fired fuch affemblies, and declared, that fo far from having a power of altering their decrees, that on the contrary, their own opinions and doctrines were to be fubjected to the examination of councils. It was, indeed, a rule, that the bishop obtained his office by election; but the corruption of the times was fuch, that money had frequently a great fhare in it. The bishop was then fubject to the civil magiftrates of Rome, and acknowledged, as his fovereign, the emperor of Rome, and afterwards the kings of Italy. It alfo appears from the canon law, that the ufages of the Roman church, and the letters and epiftles of the popes, gradually acquired the authority of laws §.

Very early in this century, the notion of the popes independency on councils was firft broached: the occafion of which was, that fome crimes were laid to the charge of Symmachus, then bishop of Rome. His friends in the council pretended, "That no affembly of bishops had a power to judge the pope, and that he was accountable for his actions to God alone," which was unanfwerably confuted as foon as broached. One of the council immediately obferved, they were convened for that purpofe, and he was for that end fummoned to appear before them.

Juftin, who afcended the imperial throne, A. D. 518, revived the perfecutions, as a mark of his greater zeal for orthodoxy than his predeceffor: Anaftafius Severus, bishop of Antioch, being warm against the council of Chalcedon, the emperor ordered his tongue to be cut out, Platina alfo tells us, that he banished the Arians, and gave their churches to the orthodox. Hormifda alfo, bishop of Rome, after the example of Symmachus, banished fhed the remainder of the Manichees, and caused their writings to be burnt.

Juftinian, his fucceffor, fucceeded him alfo in his zeal for the council of Chalcedon, and banished the bishops of Conftantinople and Antioch, because they would not abey his orders.He published a law, that there fhould

Walch's Hiftory of the Popes.

be

be no pagan or heretic in his empire, allowing three months only for their conversion: by another, he rendered them incapable of being witneffes in any trial anv against Chriftians: he likewile prohibited the tranfcribing any heretical book, upon the punishment of lofing both their hands. Thefe laws were principally enacted at the inftigation of the orthodox bishops. Thus Agapetus, bishop of Rome, who had condemned Anthimus, and depofed him from his fee of Conftantinople, perfuaded Juftinian to banish all those whom he had condemned for herefy. But notwithstanding all his zeal for orthodoxy, and the cruel edicts he published for the extirpation of herefy, he was infamously covetous, fold the provinces of the empire to plunderers and oppreffors, ftripped the wealthy of their eftates upon false accufations. Evagrius* likewife charges him with a variety of other unheard-of cruelties, and unnatural vices.

In

During the reign of Juftinian, in the 24th year of it, was held the fifth general council at Conftantinople, A. D. 553, confifting of about 165 fathers. The occafion of their meeting was the oppofition that was made to the four former general councils, and particularly the writings of Origen, which Euftochius, bishop of Jerufalem, accufed, as full of many dangerous errors. the first feffions it was debated, whether thofe, who were dead, were to be anathematized? One Eutychius looked with contempt on the fathers for their hefitation in fo plain a matter, and told them, that there needed no deliberation about it; for that king Jofias formerly did not only deftroy the idolatrous priefts who were living, but dug alfo thofe, who had been dead long before, out of their graves. So clear a determination of the point, who could refift? The fathers were immediately convinced, and Juftinian caufed him to be confecrated bishop of Conftantinople, in the room of Menas, juft deceafed, for this his skill in fcripture and cafuiftry. The confequence was, that the decrees of the four preceding

Evagrius, lib. iv. ch. xxxii. Platina. Dr. Chandler's Hiftory of Perfecution, p. 52.

councils

councils were all confirmed; thofe who were condemned by them, re-condemned and anathematized, particularly Theodorus, bifhop of Mopfueftia, and Ibas, with their writings, as favouring the impieties of Neftorius; and finally, Origen, with all his deteftable and execrable principles, and all perfons whatfoever, who fhould think or fpeak of them, or dare to defend them. After these tranfactions the fynod fent an account of them to Juftinian, whom they complimented with the title of the Moft Chriftian King, and with having a foul partaker of the heavenly nobility; and yet foon after thefe flatteries, his moft christian majelty turned heretick himself, and endeavoured, with as much zeal, to propagate herefy, as he had done orthodoxy before: he published an edict, by which he ordained, That the body of Christ was incorruptible, and incapable even of natural and innocent paffions that before his death he eat in the fame manner as he did after his refurrection, receiving no converfion or change from his very formation in the womb, neither in his voluntary or natural affections, nor after bis refurrellion. But as he was endeavouring to force the bishops to receive his creed, God was pleafed, as Evagrius obferves, to

cut him off.

