The Disarmers Dexterities Examined, Chapter 5 · Section 5
SECT. V.
The 12th Canon of Chalcedon rescued from mistakings. Abuse of power. The effects of that. Irregular grants of Metropoliticall power. foreign. Honour. The Objections answered.
THe 5. Section enters on the view of the testimonies, which I had brought for the erection of Metropoles, by the power of Princes, out of the Canons of Councils, and first begins with that from the twelfth Canon of Chalcedon, & Balsamon's note upon it. And first, saith he, the Council saith onelyonly that those cities were honoured foreign with the name alone, which the Doctor englishes, name and dignity, the later of which, saith he, they wanted, that which should dignifie them in a degree of a Metropolitan, being absolutely interdicted them by this very Chanon, in these words, foreign, let them enjoy onelyonly the honour: And secondly, wh…t this honour was, Balsamon tells, onelyonly foreign to be called a Metropolis: And thirdly, answerable to this are the words of the Council, calling the former Metropolis, in contradistinction to this, the true one, signifying the other to be meerly titular.]
Here is a specious shew indeed, and the Reader may be imposed on, if he do not please to take this caut…on with him, that there are two things considerable in that twelfth Canon; one, the premising a mention of the practice, or custome of erecting Metroples foreign, by regall constitutions (as the latter part of the Canon, the words of the Scholiast, and the mention of foreign Potentates, interprets it) the second a censure, or sentence of the Council on some persons, who had in an undue manner, acquired this dignity by that means. Those things, we know, that are in themselves most lawful, when regularly used, may be very fit to be forbidden, and censured, when irregular. And thus it was here, a power Princes had to erect Met…opoles: but if it were exercised so, as to thwart known Canons, and customes of the Church, this certainly was an abuse: As for example, One Canon it was, that there should be but one Bishop, of one Church, and one Metropolitane of one Province. See Photii nomocanon: Tit. 1 c. 120. Another, which is oft repeated, that Dioeceses and Provinces should be preserved intire, without one Bishops encroaching on another; If therefore where there is one Metropolitane already, to whom the government of the Province by right belongs, another ordinary Bishop in that Province shall by ambition, base solicitation, whispering, or false suggestion, gain a pragmatick from the Prince, to make him a Metropolitane also, foreign, saith the Canon, so that by these meanes there are two Metropolitanes in the same Province, (which must needs disturb the administration, and invade the rights of the former Metropolitane) here certainly is an abuse, fit for a great Council to take cognizance of, and provide against, and by censures to reduce this irregular Bishop to some order. And this was exactly the case here, and consequently the Canon begins with foreign, It hath come to our eares how contrary to the Ecclesiasticall Canons some men running to the secular powers have by Pragmaticks cut one Province into two, and therefore the Synod declares, that no Bishop shall dare, or attempt any such thing; or if he doth, he shall fall from his own degree; but those that have formerly been thus honoured by the Kings writs, they shall injoy the honour alone, but the rights shall be preserved to the true Metropolitane: where there is nothing more clear than this, that the irregularity of the particular erection, in respect of these circumstances and consequences, of unworthy solicitation in the Bishop, and the tearing a Province into two, to the bringing in of violence and confusion, was i… that made that Council censure such ambitious persons: and yet this so, as not wholly to cassate the Princes act, even when 'twas thus irregular; much lesse to intimate in the least, that such power belonged not to the Prince, or would not stand valid to all effects, if it were duly exercised by him, without wrong to any. The validity of such acts is fully cleared by the seventeenth Canon of that Council, and by the 37th. in Trullo, and the way of reconciling this foreign, or seeming difference, is clearly set down in that Tr. of Schism, from the law of Alenius Comnenus, and the Canon under him, as is visible in the latter part of that 14. Sect. viz. that in case the King did it foreign, of his own incitation, it should stand good, but it should not be lawful for any by base solicitation, to seek or obtain it, and consequently, that the Patriarch suspending the confirmation till he had remonstrated to the Emperour, what the Canons were in that case; if it appeared that the Emperour did it foreign of his own motion, he was presently to admit it.
