From the whole Conduct of Flavianus it is manifest, that he did not acknowlege any extraordinary Power in Syricius, much less that Power, which has been claimed by his Successors, of disposing, by Divine Right, of all Bishopricks, of placing and displacing Bishops, at Pleasure, throughout the Christian World. This Power, though evidently usurped, and utterly unknown even in the End of the Fourth Century, Bishops are now obliged to own in their very Titles, styling themselves Bishops of such a Place, by the Grace of God, and of the Apostolic See. Flavianus was content with the Grace of God; and, as for the Grace of the Apostolic See, he gave himself no Trouble about it. And yet Flavianus is honoured by the Church of Rome as a Saint; and his Festival kept on the 26th of September. And truly, if we may depend upon the Testimony of the most authentic and unexceptionable Writers of those Times, we shall hardly find one in the Roman Calendar more worthy of that Honour. The famous John Chrysostom, who was one of his Presbyters before his Promotion to the See of Constantinople, has filled his Homilies with the Praises of the great Flavianus, as he styles him. His distinguished Merit, eminent Virtues, and extraordinary Piety, seem to have been Chrysostom’s favourite Topic; and these Encomiums he bestowed upon him, while he was still alive. After his Death he was distinguished by the Council of Chalcedon, with the Title of the blessed Flavianus[[1308]]; and by that of the East, held under John of Antioch, ranked among the brightest Luminaries, the most illustrious Prelates, and the greatest Saints of the Church[[1309]]. Theodoret never names him without adding to his Name some Epithet, denoting his extraordinary Merit, such as the great, the holy, the admirable Flavianus. As therefore no room is left to doubt of his extraordinary Piety and Merit, we may well conclude, from his absolutely refusing to submit his Cause to the Judgment of Syricius, and the other Bishops of the West, that he did not acknowlege either in him or them a Power to judge him. This Refusal did not, in the Eyes of Chrysostom, and other great Men, detract in the least from his Merit, nor lessen the high Opinion they entertained of his Sanctity. A plain Indication that they did not think his Conduct reprehensible, and consequently did not acknowlege, more than he, that Power which is now one main Article of the Roman Catholic Creed.

The Communion
between the East and
the West renewed.

As Flavianus declined the Judgment of the Western as well as the Egyptian Bishops, and the Emperor gave no farther Ear to their Remonstrances and Complaints, the Resolution taken by the Council of Capua was put in Execution; which was, to renew the Communion and good Understanding between the East and the West, and abandon the Church of Antioch to its Schism, which, after so many promising Remedies applied in vain, began now to be deemed an incurable Evil[[1310]].

Bonosus accused
before the Council.

The Council of Capua, after the above-mentioned Resolution concerning the Difference between Flavianus and Evagrius, heard a Charge brought by some Bishops against Bonosus, Bishop of Naissus in Dacia, according to some, or, as others will have it, of Sardica, the Metropolis of that Province. He was accused of a Crime against the Canons of the Church and the Law of God[[1311]], and likewise of Heresy. |His Errors.| The Crime is not specified; but as for the Heresy, I gather from Austin, that he held the Son to be inferior to the Father[[1312]]; and from Ambrose, that he taught, the Virgin Mary had had other Children after the Birth of Christ[[1313]]. |The judging of his
Cause committed by
the Council to the
neighbouring Bish-
ops, who condemn him.| He had, it seems, been condemned by Damasus, who died in 384[[1314]]. but still held his See, and was not driven from it, even by the Council of Capua. For the Fathers of that Assembly committed the hearing and judging of his Cause to the Bishops in his Neighbourhood, chiefly to those of Macedon, under their Metropolitan Anysius, Bishop of Thessalonica[[1315]]. The neighbouring Bishops assembled, pursuant to the Order of the Council; and Bonosus, as well as his Accusers, appearing before them, they found the Charge so well supported, that they immediately forbid him to enter his Church; which was suspending him from all Episcopal Functions. Bonosus complained loudly of this Sentence, and even advised with the Bishop of Milan, whether he might not, in Defiance of a Judgment so rash and immature, still exercise the Functions of his Office, and, in case of Opposition, repel Force with Force. Ambrose exhorted him, in the strongest Terms, to acquiesce to the Sentence, to conduct himself with the Prudence, Temper, and Moderation, that became a Bishop; and, above all, not to undertake any thing that might be interpreted as a Contempt of the Authority of his Judges, since he could not contemn their Authority, without contemning at the same time that of the Council, which had appointed them[[1316]]. In the mean time the Bishops of Macedon, having more leisurely examined the Cause of Bonosus, wrote to Syricius, referring the Decision to him, and declaring their Abhorrence of the detestable Error, that the Virgin Mary had other Children besides Christ. If this was an Error, which may well be doubted, it was one that did no-way affect the Christian Faith, and therefore did not deserve such a severe Condemnation: but as it thwarted the favourable Opinions then entertained in the Church concerning Virginity, it is no Wonder that it should meet with so rough a Treatment[[N35]].

[N35]. That the Virgin Mary had other Children besides Christ, was not a new Opinion. It was taught by Helvidius in 383. and long before him by Tertullian, as Jerom himself is forced to own in the Treatise which he wrote against Helvidius: nay, in the Time of Epiphanius, who flourished from the Year 366. to 403. that Opinion universally prevailed in Arabia, as appears from the Letter which he wrote in Confutation of it, and addressed to all the Christians dwelling in Arabia, from the Presbyters down to the Catechumens. In that Letter he styles those who denied the perpetual Virginity of the Virgin Mary, Antidicomarianites; and ranks them, though their Opinion had not yet been condemned by the Church, sometimes among the Heretics, and sometimes among the Schismatics. But in the same Letter he censures, with no less Severity, those who adored her, styling the Worship that was paid her an idolatrous Heresy; which was taxing those who paid it both with Heresy and Idolatry; and from neither will the unmeaning Terms of Latria, Dulia, Hyperdulia, &c. invented and used by the Schoolmen to express different Degrees of Worship, excuse the present Practice of the Church of Rome. Epiphanius was unacquainted with such Terms, as well as with the different Degrees of Worship answering them; and therefore called the Meeting of certain Women, on a stated Day, to offer a Cake to the Virgin Mary, and eat it together in her Honour (whence they had the Name of Collyridians), a Folly repugnant to Religion, an Illusion of the Devil, a robbing God of the Honour that was due to him, an idolatrous Heresy[[1]]. These Women came from the Northern Provinces of Scythia into Thrace, probably about the Year 372. when Athanaric King of the Goths drove all the Christians out of his Dominions. From Thrace they wandered into Arabia; and there, in Opposition to the Antidicomarianites, introduced the above-mentioned idolatrous Practice. This is the first Instance of any Worship paid to the Virgin Mary; and to those Women the extravagant Worship that is still paid her by the Church of Rome, owes its Rise. Some of these Women took upon them to act, at their Meetings, as Priestesses. This Epiphanius styles an abominable Abuse, Women being so utterly incapable, says he, of performing any Ecclesiastical Functions, that our Saviour did not grant even to his Mother the Power of baptizing[[2]].

[1]. Epiph. hær. 78, 79.

[2]. Idem ibid.