The Donatists com-
plain of the Council
of Rome.
Sylvester was chosen in the room of Melchiades on the last of January 314[[560]]. In his time were held the two great Councils of Arles and Nice. The former was convened by Constantine’s Order at the Request of the Donatists, who, instead of acquiescing to the Judgment of the Council of Rome, loudly complained to the Emperor of the Bishops who composed it, as partial, prejudiced, and over-hasty in deciding a Controversy of the greatest Importance[[561]]. Constantine heard them with great Patience; and that he might leave them no Colour or Pretence whatsoever to continue in their Schism, |The Council of Arles.| he summoned a second Council to meet at Arles, inviting several Bishops to it with most pathetic Letters under his own Hand, and ordering the Proconsuls and Governors of Provinces to acquaint the rest with his Desire and Intention. Chrestus, or Crescentius, Bishop of Syracuse, was allowed, and so, without all doubt, were the rest, to bring two Presbyters with him, and three Attendants, as we learn from the Emperor’s Letter to him, which is still extant[[562]]. They were all to be supplied with Conveniences for traveling, and every thing else, at the public Expence. The Time appointed for their Meeting was the first of August 314. and on that Day they met accordingly[[563]], not from all Parts of the World, as we read in the Acts of the Second Council of Arles[[564]], but from Africa, and most other Provinces of the West. Sylvester Bishop of Rome was invited to it; but he excused himself on account of his Age, and sent in his room the two Presbyters, Claudianus and Vitus, with Eugenius and Cyriacus, Deacons; the Bishop of Ostia sent likewise two Presbyters in his room[[565]]. |Cæcilianus declared
innocent.| By this Assembly Cæcilianus was again declared innocent, and those who should falsly accuse their Brethren cut off from the Communion of the Church, without Hopes of being ever re-admitted, except at the Point of Death[[566]]. As to the schismatic Bishops, it was agreed, that such of them as abandoned the Schism should not forfeit their Dignity, but sit alternatively with the Catholic Bishop till one of them died[[567]]. The Council, before they broke up, acquainted the Bishop of Rome with their Proceedings, and at the same time sent him the Decrees they had made concerning the Discipline of the Church, not to be confirmed by him, as Baronius would make us believe[[568]], but that by his means, as he held larger Dioceses, they might be the sooner known. These are the very Words of the Council[[569]][[N10]].
[N10]. Several Canons were made by this Council relating to the Discipline of the Church. 1. It was ordained, that Easter should be kept on the same Day, and on a Sunday, by all the Churches in the World; and that the Bishop of Rome should acquaint the other Churches with the Day. But it was afterwards ordained, that the Bishop of Alexandria should fix the Day, and give timely notice of it to the Bishop of Rome, that by his means it might be notified to the whole Church. This Ordinance St. Cyril seems to ascribe to the Council of Nice; for he says, that it was so enacted by the Synod composed of all the Saints of the Earth; which, at the Time he writ, that is, about the Year 360. could be said of no other Synod but that of Nice. Pope Leo the Great, speaking of this Custom in a Letter to the Emperor Marcian, only says, that it was established by the holy Fathers[[1]]. He meant, perhaps, the Fathers of Nice. But as they took no notice of such a Custom in their Letter to the Church of Egypt, I cannot suppose it to have been introduced by them. The Care of fixing the Day, and acquainting the Bishop of Rome with it, was probably committed to the Bishop of Alexandria, because the Egyptians were thought to be better acquainted with the Motions of the heavenly Bodies than any other Nation. In other Provinces the Bishops seem to have been utter Strangers to Astronomy, and to that Ignorance was chiefly owing their Disagreement with respect to the Celebration of Easter. This Custom still obtained in the Fifth Century, as appears from a Letter of Leo the Great, dated the 28th of July 454. For by that Letter he acquaints the Bishops of Gaul and Spain, that the following Year 455, Easter would fall on the 24th of April, as it had been settled in the East[[2]]. Before his Time Innocent I. being at a Loss to know on what Day Easter should be kept in 414. had recourse to Aurelius Bishop of Carthage, intreating him to examine that Point in a Council, and let him know what they determined, that he might notify it, as was customary, to other Churches. Innocent had quarreled, on Chrysostom’s Account, with the Eastern Bishops; and therefore chose rather to be informed and directed by the African Bishops than by them. 2. It was decreed, that such as had been baptized by Heretics in the Name of the Trinity, should not be rebaptized, but admitted into the Church only by the Imposition of Hands. But to this Decree of the Council no greater Regard was paid, than had been paid in St. Cyprian’s Time to the Decisions of Pope Stephen. For in the Year 370. the same Practice of rebaptizing Heretics still obtained in several Churches of Africa, as appears from Optatus, who writ about that time. In the East some held, and some denied, the Validity of Baptism administred by an Heretic. Of the latter Opinion was the great Athanasius, who flourished from the Year 326. to 373. and