Sayfadaki görseller
PDF
ePub

canons of 1st Constantinople 3, and Chalcedon 1, 9, 28, show that the pre-eminence of rank of the bishop of Rome, was not of divine right, or as the successor of St. Peter; but of ecclesiastical regulation, the ground of it being the pre-eminence of his city in the Roman empire. The Fathers in the first council of Constantinople who style the Church of Jerusalem the Mother of all churches, bears witness against the Church of Rome, which has made it a term of Christian communion, and necessary to salvation to ascribe that title to Rome. Against the celibacy of the clergy which Rome compels, we have the transactions of Nice; the 4th canon of Neocæsarea, and the 13th of the Quin-Sextine. The 8th canon of Ephesus witnesses to the independence of the British Churches. The 6th of 1st Constantinople and 22d of Antioch, condemn the Roman bishops and clergy who have intruded into the British dioceses, as schismatics and heretics. The invocation of angels is condemned by 35th of Laodicea. Transubstantiation indirectly by 49th of Laodicea. The Roman canon of Scripture forbidden by 59th and 60th of the same. The infallibility of the Pope disproved by the 3rd Constantinople. And the new creed of Pope Pius utterly condemned by the decrees of Ephesus and Chalcedon.

The result then of the examination of the witnesses of the first seven centuries, the unavoidable verdict which they compel us to pronounce is this,

that whatever the Church of Rome has that is Catholic she has in common with the Church of England; and that in whatever points she differs from the Church of England, she has herself departed from the primitive, orthodox, Catholic and Apostolic standard.

PART II.

CONTAINING THE TESTIMONY OF THE REPUTED GENERAL COUNCILS, SUBSEQUENT TO THE SEVENTH CENTURY.

RECOGNITION

OF

GENERAL COUNCILS

BY THE

BISHOPS OF ROME.

IN the canon law we find the following recognition of the first eight councils, which was formerly required to be made by every Bishop of Rome upon his appointment.

"Sancta octo universalia Concilia, id est, primum Nicænum, secundum Constantinopolitanum, tertium Ephesinum, quartum Chalcedonense, item V. Constantinopolitanum, et VI. Item Nicænum, VII. Octavum quoque Constantinopolitanum usque ad unum apicem immutilata servare, et pari honore et veneratione digna habere, et quæ prædicaverunt modis omnibus sequi, et prædicare; quæque condemnaverunt ore et corde condemnare profiteor."-Decret. 1. Pars. Dist. xvi. § 8.

But here it is to be observed, that the Liber Diurnus, from which this professes to be an extract,

« ÖncekiDevam »