The Novelty of Popery Opposed to the Antiquity of True Christianity, Book 6 · Chapter 16
CHAP. 16. Some incidencies happened in the firſt Council of Epheſus, or by occaſion of the ſame, conducing to this queſtion.
IN this Council, in the entry of the Action, according to the cuſtom, the Book of the holy Goſpels was laid upon the Table, that the matters propounded in the Council, might be judged according to the doctrine contained in that Book. A cuſtom which the Pope hath changed, having brought in of late an impious Ceremony of laying the Scripture at the Popes feet, himſelf ſitting on a Throne, as it were to ſay, that the Word of God is ſubject unto him: And next to make the Officers of the Council, to come and take an Oath of Allegiance and Obedience unto him, with their hand upon the Book, laid at the feet of his Holineſs. This is found practiſed in the laſt Council of Lateran, under Julius the II. In the firſt Seſſion theſe words are found; Officiales ad pedes ſanctiſſimi Domini noſtri tactis ſacroſanctis Evangeliis, praeſtiterunt corporale juramentum. The Officers having touched the holy and ſacred Goſpels, at the feet of our moſt holy Lord, took their corporal Oath.
(a)Baron. An. 431. §. 120. & 128. & 129. & 146.Divers relations being made to the Emperour Theodoſius, about things done in the Council, with little order and much animoſity: that good Emperour not knowing which of them he might believe, writ Letters to the Council, whereby he forbad the Biſhops to go out of the Council, and commanded that Deputies ſhould be ſent to him from the Council, to give him an account of all the paſſages, and to inform him of the truth. And being prepoſſeſt wiih the complaints and calumnies of Neſtorius and his adherents, he ſent John Count of the ſacred Largitions, to Epheſus with Imperial Letters; whereby he declared, that his Majeſtie held Cyrillus and Memnon as juſtly depoſed, and commanded that they ſhould be apprehended and detained priſoners: Whereupon the Council ſent ſeven Deputies to the Emperour, among whom were Arcadius and Philippus, the Roman Biſhops Legates, who having informed the Emperour of the truth, made him alter his opinion, ſo that he approved the condemnation of Neſtorius, and took from him the dignity of Patriarch of Conſtantinople.
By this it appeareth that Cardinal du Perron doth very little for the Biſhop of Rome, by affirming that Cyrillus in that Council repreſented the perſon of Celeſtinus. For thereby he declareth that the Emperour made no great account of the Biſhop of Rome, ſince he made no difficulty of committing that man priſoner, that repreſented the perſon of the Biſhop of Rome. Had Celeſtinus been preſent, he had been ſerved in the like manner. The Reader ſhall obſerve alſo, that the Popes Legates did not take it for a diſparagement of their dignity, to be ſent by the Council, as Deputies to the Emperour, with other Biſhops, to appeaſe his wrath.
Four years after the condemnation of Neſtorius, John Patriarch of Antioch, according to the relation of(b)Niceph: l. 14. c. 35. Nicephorus, writ to the Emperour Theodoſius with a remonſtrance, that for the good of the Church he ought to expell Neſtorius, and put him out of the Oriental Empire. Which was preſently executed by Theodoſius, who relegated Neſtorius to Oaſis. Had the Biſhop of Rome done that which John of Antioch did, our Adverſaries would triumph about it, and ſay, that the Emperours are ſubject to the Popes Decrees, and that they can bring the greateſt Patriarchs to condigne puniſhment, according to their pleaſure.
The ſame Author relateth, that the ſaid John ſent to Cyrillus his Confeſſion of Faith in writing. When ſome Biſhop ſends his Confeſſion to the Biſhop of Rome, our Adverſaries take that for a moſt certain proof of ſubjection to the Papal See; to which they will have all obliged to give a reaſon of their Faith. But we have ſeen before, that Liberius Biſhop of Rome, ſent his Belief and Confeſſion of Faith to Athanaſius Biſhop of Alexandria: and John being not ſubject to Cyrillus, yet ſends his Confeſſion to him.