RULE XIV.

The Canons of the ancient general and provincial Councils are then Laws to the Conscience, when they are bound upon us by the Authority of the respective Governors of Churches.

1. A GENERAL council is nothing but the union of all the ecclesiastical power in the world. The authority of a general council in matters of government and discipline is no greater, no more obligatory, than the authority of a provincial council to those who are under it. A general council obliges more countries and more diocesses, but it obliges them no more than the civil and ecclesiastic power obliges them at home. A general council is a union of government, a consent of princes and bishops, and in that every one agrees to govern by the measures to which there they do consent: and the consent of opinions adds moment to the laws, and reverence to the sanction; and it must prevail against more objections than provincial decrees, because of the advantage of wisdom and consultation which is supposed to be there; but the whole power of obligation is derived from the authority at home. That is, if twenty princes meet together and all their bishops, and agree how they will have their churches governed, those princes which are there, and those bishops which have consented, are bound by their own act; and to it they must stand till the reason alters, or a contrary or a better does intervene; but the prince can as much alter that law, when the case alters, as he can abrogate any other law, to which he hath consented. But those princes which were not there, whatever the cause of their absence be, are not obliged by that general council; and that council can have no authority but what is given them by consent; and therefore they who have not consented are free as ever.

2. The council of Florence (so called because though it was begun at Ferrara, yet it was ended there), Pope Clement VII. calls the eighth' general council in his bull of April 22, 1527; yet others' call it the sixteenth: but it was never received in France, as Panormitan tells us: for the king of

r Vide Surium in epist. ad lectorem, ante concil. Ferrar. tom. 4. concil.

s In Tract. de concil. Basil. circa princ. p. 6. Vide etiam Nicolaum de Clemangiis. Vide proæmium Pragmat. Sanct.

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France did forbid, expressly and upon great penalties, that any of his subjects should go to Ferrara to celebrate that council; and after it had been celebrated, and Charles VII. was desired by Pope Eugenius to accept it, he told the legates plainly, that he had never taken it for a council, and he never would.' The council of Basil, though the king of France had sent his ambassadors thither, and had received it as a council, yet he approved it but in part; for he rejected the thirteen last sessions, and approved only the first two-and-thirty; some of them as they lie, others with certain forms and qualifications; and this was done to fit and accommodate them to the exigencies of the times, and places, and persons,' saith Benedict', a French lawyer. And upon the like accounts the last council of Lateran is there rejected also. Thus, in England, we except of the council of Trent; and excepting the four first general councils, which are established into a law by the king and parliament, there is no other council at all of use in England, save only to entertain scholars in their arguments, and to be made use of in matters of fact, by them to understand the stories of the church. Where any thing else is received into custom and practice of law, it binds by our reception, not by its own natural force.

3. But I have already spoken sufficiently of this thing". I now only mention it to the purpose, that those religious and well-meaning persons,-who are concluded by the canon of an ancient council, and think that whatever was there commanded, lays some obligation upon the consciences of us at this day, and by this means enter into infinite scruples and a restless and unsatisfied condition,-may consider, that the ancient doctors of the church had no jurisdiction over us, who were born so many ages after them: that even then, when they were made, they had their authority wholly from princes and consent of nations; that things and reasons, that jurisdictions and governments, that churches and diocesses, that interests and manners, are infinitely altered since that time; that since the authority of those fathers could not be permanent and abide longer than their lives, it being certainly not greater than that of kings, which must needs die with their persons, that their successors may be kings as Guil. Benedict. in repetit. cap. Raynutius. Chapter 3. rule 7. and chapter 4. rule 5.

well as they, and not be subjects of the dead, the efficacy of their rules must descend upon succession by a succeeding authority; and therefore they prevail upon us by a new force, by that which is extrinsical to them; and therefore in such cases we are to inquire, whether the thing be good; and if it be, we may use it with liberty, till we be restrained,—but we may also choose; for then we are to inquire, whether the thing be a law in that government, to which we owe obedience. For that the fathers met at Laodicea, at Antioch, at Nice, at Gangra, a thousand, eleven hundred, or thirteen hundred, years ago, should have authority over us in England so many ages after, is so infinitely unreasonable, that none but the fearful and the unbelievers, the scrupulous and those who are Soûλ tỷ qure of a slavish nature,' and are in bondage by their fear, and know not how to stand in that liberty, by which Christ hath made them free,'-will account themselves in subjection to them. If, upon this account, the rulers of churches will introduce any pious, just, and warrantable canon, we are to obey in all things, where they have power to command; but the canon, for being in the old codes of the church, binds us no more than the laws of Constantine.

RULE XV.

The laudable Customs of the Catholic Church, which are in present Observation, do oblige the Conscience of all Christians.

