The Novelty of Popery Opposed to the Antiquity of True Christianity, Book 6 · Chapter 29
CHAP. 29. Of the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon, and of the little credit which ought to be given to the Tomes of the Councils, both Greek and Latin.
THe moſt certain Monuments of the antient Councils are the Canons and Symbols made in them. We have that obligation to the Greek Churches that they have preſerved for us with great care and fidelity, thoſe excellent Monuments, which contain in a Summary the whole ſubſtance and reſult of the deliberations and matters treated in the antient Councils, and which therefore were read in the beginning of Councils.
As for the Acts and Preambles of the Councils, and the Hiſtory of all the paſſages of the ſame, the Grecians were not careful to preſerve them, and the Latins have laboured to corrupt them. They are found in the Latin Tomes that are publiſht by our adverſaries, which ſwell at every new Edition, and receive a continual alteration: Theſe Tomes, the firſt eſpecially, and part of the ſecond, are the moſt corrupt Books, and fulleſt of falſifications that ever were made in matter of Religion. There the Father of lying had free ſcope, and multiplied forgeries at his own pleaſure: There for a ſuitable beginning to the work you have eight books of Apoſtolical Conſtitutions falſly aſcribed to Clement, contemporary to the Apoſtles, there the falſhood is evident; For in the 6. book, ch. 24. the Author ſaith that then the Romans had renounced the Pagan Religion, and kept the Jews tributary, ſhewing that the Book was made when the Roman Emperors were Chriſtians. Then follow about threeſcore Decretal Epiſtles of the Popes of the three firſt Ages, the falſhood of which Epiſtles is known by the date of the Conſuls, by the barbarouſneſs of the ſtyle, and by divers other evident errours. Pope Leo the IV. Can. de libellis, in the 20. Diſtinction, acknowledgeth no Decrees, and no Rules of Popes before Sylveſter. And both Baronius and Bellarmin freely acknowledge the falſhood of theſe Epiſtles: in the ſame firſt Tome of Councils, whole Councils are found which never were, as the Council of Sinueſſa under Marcellinus, and the Roman Council under Sylveſter. The donation of Conſtantine is of the ſame ſtuff, and many the like pieces forged purpoſely to exalt the Popes power, but ſo groſly, that the learned among our adverſaries, as Baronius and Bellarmin dare not defend them, and acknowledge the falſhood of them.
In the ſame Tomes of Councils the Acts of the Councils are ſo confuſed and depraved, that it appears plainly impoſſible that things ſhould have been done in that manner.
Of late the ſame Acts of the Councils have been publiſht in Greek, drawn out of the Manuſcripts of the Vatican, made by our adverſaries, who have given them to us ſuch as they liſted. Between thoſe Greek and Latin exemplaries there is ſuch a diſcord, that we could never take them for the ſame Councils, did not the titles tell us ſo much. Of this Council of Chalcedon eſpecially,(a)Baron. An. 451. ſect. 69. & 92. Baronius acknowledgeth that the Acts are corrupted: and the Greek Copies agree not with the Latin, ſo that one cannot diſcern whether the Latin muſt be corrected by the Greek, or the Greek by the Latin. In the Latin Copies the order of the Seſſions is troubled: and it is eaſie to know that the Acts are falſified both in the Latin and in the Greek. For the ninth and the twenty eighth Canons of this Council which we have produced, are contrary to the Roman Prelat, and derogate to his Primacy, as we have ſhewed: But in the third Seſſion of thoſe Acts there is a Synodical(b)The Epiſtle begins thus, Repletū eſt gaudio os noſtrum. Epiſtle of the Council to Leo, where the Fathers of the Council acknowledge him for their Head, and ſubmit their deciſions to his judgement, beſeeching him to ratifie them. Which words the Cardinal alleadgeth very often: But God permitted that the falſhood of that Epiſtle ſhould appear by the date of the monethmonth and the year; for in the end of the Epiſtle theſe words are found, Scripſi pridie Calendas Apriles feria tertia Indictione decima tertia, I writ this the laſt of March, being Tueſday, in the thirteenth Indiction: But the Synod of Chalcedon was ſeparated long before that monethmonth of March, having begun the third day of October, and ended towards the end of the ſame monethmonth. And Martian, under whoſe Empire that Council ſate, lived not till the thirteenth Indiction, but dyed in the eighth, as(c)Baron. An. 451. ſect. 146. Baronius obſerveth. But is it credible that the Fathers of this Council (who knew already that Leo condemned their Canon, and upon that had given a repulſe to his Legats, and deſpiſed their proteſtations againſt the ſaid Canon) would ſubmit to his judgement? And how had they ſubmitted to it, ſeeing that, notwithſtanding all the invectives of Leo and his ſucceſſors againſt that Canon, they remained fixed in their reſolution, and that this Canon was kept in force to poſterity? and that the Popes have alwayes complained that their authority was deſpiſed by that Council?
The ſame I ſay of ſome other Epiſtles of private men, where Leo is called the Univerſal Pope and Head, who hath the preheminence over the members: For the Canons of that Council ſpeak a contrary language. In brief, all that the Cardinal brings out of the Acts of the Councils, for the Pope, is without ſtrength, ſuſpected of falſhood, and grounded upon that ſandy foundation of the fidelity of our adverſaries, who of late have publiſhed Greek Acts which never were ſeen before.