But after the year 560, the bifhops being become the abfolute difpenfers of the fourth part of the goods of the church, they began to employ more of their care in their temporal affairs, and to make parties in the cities; fo that elections were no longer carried on with a view to the fervice of God, but managed by faction and intrigues, which often proceeded to open violence. This gave the firft alarm to princes, who had hitherto little. concerned themfelves in the choice of the miniftry. Moved, therefore, partly by religious confiderations, and partly by reafons of ftate, they now began not to fuffer the clergy and people to determine elections by themselves, and according to their own paffions: for feeing men no longer avoiding and flying from bishoprics, but even making intereft for them by all the courtship and fkilful follicitations they could ufe, fo

great

great a conteft opened the way to feditions. These proceedings produced an edict, that no perfon elected fhould be confecrated without the approbation of the prince, referving to themselves the right of confirming the great bishoprics, fuch as thofe in Italy, of Rome, Ravenna, and Milan. In this manner, that is, with the imperial fanction, the popes and bishops continued to be chofen. Through all the hiftory of Gregory of Tours, from the time of Clowis, the firft Chriftian king of France, until the year 590, we find no inftance of any one bishop being made in any other manner, than by the nomination or confent of the king. It was eafy for thofe bishops, when once they were made without the authority of the people, to exclude the people alfo from the choice of priefts and deacons, and other ecclefiaftical minifters, and to transfer that right to the emperor or prince alone: and thus the fucceffion of bishops and clergy became greatly irregular; and, inftead of being chofen and fet apart to their refpective offices by the people, whom they were appointed to watch over and minifter unto, according to reafon and ancient ufage, they were fet apart by those invested with civil power.

And notwithstanding this order and method was broke through in after-times by arbitrary meafures, it appears that, fo late as the year 590, the pope was not deemed lawful pope till his election was confirmed by the emperor: hence Gregory the Great, being chofen by a great majority, but defirous to decline that dignity, wrote to the emperor Mauritius, intreating him. to refufe his confent, that the electors might thereby be obliged to chufe another. The perfon chofen was alfo ftiled Elect, not Bishop, and yielded the first place in the church to the arch priest

Under Mauritius, John, bishop of Conftantinople, in a council held in that city, ftiled him felf Oecumenical Bishop, by the confent of the fathers there affembled;

* Bower's Hiftory of the Popes, vol. II. p. 265.

and

and the emperor himself ordered Gregory to acknowledge him in that character. Gregory abfolutely refused it, and replied, that the power of binding and loofing was delivered to Peter and his fucceffors, and not to the bishops of Conftantinople; admonishing him to take care, that he did not provoke the anger of God against himself, by raifing tumults in his church. This pope was the firft who ftiled himfelf, Servus Servorum Dei, Servant of the Servants of God; and had fuch an abhorrence of the title of Univerfal Bishop, that he faid, "I confidently affirm, than whofoever calls himself Univerfal Prieft, is the fore-runner of Antichrift, by thus proudly exalting himself above

others."

But however modeft Gregory was in refufing and condemning this arrogant title, Boniface III. thought better of the matter; and, after great ftruggles, prevailed with Phocas, who murdered Mauritius, the emperor, to declare, that the fee of the bleffed apoftle Peter, which is the head of all churches, fhould be fo called and accounted by all, and the bishop of it Oecumenical or Univerfal Bifhop. The church of Conftantinople had claimed this precedence and dignity, and was fometimes favoured herein by the the emperors, who declared, that the firft fee ought to be in that place which was the head of the empire. The Roman pontiffs, on the other hand, affirmed that Rome, of which Conftantinople was but a colony, ought to be efteemed the head of the empire; because the Greeks themselves, in their writings, ftile the emperor, Roman Emperor, and the inhabitants of Conftantinople are called Romans, and not Greeks; not to mention that Peter, the prince of the apoftles, gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven to his fucceffors, the popes of Rome. On this foundation was the fuperiority of the church of Rome, to that of all other churches, built: and Phocas, who was guilty of all villainies, was one of the fitteft perfons that could be found to gratify Boniface in this requeft. Boniface alfo called a council

at