of the patriarchs of Ravenna in times more remote, and in those of the council of Constance and Basil in latter ages, are too well known to be particularly again in- sisted on. Were princes more silent than synods? Reconcile, if you are able, the laws of Charles the Great and his son Lewis with their pope's now claimed authority. Henry II. of Germany both deposed popes and limited their power ; Henry III. attempted no less, though with less success. See Sigibert Chron. anno 1046 ; Platina, Yit. Greg. VI. ; Sigon. de Reg. lib. viii. From that time forward until the Reformation, no one age can be instanced in wherein great, open, and signal opposition was not made unto the papal authority, which you seek again to introduce. The instances already given are suffi- cient to convince the vanity of your pretence, that never any opposi- tion was made unto it.
Of the same nature is that which you nextly affirm, of " all the bishops and priests of Africa, Egypt, Syria, Thrace, Greece, and all the Christian world, by a hundred experiments, acknowledging the supreme spiritual authority of the Roman patriarch." I must, I see, still mind you of what it is that you are to speak unto. It is not the patriarchate of your pope, with the authority, privileges, and jore- eminences which by virtue thereof he lays claim unto, but his singular succession to Christ and Peter in the absolute headship of the whole catholic church, that you are treating about. Now, supposing you may be better skilled in the affairs of the eastern church than, for aught as I can yet perceive you are in those of the western, let me crave this favour of you, that you would direct me unto one of those hundred experiments whereby the acknowledgment you mention, preceding the conversion of the northern nations, may be confirmed. It will, I confess unto you, be a singular kindness, seeing I know not where to find any one of that nature within the time limited, nor, to tell you the truth, since unto this day; for I suppose you will not