SECT. 10.-And Pope Vigilius.

Pope Vigilius is as peremptory as his predecessors, that a synod of bishops has power to take away all ministerial office and power from a delinquent bishop or clerk and by virtue hereof he himself, with a synod of bishops, deprived Theodore, bishop of Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, declaring him,1 “divested and despoiled, as well of sacerdotal honour and Catholic communion, as of all episcopal office and power; and that henceforth he had nothing to do but to weep out his sins by repentance." They, that made canons in this style against heretics and other criminal clerks, could not possibly think they were authorised priests, after such legal and formal depositions, which took from them both the office and the name, and the power and authority of the priesthood. But it will still be said, over and over again, by those against whom I dispute, that these were not mere laymen; by which if they mean men that never had any sort of ordination at all, either real or pretended, I grant they were not, nor could be mere laymen: for it were an absurd contradiction to say, that they had received an ordination, and yet never had one. But the thing I assert is this, that a man who had a true ordination, if for heresy or any other crime he was legally deposed, he had no longer the divine power of an authorised priest; because the same divine authority which gave him his authority by ordination, by deordination takes it away from him; and save that it cannot be said he never had an ordination, in all other respects he was a layman, and all his pretended ministerial offices were of no more authority or effect, than those of a layman, because he was wholly divested of all clerical authority; and either reduced to a state and communion of laymen, if penitent; or else, if he remained contumacious and impenitent, he was set one degree below laymen, that is totally excommunicated and cast out of the Church. Of which points

'Fragment. Depositionis Theodori per Vigil. ap. Crab. tom. ii. p. 8. Theodorum tam sacerdotali honore et communione catholicâ, quàm vel omni officio episcopali seu potestate spoliatum esse decernimus, &c.

of discipline, toward heretics and delinquent clerks in the ancient Church, I have given some hints already, and shall now more fully demonstrate the truth of them in the two following chapters.

CHAP. IV.

Argument III. That Heretics, and degraded Clerks, were not authorised Priests in the Account of the ancient Church, because, by her Discipline, they were reduced to the State and Communion of Laymen.

SECT. 1.-No Persons, who were obliged to do public Penance, allowed to be of the Clergy.

As a further proof of the position at first laid down, that heretics and degraded clerks could not act with the authority of priests, but only as laics, in the ministration of baptism, or any other sacred office, I here observe, that by the censures of the Church they were reduced to the state, and name, and communion of laymen. And this upon supposition only that they were penitent and submitted to the Church's discipline; for otherwise they were anathematised with the greater excommunication, and not allowed the benefit even of lay-communion in the Church. Lay-communion then was a privilege allowed to heretics and degraded clerks upon their repentance; but more than this was not ordinarily granted them: If any man, for any scandalous crimes, was obliged to do public penance, this cut him off from clerical communion ever after, by the strict discipline which continued for several ages in the Church. Upon this account, as I have observed and proved in another place! from many testimonies of Siricius, Innocentius, Gennadius, the second Council of Arles, the Council of Agde, the first Council of Toledo, the fourth Council of Carthage, the Council of Gerunda, Optatus, and St. Austin, if any had done public penance in the Church, for any scandalous crime, that very thing did for ever, according to the rules and dis

cipline of those times, render that person incapable of holy orders; or, if he was ordained by mistake, as soon as the thing came to be known, he was deposed by a rule of the fourth Council of Carthage, can. 68. for not declaring that he had been a penitent, at the time of his ordination. So in like manner, any clerk, who had received a just and canonical ordination, if after that he lapsed into any crimes that required him to do public penance, as heresy, idolatry, murder, adultery, and many the like, was thereby utterly excluded from all clerical communion, and reduced as entirely to lay-communion, as any one that had at first been irregularly ordained.

SECT. 2.—All degraded Persons reduced, at least, to Lay-Communion.

Nor was it only public penitents among the clergy that were thus treated, but likewise all others that were totally degraded for any crimes whatsoever. Though they were excused doing public penance, because they thought a single punishment of degradation was sufficient for such crimes; yet they were still debarred all clerical communion, and only treated as laymen for ever after in the Church. This is so evident to all that are acquainted with ancient history, that I would not spend time to prove it, were not the gentlemen I am dealing with, so rigid as to exact superabundant proofs from Fathers and Councils for every thing I have asserted against them. Let us see then, for their satisfaction, what evidence there is, that heretics and degraded clerks, whether subjected to public penance or not, were all reduced to the state of lay-communion.

SECT. 3.—This proved from Cyprian and his Cotemporaries, Cornelius, and the Council of Carthage.

I begin with the testimony of Cyprian, and his cotemporaries, Cornelius, bishop of Rome, and the Fathers assembled under Cyprian in the Council of Carthage. We have had something of Cyprian's judgment about this matter before, upon the case of Trophimus, one of the three

See before, chap. ii. sect. 3.

