PRINCES ALONE SHOULD CONVENE COUNCILS. 249 the pleasure of those who want force to constrain them; so that such authority in unarmed hands (and God keep arms out of the pope's hands!) will be only a source of discords. Either the pope is a subject, as he was in the first times, and then it were too great a presumption for him to claim such a power over his fellow-subjects in prejudice to his sovereign (nor, indeed, did he presume so far, until he had in a manner shaken off subjection to the emperor); or he is not a subject, and then it is not reasonable that he should have such power in the territories of another prince. The whole business of general synods was an expedient for peace, contrived by emperors, and so to be regulated by their order. Hence, even in times and places where the pope was most reverenced, yet princes were jealous of suffering the pope to exercise such a power over the bishops their subjects,' and to obviate it, commanded all bishops not to stir out of their territories without licence; particularly our own nation, in the council at Clarendon, where it was decreed, " That they should not go out of the kingdom without the king's leave."' To some things above said, a passage may be objected which occurs in the acclamation of the sixth synod to the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus, wherein it is said that Constantine and Sylvester col- lected the synod of Nice; Theodosius I. and Damasus, together with Gregory and Nectarius, the synod of Constantinople; Theodo- sius II., with Celestine and Cyril, the Ephesine synod; and so of the rest.' To this I answer, that the fathers mean only, for the honour of those prelates, to signify that they, in their places and ways, con- curred and co-operated to the celebration of those synods; otherwise we might, as to matter of fact and history, contest the accurateness of their relation. And it is observable that they join other great bishops then flourishing with the popes: so that if their suffrage prove any thing, it proves more than our adversaries would have, viz., that all great bishops and patriarchs have a power or right to convo- cate synods. As forpassages alleged by our adversaries, that no synod could be called, or ecclesiastical law enacted, without consent of the pope, they are no wise pertinent to this question; for we do not deny that the pope had a right to sit in every general synod, and every other 1 Philip of France.Bin., tom. vii. p. 906, ann. 1302. 2 Decretumest ... non licere ... exire regnum absque licentia regis.Conc. Clarend. Vid. Matt. Par., ann. 1164. 8 Syn. Sext. Act. xviii. p. 272. Kmvçravr7os ó 2ErçíLCaçraç, xai Bi).ßsorpos ó 161, ¡aaç .ri7vcciv Nrxaia ptycbm .r6 xai aróp'f?.EYrrsY PLYÉ)EnEV ei,,lov... . &XX' ó ,aáyrOPaç 1340lASSIÇ eSsNOsan, , ,ì 61.4açaç Ó a'Sefoag Pry; ar'srs,.e rp 11/6,1ÓS PE xai Nsxráproç .ráv Év raí , rñ /3açrlSSr aó1.sr çuvoYfo4ov çuxxoyov. náary Nsaráproç, xai orvc'xrs Ks .so rivoç, zai Kspr1.).oç, d (<EV yàp róv Xprçróv S,$ps,, xai xr.ESt'xat'ss, of $i PÖp Ssosrí., ataXapcßaváfss,ar ein rï Pr,v oxñarr,o,v &avrgovrr Pñv xararapaia xaríßa).1av, &C.
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