Apiarius, being obliged to quit Sicca, as I have related above, retired to Tabraca, another City of Numidia, and led there so scandalous a Life, that he was excommunicated anew. Hereupon he appealed again to Rome, and Celestine, which is very surprising, notwithstanding the vigorous Opposition which his Predecessors had, but very lately, met with from the African Bishops, in attempting to restore this very Presbyter, not only declared him innocent, and admitted him to his Communion, but sent him back into Africa, attended by the Legate Faustinus, who was ordered to see him reinstated. The Africans were but too well acquainted already with the Presumption and Arrogance of the Bishops of Rome; and yet such an insolent Act quite surprised them. For Celestine had neither examined the Crimes, which Apiarius was charged with, nor heard the Witnesses, nor even condescended to let them know, that he intended to judge him anew. He writ, indeed, Two Letters to them on this Occasion, but which seemed merely designed to insult them: for, by the First, he gave them Notice of the Arrival of Apiarius at Rome, which, he said, had given him great Joy; and by the Second, which was brought by Faustinus, he acquainted them, that he was overjoyed to have found him innocent. From this despotic and extraordinary way of acting, the African Bishops concluded, that Celestine was determined to keep no Measures with them, and that nothing less than an intire Subjection of the African Churches to the See of Rome would satisfy his Ambition. But they were resolved to maintain, at all Events, the Liberty wherewith Christ had made them free. |A General Council assembled. Apiarius appears before it, with Faustinus.| A General Council was therefore assembled, and Apiarius summoned to attend. He obeyed the Summons, and appeared before the Council at the Time appointed, but in Company with Faustinus, shewing thereby, that he placed greater Confidence in him than in his own Innocence. Faustinus spoke first, and pressed, with great Warmth, the Fathers of the Assembly to re-admit Apiarius to their Communion, since he had been declared innocent by the Apostolic See, and admitted by Celestine to the Communion of the Roman Church. The Bishops replied, that in Africa Apiarius had been found guilty, and that in Africa his Innocence must be made to appear, before they could receive him again to their Communion. |The Legate’s insolent Conduct.| As they stuck to this Point, Faustinus undertook his Cause; but, instead of proving, as he had promised to do, or even attempting to prove his Innocence, he inveighed, from the Beginning of his Speech to the End, and in very harsh and opprobrious Language, against the Council, and all the Members, who composed it. |Apiarius pleads his own Cause.| Apiarius was sensible, that the Speech of Faustinus, instead of reconciling the African Bishops to him, had incensed them more than ever against him; and therefore thinking it adviseable to take the Cause into his own Hands, he stood up as soon as the other had done; and, with a Modesty capable, as he thought, of atoning for the Insolence of Faustinus, endeavoured to clear himself from the Crimes that had been laid to his Charge. |Faustinus assists him.| When he had spoken, the Witnesses against him were heard; and the Tryal lasted Three whole Days, Apiarius striving, with great Art and Subtilty, to invalidate the Depositions, and Faustinus prompting him when he was at a Stand. He might, perhaps, have escaped Condemnation, partly by his own Craft and Address, partly by the powerful Protection of the Bishop of Rome, had he been able to withstand the Stings of his own Conscience. |Apiarius, struck with sudden Remorse, owns the Crimes laid to his Charge.| But, on the Fourth Day, when Faustinus began to triumph as sure of Victory, Apiarius, struck with sudden Remorse, damped at once all his Joy, by voluntarily owning, to the great Surprize of all present, and the unspeakable Confusion of Faustinus, every Crime with which he had been charged. Those Crimes the Fathers have thought fit to wrap in Oblivion; and indeed it was not proper, that Posterity should know them; since they were heinous, incredible, such as ought not to be mentioned, and drew Sighs and Tears from the whole Assembly[[1601]]. And this is the Man whom Two Popes, both now worshiped as Saints in the Church of Rome, absolved as innocent; and, as innocent, would have supported with Force and Violence, had not Providence almost miraculously interposed, to prevent the Evils that would have ensued. They could not but know, that Apiarius was guilty; at least they did not know, that he was innocent. But as he had been declared guilty in Africa, their declaring him innocent, whether he was so or not, gave them an Opportunity of renewing the Attempts of the Apostolic See on the Liberties of the African Churches; and it was, no doubt, with this View that they absolved and restored him. But, as he was not hardened enough in Iniquity for their Purpose, he owned himself guilty, in spite of their Judgment declaring him innocent, and thereby defeated their Schemes for the present. For the Africans, now sensible that there was no Wickedness which the Bishops of Rome would not countenance, in order to establish their Power in Africa, to the utter Subversion of all Ecclesiastical Order and Discipline there, thought themselves bound, as they tendered the Welfare, Peace, and Tranquillity of the Churches committed to their Care, to act with that Vigour and Steadiness, which so urgent an Occasion seemed to require. |The African Bishops renew the Canon forbidding Appeals to Rome.