2

bishops that ordained Novatian, who, upon his acknowledgment of his error, was admitted into the Church again, yet not allowed to take upon him the office of a priest, but only to communicate in the quality of a layman.' And so Cornelius, speaking of the same person, says, he received him into communion only as a layman: which does not mean, that he was only like a layman, but that he was now a layman, and not a priest, as Cyprian more distinctly expresses it. In another Epistle, Cyprian, with a whole synod of African bishops, considers the case of Basilides and Martial, two Spanish bishops, who had lapsed into idolatry in time of persecution: " These men, at first," he says, " deposed themselves voluntarily for their crimes, and desired only to be admitted to penance, and thought it favour enough to be admitted to communion as laymen. But afterward they repented of their repentance, and would have been admitted again as bishops; which would by no means be allowed them for such men did but in vain attempt to be bishops, since it was a clear case, that they ought not to preside over the Church of Christ, or offer sacrifice to God: especially when it had been so decreed, not only by the African synods, but by Cornelius at Rome, and all the bishops of the whole world, that such men might be admitted to penance indeed, but never more lay any claim to the order of the clergy, or the honour of the priesthood." Here, I think, if ever, there was universal consent of all the bishops in the world upon the point in debate: they all decreed to a man, that a bishop or priest, that was justly deposed for idolatry, was

1 Cypr. Ep. lii. al. Iv. ad Anton. p. 105. Sic tamen admissus est Trophimus, ut laicus communicet, non-quasi locum sacerdotis usurpet. Cornel. Ep. ad Fabian. ap. Euseb. lib. vi. c. 43. 'EkoLvwvhoaμev is λaïkų. Cypr. Ep. Ixviii. al. xlvii. ad Fratr. Hispan. p. 173. Basilides episcopatum pro conscientiæ suæ vulnere sponte deponens, ad agendam pœnitentiam conversus, Deum deprecatus, et satis gratulans, si sibi vel laico communicare contingeret. 4 Cypr. ibid. p. 174. Frustrà tales episcopatum sibi usurpare conantur, cum manifestum sit ejusmodi homines nec Ecclesiæ Christi posse præesse, nec Deo sacrificia offerre debere. Maximè cum jampridem nobiscum et cum omnibus omninò episcopis in toto mundo constitutis, etiam Cornelius collega noster-decreverit, ejusmodi homines ad pœnitentiam quidem agendum posse admitti; ab ordinatione autem cleri atque sacerdotali honore prohiberi.

no longer an authorised bishop or priest, nor to be reckoned of the order of the clergy, but to be treated only as a layman. I challenge the world to give a plainer proof of universal consent in this case: and if the opposers of the validity of lay-baptism, and defenders of rebaptisation, will produce as authentic a testimony of universal consent for their thesis, I will promise, in point of history, to subscribe to their opinion.

But I go on with Cyprian, who, in another Epistle to Pope Stephen, says, "It was agreed upon by common authority and consent, that if any presbyters or deacons, who were first ordained in the Catholic Church, did afterward turn traitors and rebels against the Church, or any others that were promoted among heretics, by the profane ordination of false bishops and antichrists, against the rule of Christ, did take upon them to offer false and sacrilegious sacrifice, out of the Church, in opposition to the one altar of God; that neither of these, upon their return to the Church, should be received upon any other condition but this, that they should be laymen, and communicate only as such, and account it enough to be admitted to the Church's peace, who had been the enemies of peace, but not be allowed to retain the armour of their ordination and honour, with which they had fought against her." It is impossible

to say in plainer words, that heretics and degraded clerks are not priests, but only laymen; or that such as are ordained by heretics, who are only false bishops and antichrists, are only laymen, and to be treated as laymen, upon their return to the Church. I shall but mention one place more in Cyprian, which relates the case of one Fortunatianus, an African bishop of Assuræ, who had lapsed either

1 Cypr. Ep, lxxii. ad Stephan. p. 197. Addimus planè auctoritate commani, ut si qui presbyteri aut diaconi, qui vel in Ecclesia Catholicâ priùs ordinati fuerint, et postmodùm perfidi ac rebelles contra Ecclesiam steterint; rel apud hæreticos à pseudoepiscopis et antichristis contra Christi dispositionem profanâ ordinatione promoti sint, et contra altare unum atque divinum, sacrificia forìs falsa ac sacrilega offerre conati sint; eos quoque hac conditione suscipi cùm revertuntur, ut communicent laici, et satis habeant quod admittuntur ad pacem, qui hostes paces extiterint; nec debere eos reverrentes ea apud nos ordinationis et honoris arma retinere, quibus contra nos rebellaverint.