The African Bishops
write into the East
for authentic Copies
of the Council of
Nice.

With this Letter the Three Legates set out from Africa, on their Return to Rome. Upon their Departure, the African Bishops writ, agreeably to the Resolution they had taken, to Atticus of Constantinople, and Cyril of Alexandria, begging they would cause to be transcribed, and sent into Africa, the most authentic Copies they had of the Canons of Nice. With this Request the Two Bishops readily complied; and the same Year 419. the Messengers sent to Alexandria and Constantinople returned with the wished-for Copies, and very friendly and obliging Answers, which are still extant[[1599]], from Cyril and Atticus, addressed to Aurelius, to Valentine, and to all the Bishops of Africa assembled at Carthage. As for the Bisop of Antioch, the Africans probably did not write to him; at least, they had no Answer from him[[N69]]. |The pretended Canons not found in those Copies, and the Dispute dropt by Boniface.| They immediately compared the Two Copies, sent them from the East, with their own, especially with that which Cæcilianus of Carthage had brought with him from Nice, where he had assisted at the Council; and found them agree in every Particular, without any Trace of the Canons that Zosimus had produced: upon which they dispatched the same Ecclesiastics with them to Rome, whom they had sent into the East. Boniface, who was an Enemy to all Fraud and Imposition, acquiesced; the Dispute was dropped; so that the Canon, which the African Bishops had lately made, forbidding Appeals to Rome, and Zosimus had thus fraudulently attempted to defeat, remained in its full Vigour; and the Churches of Africa were suffered quietly to enjoy their antient Rights and Privileges, so long as Boniface lived. But in the Pontificate of his Successor Celestine, the Storm broke out anew.

[N69]. It is very observable, that the Alexandrian Copy was originally sent from Rome by Marcus Bishop of that City, upon a Complaint made by the Egyptian Bishops, that the Arians had burnt all the Copies of the Council of Nice that were then found in Alexandria.

The Power of receiv-
ing Appeals claimed by
the Popes only as
granted by the
Canons.

It may not be improper here to observe, that Zosimus, though wholly bent on exalting his See, and straining every Prerogative to the highest Pitch, yet did not presume to exalt it above the Canons; did not claim the disputed Power of receiving Appeals, of judging, deciding, &c. independently of the Canons. And was not this owning himself, but for the Canons, to be upon the Level with the other Bishops his Collegues; at least in respect to this Point? Is not the scandalous Method, which he took on this Occasion to extend his own Power, and curtail that of the African Bishops, a Demonstration of his deriving his Claim from the Canons alone? Could there ever offer a better Opportunity, could there ever occur a more urgent Necessity, of asserting a Divine Right? As Zosimus therefore never asserted, nor even mentioned, such a Right, we may well conclude, that he either had no Notion of it, or did not think it sufficiently grounded to be of any Use in the present Dispute. And yet this Divine Right of receiving Appeals from all Parts of the World, of constituting, confirming, judging, censuring, suspending, deposing, removing, restoring Bishops, and all other Ecclesiastics, is now held, as an Article of Faith, by all true Roman Catholics; insomuch that to dispute such an Article, would be no less dangerous, in Countries where the Inquisition prevails, than to dispute any Article of the Apostolic or Nicene Creed. It is true, Innocent the First, as the Advocates for the See of Rome observe, had claimed, by Divine Right, the Power of finally deciding all Controversies. But he himself seems to have been sensible, that he had gone too far, For what else could have induced him to restrain that Claim, as soon as he had set it up, to Matters of Faith alone[[1600]]? Had Zosimus thought the general Claim capable of being maintained, he need not have recurred, as he did, to Fraud and Imposture. The Pretensions of Innocent, in their utmost Extent, were indeed renewed, in Process of Time, by his Successors; but not till the intolerable Abuse, which they made of the Power granted them by the Canons of Sardica, on which they founded all their Usurpations, obliged other Councils to revoke those Canons; and then it was, that, no other Means being left of maintaining their ill-gotten Power, they revived the Claim of Innocent, and, challenging no longer by the Canons, but by Divine Right, the Prerogative of receiving Appeals, they put it out of the Power of all future Councils to abridge or restrain it.

Whether Zosimus
ignorantly mistook the
Canons of Sardica
for those of Nice.

The Three Cardinals Baronius, Bellarmine, and Noris, thinking the Imputation of Ignorance less injurious to the Memory of Zosimus, less derogatory to the Dignity of the Apostolic See, than that of Fraud and Imposture, suppose him to have ignorantly mistaken the Canons of Sardica for the Canons of Nice; which is supposing, that in the whole Archives of the Roman Church there was not a single genuine Copy of the Council of Nice, or that Zosimus had never perused it; and to suppose either is highly absurd. Besides, the whole Conduct of the Legate, the Pains he took to divert the African Bishops from consulting other Copies, and, when he could not prevail, his recurring to unwritten Canons; and, as that too proved ineffectual, his striving by all possible means to persuade the Africans to leave to the Pope the Care of examining other Copies, and to acquiesce, without any further Inquiry, in what should thereupon be determined by him; plainly shews, that the Legate was privy to the Fraud, and apprehended a Detection.

Apiarius excommun-
icated anew. He ap-
peals again to Rome,
and is restored
by Celestine, and
sent back attended
by the Legate
Faustinus.