The Disarmers Dexterities Examined, Chapter 5 · Section 6
SECT. VI.
Balsamon's words of the Emperour's erecting many Metropoles. Of what times to be understood. foreign. Helenopontus. Paphlagonia. Phrygia Capatiana. Cappadocia prima, secunda, Basil. Anthimus.
IN the next place, on a view of a first observation of mine, that if Balsamon say right, that at the time of that Council of Chalcedon, many Emperours had erected many, there must needs be others before Valentinian, who was but twenty yeares before that Council; he saith, the observer is fallen into a great mistake, Balsamon's words being to be interpreted, saith he, in his owne times, in which he lived, i. e. 600. yeares after the Council, that then such Metropoles were made.] To this I answer, that Balsamon's words lye indifferently, without notation of the particular time, of which he speaks, onelyonly foreign, divers Kings have honoured divers, so that neither can I conclude from the bare force of them, that he spake of any before that Council, nor he on the contrary, that he spake of those of his own times; to which it belongs, must be judged by other circumstances; and though the matter be not great, which way it be determined, nor at all necessary to my pretensions, to be interpreted of the times before the Council, yet I shall mention the reason, which inclines it that way, and let it be of force, as it shall deserve. Upon the mention of divers Bishopricks thus dignified by the Emperours into Metropoles, he mentions his opinion, collected from the 17. Canon of Chalcedon, and 38. in Trullo (foreign — it appeares to me from those Canons) that such foreign were made by Kings, according to the power given them, foreign from above, or of old; Here first I shall gratifie S. W. that foreign may indeed signifie olim, and if it so signifie in that place, then it must in all probability refer, not to this Council of Chalcedon, and in Trullo, which he names, and from which he concludes that this power was given them of old, but to times before those Councils. And so this very probability, if there were no more, will make it unreasonable to confine his precedent words [foreign divers have been honoured] to the times so long after that Council, as those wherein Balsamon lived, when the words will bear so much a greater latitude, & signifie such grants before that Council. Now that it doth thus really refer to some more antient times, I thus farther infer, 1. from the nature of the word foreign, which is all one with foreign from the beginning, and elsewhere frequently notes an originall right, from the first, i. e. the Apostles times, or first plantations, And agreeably to this 2. from the generall Aphorisme, which we have in Origen, who was before this of Chalcedon above 200. yeares, foreign, that the Governour of the Church in each city must be corresponding to the Governou… of the inhabitants of the c ty, viz. the civil Governour; which, supposing what is undoubted, that a K…ng may dignifie an ordin…ry …ity, and make it a Metropolis, amounts to the same effect, that he may by consequence thus advance a Bishop into a Metropolitane; 3. and chiefly from what Balsamon here addes, foreign — for this cause, i. e. because of this power, which was of old given to Kings, the third chapter of the first title of the third book of the Basilica was out of use, or obsolet…, continued not of force in th… Church.
To understand the importance of which words, 'tis necessary to consider what that chap. is, which he saith was by this means cut-dated, and in what times it was so. What that chapter was, he tells us expresly, though it be now (as being long difused) left out in the Basilica. It is, saith he, to be found in the 20. chap. of the f… st title of his present work, i. e. of Photius's Nomo-ca…on. Thither if we turn, we shall finde the first part of it to be this, that there must not be two Metropolitanes in one Province; which how it was out of use, or obsolete, and when or how long it had been so, appeares by the foreign, or text subjoyned, foreign — Helenopontus hath two Metropolitanes, as appeares by the 28. Novel, Pap…lagonia divers, as the 29. Novel witnesseth, and so Phrygia Capatiana, and the second Cappadocia. Now by these examples I may assume to prove, what I have in hand, for in what time these examples shall appeare to fall, of those in any reason Balsamon's words must be interpreted. And for the former of them, those that are mentioned from Justinians Novels, the case is pretty clear; they both were evidently thus, long before Justinian's time foreign,*foreign saith he of one of them, 'twas in some former Governours time, not naming whose, that it was ere…ted; but of the other, that of Paphlagonia, he saith expresly, that it was done, foreign, in Honori… 's time, foreign. and that we know was before this Council of Chalcedon, and before Valentinian, which was all that I attempted to prove from Balsamon's words. As for the instance of sicunda Cappadecia, 'tis manifest that it was the act of Valens, collegue to Valentinian the elder, and so evidently before those times either of the Council of Chalced…n, or the other Valentinian.
This instance is considerable to the main businesse, and not insisted on formerly, and therefore I shall a little inlarge on it Caesarea had at first been the one Metroplis of Cappadocia, and Basil the Great, Bishop of it; but Val…ns dividing Cappadocia into two Provinces, the first and second Cappadocia, made Thyana Metropolis of the second, and Anthimus was Metropolitan of it. Upon this grew a contention between Basil and Anthimus, Basil insisting on the ancient customes of the Church, foreign, and the originall division of the Fathers. Anthimus, on the foreign, or civil formes, or const…tutions saith Gregory Nazianzen, and Anthimus overc…me, and then Grego…y Nazianzen himself, Basil's deare friend, that had formerly favoured Basil's pretensions, doth after that expresly acknowledge the Bishop *Ep. 88.of Thyana for his Metropolitan (Nazianzum being in Cappadocia secunda) and implores his aid to set some other B shop in his place, now he was by sicknesse disabled to discharge it, in these words, foreign— If the Province had any other h…ad, I should appeal to it— foreign, but you being aduanced to that place, I must nec…ssarily look and seek to you. And this still continued valid, and firm, and Justinian, that by Edict retrencht those two formerly named, Helenopontus and Paphlagonia, was so far from retrenching this of Cappadocia, that he made a yet farther change, foreign, saith the Scholiast of Nazianzen in Fun. Or: Patris, he cut it into three, erected a third Cappadocia, and Mucissus the Metropolis of that, and the Ecclesiastical Government followed, as appeares by Euphranta, Bishop of Thyana, and Theodosius, Bishop of Mucissos, in quinta Synod. Collat. 5. sub Justinian.
Having said thus much for this interpretation of Balsamon's words, and upon this occasion added these evidences of the ancient practice, and power of Kings to erect Metropoliticall Churches (according to the rule of Demetrius Chomatenus, Archbishop of Bulgaria, foreign, the King advances from a lesser to a greater honour, viz. from Bishopricks to a Metropolis) I should be willing to compare and balance with it any arguments that S. W. could produce for his opinion, that Balsamon speaks of his own times. But he hath been so reserved, as not to offer any such (onelyonly magisterially) to affirme, that the Doctor is fallen into a great mistake, but 'tis not worth arguing or clearing) and therefore I have no more to adde in this matter.