1. THIS we have from St. Paul, who reproves the contumacy and regardless comport of those who, against the usages of Christians and the places where they lived, would wear long hair: "We have no such customs, nor the churches of God." In such cases where there is no law, the manners of Christians introduce a law so far, that we cannot recede from it without some probable cause; or if we do, we cannot do it without scandal and reproach. And indeed it is an act of love to conform to the customs of Christians with whom we do converse, who either will think you blame their custom, or despise their if you comply not. St. Austin gave his advice to the same purpose; "In his rebus de quibus nihil certi tradit * Epist. 76. ad Casulanum Presbyter.

persons,

X

Scriptura Divina, mos populi Dei vel statuta majorum pro lege tenenda sunt. Et sicut prævaricatores divinarum legum, ita contemptores ecclesiasticarum consuetudinum coercendi sunt:" "If the Holy Scriptures have not interposed in the particular, we must keep the customs and decrees of our ancestors as a law: and as they that prevaricate the divine laws, are to be restrained, so are all they that despise the customs of the church."—It is a Catholic custom, that they who receive the holy communion, should receive it fasting. This is not a duty commanded by God: but unless it be necessary to eat, he that despises this custom, gives nothing but the testimony of an evil mind.

2. But this is first to be understood in such customs as are laudable, that is, such which have no suspicion or moral reproach upon them, such which are reasonable and fit for wise and sober persons. It was a custom of the primitive church, at least in some places, not to touch the earth with the bare foot within the octaves of Easter: this was a trifle, and tending to fantastic opinions and superstitious fancies, and therefore is not to be drawn into imitation; only so long as it did remain, every man was to take care he gave no offence to weak persons, but he was to endeavour to alter it by all fair means and usages. It was a custom in many churches anciently, and not long since in the church of England, that in cases of the infants' extreme danger, the midwives did baptize them. This custom came in at a wrong door, it leaned upon a false and superstitious opinion; and they thought it better to invade the priests' office, than to trust God with the souls, which he made with his own hands and redeemed with his Son's blood. But this custom was not to be followed, if it had still continued; for even then they confessed it was sin, "factum valet, fieri non debuit;" and evil ought not to be done for a good end. "Quod si à mulieribus baptizari oporteret, profecto Christus à matre baptizatus esset, et non à Joanne aut cum nos misit ad baptizandum, misisset mulieres nobiscum ad hoc: nunc vero nusquam neque jussit Dominus, neque per Scripturam tradidit, utpote qui naturæ convenientiam et rei decorum nosset, tanquam naturæ auctor et legislator," said the author of the Constitutions under the name of St. Clement: "If women might be suffered to baptize,

y Lib. 3. cap. 9.

Christ need not have gone to St. John, but might have been baptized by his mother; and Christ would have sent women along with the apostles, when he gave them commission to preach and to baptize. But now our Lord had neither commanded any such thing by his word, or in Scripture; for the author and lawgiver of nature knew what was agreeable and decent for their nature.”—To this agrees that of Tertullian 2; "Non permittitur mulieri in ecclesia loqui, sed nec docere, nec tingere, nec offerre, nec ullius virilis muneris nedum sacerdotalis, officii sortem sibi vendicare;" "A woman is not permitted to speak in the church, nor to teach, nor to baptize, nor to offer, nor to do the office of a man, much less of a priest a. This custom therefore is of the nature of those, which are to be laid aside. Οὐδεὶς βαπτίζει εἰ μὴ χειροτονίαν ἔχει, “ No man baptizes but he that is in holy orders," said Simeon of Thessalonica; and I think he said truly. But above all things, opinions are not to be taken up by custom, and reduced to practice: not only because custom is no good warranty for opinions, and "voluntas fertur carere occulis, intellectus pedibus," "the will hath no eyes, and the understanding hath no feet;" that is, it can do nothing without the will, and the will must do nothing without that; they are a blind man and a lame, when they are asunder; but when they are together, they make up a sound man, while the one gives reason, and the other gives command: but besides this, when an opinion is offered only by the hand of custom, it is commonly a sign of a bad cause, and that there is nothing else to be said for it; and therefore it was a weakness in Salmeron to offer to persuade us to entertain the doctrine and practice of indulgences, purgatory, invocation of saints, images, and the like, because they are customs of the church, meaning his own.

3. This is to be understood also of the customs of the Catholic church. For if the churches differ, it is indifferent to take either or neither, as it may happen. Clemens Alexandrinus said it was a wickedness to pull the beard, because it is our natural, it is a generous and an ingenuous ornament: and yet Gregory VII. bishop of Rome, made Archbishop

Lib. de Virg. Veland.

• See the Divine Institution of the Order and Offices Ministerial, sect. 4.

Disput. 18. in 1 Cor. xi.

• Lib. 3. Pædagog. cap. 3.

d Lib. 8. Regist. epist. 10.