Читать книгу The History of Persecution - Samuel Chandler - Страница 22

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During his reign, in the 24th year of it, was held the fifth general council at Constantinople, A. C. 553, consisting of about 165 fathers. The occasion of their meeting was the opposition that was made to the four former general councils, and particularly the writings of Origen, which Eustachius, bishop of Jerusalem, accused, as full of many dangerous errors.223 In the first sessions it was debated, whether “those who were dead were to be anathematized?” One Eutychius looked with contempt on the fathers for their hesitation in so plain a matter, and told them, that there needed no deliberation about it; for that king Josias formerly did not only destroy the idolatrous priests who were living, but dug also those who had been dead long before out of their graves. So clear a determination of the point, who could resist? The fathers immediately were convinced, and Justinian caused him to be consecrated bishop of Constantinople, in the room of Menas, just deceased, for this his skill in scripture and casuistry. The consequence was, that the decrees of the four preceding councils were all confirmed; those who were condemned by them re-condemned and anathematized, particularly Theodorus bishop of Mopsuestia, and Ibas, with their writings, as favouring the impieties of Nestorius: and finally, Origen, with all his detestable and execrable principles, and all persons whatsoever who should think, or speak of them, or dare to defend them. After these transactions the synod sent an account of them to Justinian,224 whom they complimented with the title of “the most Christian king, and with having a soul partaker of the heavenly nobility.” And yet soon after these flatteries his most Christian majesty turned heretic himself, and endeavoured with as much zeal to propagate heresy, as he had done orthodoxy before; he published an edict, by which he ordained, that “the body of Christ was incorruptible, and incapable even of natural and innocent passions; that before his death he eat in the same manner as he did after his resurrection, receiving no conversion or change from his very formation in the womb, neither in his voluntary or natural affections, nor after his resurrection.” But as he was endeavouring to force the bishops to receive his creed, God was pleased, as Evagrius observes,225 to cut him off; and notwithstanding “the heavenly nobility of his soul, he went,” as the same author charitably supposes,226 “to the devil.”

Hunnerick,227 the Arian king of the Vandals, treated the orthodox in this emperor’s reign with great cruelty in Africa, because they would not embrace the principles of Arius; some he burnt, and others he destroyed by different kinds of death; he ordered the tongues of several of them to be cut out, who afterwards made their escape to Constantinople; where Procopius, if you will believe him, affirms he heard them speak as distinctly as if their tongues had remained in their heads. Justinian himself mentions them in one of his constitutions. Two of them, however, who happened to be whore-masters, lost afterwards the use of their speech for this reason, and the honour and grace of martyrdom.

Justin the younger,228 who succeeded Justinian, published an edict soon after his advancement, by which he sent all bishops to their respective sees, and to perform divine worship according to the usual manner of their churches, without making any innovations concerning the faith. As to his personal character, he was extremely dissolute and debauched, and addicted to the most vile and criminal pleasures. He was also sordidly covetous, and sold the very bishoprics to the best bidders, putting them up to public auction. Nor was he less remarkable for his cruelty;229 he had a near relation of his own name, whom he treacherously murdered; and of whom he was so jealous, that he could not be content till he and his empress had trampled his head under their feet.230 However, he was very orthodox, and published a new explication of the faith, which for clearness and subtlety exceeded all that went before it. In this he professes, that “he believed in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the consubstantial Trinity, one deity, or nature, or essence, and one virtue, power and energy, in three hypostases or persons; and that he adored the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, having a most admirable division and union; the Unity according to the essence or deity; the Trinity according to the properties, hypostases or persons; for they are divided indivisibly; or, if I may so speak, they are joined together separately. The godhead in the three is one, and the three are one, the deity being in them; or to speak more accurately, which three are the deity. It is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, when each person is considered by itself, the mind thus separating things inseparable; but the three are God, when considered together, being one in operation and nature. We believe also in one only begotten Son of God, God the Word—for the holy Trinity received no addition of a fourth person, even after the incarnation of God the Word, one of the holy Trinity. But our Lord Jesus Christ is one and the same, consubstantial to God, even the Father, according to his deity, and consubstantial to us according to his manhood; liable to suffering in the flesh, but impassible in the deity. For we do not own that God the Word, who wrought the miracles, was one, and he that suffered another; but we confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, was one and the same, who was made flesh and became perfect man; and that the miracles and sufferings were of one and the same: for it was not any man that gave himself for us, but God the Word himself, being made man without change; so that when we confess our Lord Jesus Christ to be one and the same, compounded of each nature, of the godhead and manhood, we do not introduce any confusion or mixture by the union—for as God remains in the manhood, so also nevertheless doth the man, being in the excellency of the deity, Emanuel being both in one and the same, even one God and also man. And when we confess him to be perfect in the godhead, and perfect in the manhood, of which he is compounded, we do not introduce a division in part, or section to his one compounded person, but only signify the difference of the natures, which is not taken away by the union; for the divine nature is not converted into the human, nor the human nature changed into the divine. But we say, that each being considered, or rather actually existing in the very definition or reason of its proper nature, constitutes the oneness in person. Now this oneness as to person signifies that God the Word, i. e. one person of the three persons of the godhead, was not united to a pre-existent man, but that he formed to himself in the womb of our holy Lady Mary, glorious mother of God, and ever a virgin, and out of her, in his own person, flesh consubstantial to us, and liable to all the same passions, without sin, animated with a reasonable and intellectual soul.—For considering his inexplicable oneness, we orthodoxly confess one nature of God the Word made flesh, and yet conceiving in our minds the difference of the natures, we say they are two, not introducing any manner of division. For each nature is in him; so that we confess him to be one and the same Christ, one Son, one person, one hypostasis, God and man together. Moreover, we anathematize all who have, or do think otherwise, and judge them as cut off from the holy Catholic, and apostolic church of God.” To this extraordinary edict, all, says the historian, gave their consent, esteeming it to be very orthodox, though they were not more united amongst themselves than before.