| Accordingly they first absolutely cut off Apiarius from the Communion of the Church; then renewed, in stronger Terms than ever, the Canon, which had given so great Offence at Rome, prohibiting, on Pain of Excommunication, Appeals beyond Sea, under any Pretence whatsoever; and this Prohibition they extended to Ecclesiastics of all Conditions and Ranks. Faustinus blustered, vapoured, threatened; but all in vain. The Bishops not only signed, all to a Man, the above-mentioned Canon, but writ a Synodal Letter to Celestine, acquainting him with what had passed in the Case of Apiarius, and earnestly intreating him not to give Ear for the future to those, who should have recourse to him from Africa, nor receive to his Communion such as they had excluded from theirs: |Their Letter to Celestine.| For we must let your Venerableness (Venerabilitas tua) know, say they, that it has been so established by the Council of Nice. And though Mention is there made of Clerks only, and Laymen; yet there is no room to doubt but it was their Intention, that such a Regulation should extend to Bishops too; and it would be a great Irregularity, should your Holiness (a Title then common to all Bishops) over-hastily and unduly admit to your Communion Bishops, who have been excommunicated in their own Provinces. Your Holiness therefore must not receive the Presbyters, and other Clerks, who, to avoid the Punishment, which they deserve, recur to you; the rather as we know of no Constitutions thus derogatory to the Authority of our Churches; and the Council of Nice has subjected the Bishops themselves to the judgment of their Metropolitan. The Fathers of that Council have decreed, with great Wisdom and Equity, that all Disputes should be finally determined in the Places where they began, being sensible, that the Grace of the Holy Spirit, necessary for judging rightly, would not be wanting in any Province; especially as every Man, who thinks himself injured, may apply for Redress, if he pleases, to the Synod of his own Province, or to a national Council. Would it not be Presumption in any of us to suppose or imagine, that God will inspire a particular Person with the Spirit of Justice, and refuse it to many Bishops assembled in Council? And how can a Judgment, given out of the Country, and beyond Sea, be right, where the necessary Witnesses cannot be present, by reason of their Sex, of their Age, or of some other Impediment? As for your sending Legates, we find no such Ordinance in any Council, nor in the Writings of the Fathers. As for what you have sent us by our Collegue Faustinus, as a Canon of the Council of Nice, we must let you know, that no such Canon is to be found in the genuine and uncorrupt Copies of that Council, which have been transcribed and sent us by our Fellow-Bishop Cyril of Alexandria, and the Reverend Atticus of Constantinople. Those Copies we sent to Boniface, your Predecessor of worthy Memory. We therefore earnestly beg you would send no more Legates, nor Ecclesiastics, to execute your Judgments here, lest you should seem to introduce worldly Pride and Arrogance (typhum sæculi) into the Church of Christ. They conclude with intreating him not to suffer Faustinus to continue any longer among them[[1602]]. Celestine, finding the Spirit with which they acted, and sensible that it would be useless to employ Force at this Juncture, thought it advisable to acquiesce for the present, and wait till a more favourable Opportunity should offer for him, or his Successors, to renew the Attempt[[N70]].
[N70]. Schelstrate would make us believe, that Gregory the Great prevailed upon the African Bishops to revoke the Canon forbidding the Presbyters and inferior Clergy to appeal to Rome[[1]]; and Davidius, That the Africans changed their Minds with respect to the Appeals of Bishops, as soon as they were informed, that such Appeals had been allowed, and approved of, by the Council of Sardica[[2]]. But neither alleges any solid Reason, or even Conjecture, to prove Facts of such Importance; nay, what Davidius advances is certainly false, since the Canons forbidding all Appeals to Rome, made at this time, were still quoted among the other Canons of the African Collection in 825. and confirmed by a Council held at Carthage that Year[[3]]. Some pretend that Celestine separated himself on this Occasion from the African Bishops, and that this Separation continued between their Churches, and that of Rome, till the Beginning of the VIIth Century, when Eulalius of Carthage, and his Collegues, desirous of putting an End to the Schism, revoked all the Canons that had been made in 426. derogatory to the Rights of the Roman See[[4]]. This they advance upon the Authority of a Piece commonly ascribed to Pope Boniface II. But that Piece is so evidently supposititious, that Baronius himself is forced to give it up.
[1]. Schel. Eccles. Afric. p. 50.
[2]. Dav. jugemens Canoniques des Evesques, p. 663, 664.
[3]. Concil. t. 4. p. 1636.
[4]. Van. Espen. in Can. p. 216.
Celestine declares
Translations lawful.
The following Year 427. Sisinius Bishop of Constantinople being dead, the Bishops in those Parts were for appointing Proculus in his room. But, as Proculus had been ordained before, though never installed Bishop of Cyzicus, they were under some Apprehension, lest his Promotion to the See of Constantinople should be deemed a Breach of the Canons forbidding Translations. But Celestine, whom they consulted on this Occasion, delivered them from that Apprehension, declaring, in a Letter, which he writ at this time to Cyril of Alexandria, John of Antioch, and Rufus of Thessalonica, that they might safely place on one See a Bishop named to another, nay, and a Bishop who actually governed another[[1603]]; that is, he declared Translations lawful[[N71]].