So that now it will soon appear, what justice there is in all S. W. his suggestions in this matter; as 1. when he saith, that the Council saith onelyonly that those cities were honoured with the name alo…e, charging it as a fluency of the Doctors expression, that he e…glishes it [name and dignity.] I answer, that I well understand what is meant by such fluent, or large expressions, and will never once be willingly guilty of any such, and therefore to clear my self in this particular, I wish it be remembred, 1. that as foreign, name, is the word here used, so foreign, dignity, or honor, is also used of the same thing in another part of that Canon and even when it is said by way of censure on them, that the… shall enjoy foreign, no more but that, yet it is foreign still, and that is ordinarily rendred honour, or dignity; 2. before this censure falls on them, when foreign, name, is mentioned alone, yet the verb joyned with it is foreign, they were honoured, i. e. dignified by that name (for honour *l. 14. D. de muner. & honor.say the Lawyers, est administratio provinciae cum dignitatis gradu, an administration with a deg…ee of dignity, so in the African Can. 68. foreign, they shall be received in their own honours, i. e. their Episcopal powers and offices, and so in Augustine, Ep. 50. i… suis honoribus suscipiendos, in the same matter) which they could not be, if that name were not a dignity to them that had it; 3. foreign, ordinarily signifie… dignity and power, and not onelyonly name, as when the name of Christ, and of Jesus, in the sacred style signifies more than the bare name, or title, the power and dignity of his person. All which, I suppose, will justifie me for englishing foreign, by, name and dignity of Metropolis.
But then 2. when he saith, the Council saith onelyonly that they w re honoured with the name alone.] There is no sincerity in this, for 1. the word [alone] is put in by S W. 'tis foreign, name, not foreign, name alone: 2. 'tis in the second part of the Canon (that which sets down the mulct, or punishment of those which had unduly ascended to this dignity) that that interdict is found in these words, Le… them enjo… onelyonly the honour] and not in the first part, where the name and dignity, which they receiv'd by the Pragmatick, is mentioned, and consequently 'tis so farre from being hence inferred, that they had from the Pragmatick nothing but the name, that on the contrary, 'tis clear by the Canon, which thus punisheth them for their offence (that they shall enjoy foreign the honour alone) that if they were not thus punisht, or before they were, i. e. before the making of this Canon, they should and did enjoy more than the honour alone, and so more than onelyonly the name.
2. When he saith Balsamon tells me what that honour meant, viz. onelyonly to be called a Metropolis: This is another falsification, for besides that he saith no more than this, that some asked, and heard, or were told thus, i. e. that some thus interpreted it, beside this, I say, it is clear, that this of the being onelyonly called Metropolitanes, was the punishment inflicted on them by the Council, which, as I said, resists not, but necessarily supposes, that they had further honour, than meerly that titular, conferred on them by the Prince, for otherwise they could not be thus mulcted or punisht by the Council for their irregular ambition, by having it taken from them.
3. The contradistinction between this and the true Metropolis, is of no force to his, or against my pretensions. For that again onelyonly signifies, that the rights did truly and duly belong to the other Metropolis, and that this which was thus unduly advanced, though by the Emperours constitution, did not acquire any just or solid right, which I most willingly grant, in such cases as that which was there mentioned, and can from thence receive no pre udice to my conclusion, viz. that in the East many Emperours had erected Metropolitanes, which was the main thing to which I designed that testimony, both from the words of the Canon, and from Balsamon, who affirmes it distinctly of the Metropolis of Lacedaemonia, of Madyta and Abydus, and never gives the least reason to suspect that those acts of these were invalid. Thus wholly vain are all S. W. his foreign, and consequently his suggestion, that the consequences of this testimonie are totally against my self, though thus indeed they might seem to the hasty reader to be, before his Arts of disguising, by confounding the distant parts of the Canon were thus discovered. Herein I acknowledge he hath shewed himself a dexterous manager, but as it falls out, hath made no reall advantage of his artifices.
What he yet farther addes in the fourth place from Balsamon, that he shall be ordained and judged by the old Metropolitane, is already answered, that this was the Councils penalty inflicted on him; as for others that should after that Canon attempt the like, the Canon decrees that they were to be degrad…d from the pow…r which they already had.
As for the fifth thing, of the power given to the Prince foreign, which he will have rendred olim, by some precedent Council, it was, upon some occasion, spoken to in the Reply, cap 6. sec. 4. n. 19. and evidenced in whatsoever sense it were taken, to be favourable, and not contrary to my pretensions.