Under Mauritius,231 John bishop of Constantinople, in a council held at that city, stiled himself oecumenical bishop, by the consent of the fathers there assembled; and the emperor himself ordered Gregory to acknowledge him in that character. Gregory absolutely refused it, and replied, that the power of binding and loosing was delivered to Peter and his successors, and not to the bishops of Constantinople; admonishing him to take care, that he did not provoke the anger of God against himself, by raising tumults in his church. This pope was the first who stiled himself, Servus Servorum Dei,232 servant of the servants of God; and had such an abhorrence of the title of universal bishop, that he said, “I confidently affirm, that whosoever calls himself universal priest is the forerunner of Antichrist, by thus proudly exalting himself above others.”

But, how ever modest Gregory was in refusing and condemning this arrogant title, Boniface III.233 thought better of the matter, and after great struggles, prevailed with Phocas, who murdered Mauritius the emperor, to declare that the see of the blessed apostle Peter, which is the head of all churches, should be so called and accounted by all, and the bishop of it oecumenical or universal bishop. The church of Constantinople had claimed this precedence and dignity, and was sometimes favoured herein by the emperors, who declared, that the first see ought to be in that place which was the head of the empire. The Roman pontiffs, on the other hand, affirmed, that Rome, of which Constantinople was but a colony, ought to be esteemed the head of the empire, because the Greeks themselves, in their writings, stile the emperor Roman emperor, and the inhabitants of Constantinople are called Romans, and not Greeks; not to mention that Peter, the prince of the apostles, gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven to his successors, the popes of Rome. On this foundation was the superiority of the church of Rome to that of all other churches built; and Phocas, who was guilty of all villanies, was one of the fittest persons that could be found to gratify Boniface in this request. Boniface, also, called a council at Rome, where this supremacy was confirmed, and by whom it was decreed, that bishops should be chosen by the clergy and people, approved by the prince of the city, and ratified by the pope with these words, “Volumus & jubemus,” for this is our will and command. To reward Phocas for the grant of the primacy, he approved the murder of Mauritius, and very honourably received his images, which he sent to Rome. And having thus wickedly possessed themselves of this unrighteous power, the popes as wickedly used it, soon brought almost the whole Christian world into subjection to them, and became the persecutors general of the church of God; proceeding from one usurpation to another, till at last they brought emperors, kings and princes into subjection, forcing them to ratify their unrighteous decrees, and to punish, in the severest manner, all that should presume to oppose and contradict them, till she became “drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth.”

The inquisition is the master-piece of their policy and cruelty; and such an invention for the suppression of religion and truth, liberty and knowledge, innocence and virtue, as could proceed from no other wisdom but that which is “earthly, sensual, and devilish.” And as the history of it, which I now present my reader with a faithful abstract of, gives the most perfect account of the laws and practices of this accursed tribunal, I shall not enter into the detail of popish persecutions, especially as we have a full account of those practised amongst ourselves in Fox and other writers, who have done justice to this subject. I shall only add a few things relating to the two other general councils, as they are stiled by ecclesiastical historians.

Under Heraclius,234 the successor of Phocas, great disturbances were raised upon account of what they called the heresy of the Monothelites, i. e. those who held there were not two wills, the divine and human, in Christ, but only one single will or operation. The emperor himself was of this opinion, being persuaded into it by Pyrrhus patriarch of Constantinople, and Cyrus bishop of Alexandria. And though he afterwards seems to have changed his mind in this point, yet in order to promote peace, he put forth an edict, forbidding disputes or quarrels, on either side the question. Constans, his grandson, was of the same sentiment, and at the instigation of Paul bishop of Constantinople, grievously persecuted those who would not agree with him. Martyn,235 pope of Rome, sent his legates to the emperor and patriarch to forsake their errors, and embrace the truth; but his holiness was but little regarded, and after his legates were imprisoned and whipped, they were sent into banishment. This greatly enraged Martyn, who convened a synod at Rome of 150 bishops, who decreed, that whosoever should “not confess two wills, and two operations united, the divine and the human, in one and the same Christ, should be anathema,” and that Paul bishop of Constantinople should be condemned and deposed. The emperor highly resented this conduct, and sent Olympius hexarch into Italy to propagate the Monothelite doctrine; and either to kill Martyn, or send him prisoner to Constantinople. Olympius not being able to execute either design, Theodorus was sent in his room, who apprehended the pope, put him in chains, and got him conveyed to the emperor, who after ignominiously treating him, banished him to Pontus, where he died in great misery and want. The bishops of Constans’s party236 were greatly assistant to him in this work of persecution, and shewed more rage against their fellow-Christians, than they did against the very barbarians themselves.