ecclesiastical. This I shall do in the following rules, which are but appendices to this. RULE V. Kings have a legislative Power in the Affairs of Religion 1. THIS is expressly taught by St. Austin: "In hoc reges, sicut eis divinitus præcipitur, Deo serviunt in quantum reges sunt, si in suo regno bona jubeant, mala prohibeant, non solùm quæ pertinent ad humanam societatem, verùm etiam quæ pertinent ad divinam religionem ;" "In this, kings in that capacity, serve God according to the divine commandment, if in their respective kingdoms they command good things and forbid evil, not only in relation to human society, but in order to religion." 2. The least part of this power is to permit the free exercise of it, and to remove all impediments, and to give it advantages of free assemblies, and competent maintenances, and just rewards, and public encouragements. So Cyrus and Darius gave leave and guards and rescripts, warranty and provisions and command, to the Jews of the captivity, to build the temple. So Constantine and Licinius did to the Christians, to practise their religion. Thus Hezekiah, and some other pious kings of the Hebrews, took away the offences of the people, the brazen serpent, the groves and images, the altar of Bethel, and the idolatrous services. And of these things there is little question; for the Christian princes, by their authority, shut up the temples of the heathen gods. 3. That which is yet more considerable is, that by punishments they compel their subjects to serve God and keep his commandments. That which was observed of the primitive Christians, that they tied themselves by oaths and covenants to serve God, to do justice, not to commit adultery, to hurt no man by word or deed, to do good to every man they could, to assemble together to worship Christ,— that Christian princes are to secure by laws, that what men will not do by choice, they may, whether they will or no; and * Contr. Crescon, lib. 5. 51. this is not only in things relating to public peace and the interest of the republic, but in the immediate matters of religion such as are, laws against swearing, against blasphemy, against drunkenness, and fornication, and the like, in which the interest of souls is concerned, but not the interest of public peace. "Hoc jubent imperatores, quod jubet Christus;" and it is a great service to Christ, that the fear of men be superadded; because to wicked persons and such for whom the severity of laws was made, it often prevails more than the fear of God. 4. But that which is more than all this is, that besides those things, in which God hath declared his will, the things of the church, which are directly under no commandment of God, are under the supreme power of Christian princes. I need no other testimony for this but the laws themselves which they made, and to which bishops and priests were obedient, and professed, that they ought to be so. And this we find in the instance of divers popes, who, in their epistles, gave command to their clergy to observe such laws, which themselves had received from imperial edicts. For there are divers laws, which are, by Gratian, thrust into his collection, which were the laws of Christian princes. The canon 'Judicantem,' expressing the office of a judge in the cognizance of causes, attributed by Gratian to Pope Eleutherius, was a law made by the emperor Constantine"; and so was that which was attributed to Pope Fabian against accusers; it is in the Theodosian code, and was made by the same prince. The canons which go under the names of Sixtus and Adrian and Fabiand before cited, of the same title, were made by Gratian the son of Valentinian the elder: who also made the rescripts for restitution of church-goods taken from bishops, when they were forced from their sees, attributed to Pope Caius and Pope John. Theodosius the emperor made the canon 'Qui Ratione" for order in accusations, which yet is attributed to Pope Damasus, but is in the Theodosian code: for thus the popes easily became lawgivers, when they adopted into the canon the laws of their princes, which by their authority prevailed beyond the memory of b 13. q. 5. C a Can. si quis iratus. c 2. q. 3. c. 3. • 3. q. 9. 2 L. 1. C. de Judic. C. Theodos. their first makers. The canon Consanguineos',' for separation of marriage within the prohibited degrees, was not the pope's, but made by Theodosius, as it is thought, at the instance of St. Ambrose: and Valentinian made the canon 'Privilegia,' for confirmation of the privileges of the church, which goes under the name of Anacletus. I could reckon divers others; for indeed the volume of the Decrees' is full of such constitutions, which the Christian emperors made; but they were either assumed by the popes or imputed to them. But that the popes, as ecclesiastics, had no authority to make laws of ecclesiastical affairs, but that the emperors had,-was sufficiently acknowledged by Pope Honorius ". Imperator Justinianus decrevit, ut canones patrum vim legum habere oporteat;""That the canons of the fathers became a law in the church, was by the constitution of the emperor Justinian."-For that was all the end both of the labours of war and the counsels of peace, "ut verum Dei cultum orbis nostri plebs devota custodiat," said Theodosius and Honorius in their letters to Marcellinus: "that our people may devoutly follow the true worship of God." 5. Upon this account we said that Constantine, Anastasius, and Justinian, made laws concerning the expense and rites of sepulture. Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, forbade dead corpses to be interred within the memorials of martyrs and apostles. Honorius appointed the number of deans in the metropolis, and the immunities of every church. Leo and Anthemius forbade alienation of church-lands. But what should I instance in particulars? they that know not this, are wholly strangers to the civil law,-particularly the first book of the code, the Authentics, the Capitulars of the French princes, the laws of the Goths and Vandals, and indeed of all the Christian princes of the world. But the first titles of the code, De Summa Trinitate et Fide Catholica," De Sacrosanctis Ecclesiis,'' De Episcopis et Clericis,'' De Episcopali Audientia,' De Hæreticis,' Manichæis," Samaritis,' De Apostatis,' and divers other, are witnesses beyond exception. Now in this there is no exception of matter. For whatsoever is under government, is also under the laws of princes: Μηδὲν ἄβατόν ἐστιν εἰς ζήτησιν τῇ βασιλείᾳ, said Jus f 35. q. 6. m tinian'. Nothing comes amiss to the prince, every thing is under the royal cognizance. Constantine made laws concerning festivals, and appointed what labours might, and what might not, be done upon the Lord's day; and so did Leo 1 the emperor. Valentinian, the elder, made a law that no clergyman should receive an inheritance by the will or gift of widows and orphans, unless they were of the kindred. St. Ambrose complains heavily of the law, and so does St. Jerome, but confesses it was just, and procured by the avarice of some clergymen, who under cover of religion made a prey of the widows. But this decree was sent to Pope Damasus, and publicly read in the churches of Rome. And Honorius the emperor made a law concerning the election of the pope which two last instances I reckon to be very great, because, at Rome, now-a-days they are intolerable. : 6. But if all these laws were made by emperors only by force, against right and justice, and beyond their just power, then we are never the nearer for this argument: and that it is so, Baronius is bold to affirm, who upon this title blames Justinian for meddling with the affairs of the church: for "Quid imperatori cum ecclesia?" "What hath the emperor to do with the church ?"-we know who said it. And therefore a synod at Rome under Symmachus abrogated a law, made by Basilius a deputy of King Odoacer, in an assembly of ecclesiastical persons, in the vacancy of the see apostolic, upon the death of Simplicius. Now the law was a good law, it forbade the alienation of the goods of the church; yet because it was a law made by a laic, they thought fit to annul it. 7. To these things I answer, that it matters not what Baronius says against Justinian: for Pope Adrian IV. who is much more to be credited, commends him, and propounds him as a great example imitable by all princes and it was not Justinian alone, but very many other princes, both before and after Justinian: and therefore to ask What hath the emperor to do with the church,'-might become Donatus (whose saying it was, and whom St. Austin confuted for saying so), but it becomes not any man that loves truth and order. As for the Roman synod under Symmachus, the Cap. de Feriis, lib. 3. et Cod. Thod. de Fer. lib. 1. Epist. 31. i Novel. 133. 8. 1 Leo. VI. novel. 54. n Ep. 2. ad Nepotian. • Tom. 7. A. D. 541. ▸ Apud Radenon, in Frider. lib. 1. cap. 15. 4 Epist. 166. matter was this. He would needs make himself head of a synod without the bishop (for he was lately dead), and made a law with an anathema for the sanction, and would have it pass not for the law of the prince, but for a law of the church; which because the ecclesiastics had no reason to accept for such, when it was not so, they did annul it: "Talem legem viribus carere, nec posse inter ecclesiastica ullo modo censeri," said Eulalius the bishop of Syracuse in that synod. But that this makes nothing against the prince's power of making laws, appears by the great submission, which even the bishops of Rome themselves made to the imperial laws, even when they liked them, and when they liked them not. I instanced before in Damasus causing the law of Valentinian against clergymen receiving inheritance from widows to be read in all the churches of Rome. Pope Boniface consented to the law, which Honorius the emperor made about the election of the pope, and was so far from repudiating an ecclesiastical law made by the prince, that he entreated him to make it. But that which is most material to this inquiryis, the obedience of St. Gregory the Great to Mauritius the emperor, who made a law that no soldier should turn monk without his leave. This St. Gregory esteemedto be an impious law; he modestly admonished the emperor of the irreligion of it. But Maurice nevertheless commanded him to publish the law. The good bishop knew his duty, obeyed the prince, sent it up and down the empire, and gave this account of it: "Utrobique quæ debui exolvi, qui imperatori obedientiam præbui, et pro Deo quod sensi minimè tacui;" "I have done both my duties, I have declared my mind for God, and have paid my duty and obedience to the emperor:"-" Legibus tuis ipsi quoque parent religionis antistites," said Pope Gelasius 'to Anastasius the emperor; "Even the bishops, the ministers of religion, obey thy laws." Now this is not for decency only, and upon prudent eonsiderations, but upon necessity and by the divine authority: cognoscentes imperium tibi superna dispositione collatum," as "knowing that the empire is given to thee by God." -And therefore the great prelates of the church, when they desired a good law for the church's advantage should be made, presently addressed themselves to the emperor, Lib. 2. Ind. 11. ep. 61. 8 Epist. 10. 66 |