St. Basil, who writ about the Year 369. after examining, in his Letter to Amphilochus, the two opposite Practices, seems inclined to think the Baptism of Heretics null. According to the present Doctrine of the Church of Rome, Baptism, by whomsoever administred, whether Jew, Gentile, Heretic, Mohammedan, &c. whether Man or Woman, or even a Child, is valid, provided it be only administred with an Intention of administring it, without which every Sacrament, say they, is null. This Doctrine, with respect to the Intention, proves daily to timorous Consciences the Source of endless Doubts and Perplexities, which can never be removed: for tho’ they may know for certain, that the Ceremony was performed, yet they can never know whether or no it was performed with the due Intention. In Confession, for Instance, they may hear the Words of the Absolution pronounced by the Priest; but they know nothing of his Intention, of the Intention of the Minister who baptized him, of the Bishop who ordained him, of the Priest who baptized, or the Bishops who ordained that Bishop, and so up to the Apostles, by whom the first Bishops were ordained. Should the right Intention have been wanting in any of these; should the Priest, while he pronounces the Words of Absolution, have his Thoughts employed on some other Object, as it may easily happen; the penitent Sinner would depart from his Tribunal with the whole Load of his Sins, and be damned, notwithstanding his Repentance, for, or, more properly speaking, thro' want of Attention in the Priest. A most unchristian and impious Doctrine, placing our eternal Salvation in the Hands of others, and not in our own. 3. The Council decreed, that excommunicated Persons should be no-where absolved from the Excommunication but in the Places where they had been excommunicated. The Bishops of Rome did not yet know, it seems, that they were vested with an unlimited Power of binding and loosening, of excommunicating and absolving, with respect to all Persons and Places; for had Sylvester but dreamt of such a Power, we may well suppose he would never have suffered it to be thus controuled. Several other Canons were made by this Council, in all Twenty-two; but it is foreign to my Purpose to take notice of them. I shall only observe, that the Council consisted of Thirty-three Bishops, and not of Two hundred, as Baronius supposes, upon the Authority of St. Austin, whom he misunderstood; and that Marinus Bishop of Arles presided, his Name being placed at the Head of the Subscriptions, and the Names of Sylvester’s Legates after his.
[1]. Leo, ep. 94. c. 1.
[2]. Leo, ep. 109.
The other grand Council that was held during the Pontificate of Sylvester was that of Nice, so famous in the History of the Church: but the Bishop of the reigning City, says Eusebius[[570]], being prevented by his great Age from undertaking so long a Journey, he sent Vitus and Vincentius, Two Roman Presbyters, to supply his room[[571]], with Orders to agree in his Name to the Decisions of the Council[[572]]. In Process of Time such Orders grew out of Date, and the modest Name of Roman Presbyters, given to those who were sent by the Bishops of Rome, either to Councils or Princes, was changed into the lofty Title of Legates a latere. |Osius did not assist
at the Council of
Nice as the Pope’s
Legate.| Baronius[[573]], and after him most Writers of the Church of Rome, maintain Osius, the celebrated Bishop of Cordoua, to have assisted, nay, and presided at the Council of Nice as the Pope’s Legate. Vitus and Vincentius, say they, represented the Person of the Pope; but Osius held his Place, and the Place of all the Bishops of the West. That Osius assisted at the Council with the Character of the Pope’s Legate, is affirmed, I own, by Gelasius of Cyzicus, who flourished about the End of the Fifth Century[[574]]: but Eusebius, who was present, mentions only Vitus and Vincentius as sent thither by Sylvester. In like manner all the Historians, who have written of that Council after Eusebius till the Time of Gelasius, in naming those Two Presbyters and Osius, which they all do, constantly distinguish the former by the Title of the Deputies, the Representatives, &c. of the Bishop of Rome, and never the latter. Besides, Vitus and Vincentius, in subscribing to the Canons of the Council, declare, that they do it in the Name of the venerable Pope, or Father, Sylvester their Bishop[[575]]; whereas Osius subscribes, like the other Bishops, in his own Name. As to his presiding at that great Assembly, his Name, 'tis true, is marked the first by Socrates[[576]], among those who subscribed to the Definitions and Canons of the Council; but yet I am inclined to believe that Honour not to have been conferred upon him, but upon Eustathius Bishop of Antioch; |Nor did he preside.| for John, Bishop of the same City, writing to Proculus about the Year 435. styles him the first of the Fathers assembled at Nice[[577]], and Facundus calls him the first of the Council[[578]]. In the Chronicle of Nicephorus he is styled the Head of the Fathers of Nice[[579]]: and from Theodoret we learn, that he sat the first on the Right-hand in the Assembly, and harangued the Emperor[[580]], which it was the President’s Province to do[[N11]].
[N11]. The Title of President is given him in a Letter, which is commonly ascribed to Pope Felix III[[1]]. But I am well apprised, that no great Stress should be laid on that Piece, since some surmise it to have been composed in the Eighth Century.