gation to receive them, before they were approved of and confirmed in a Council of her own Bishops.

Thirdly, When those Institutes were received, they declared that they received them fo far and no farther than they agreed with the Councils of Nice, Conftantinople, Ephefus, and Calcedon; without taking any notice of the Pope's Authority by whom those Institutes had been fent to them.

Laftly, This Council ends with a Solemn Relation of Thanks to God, and to the King, by whom it was called, without any mention of the Pope.

But this Affair rested not here; for Julianus, Bishop of Toledo, having, on this occafion, with the Approbation of all his Brethren, affirmed, ift, That in Deo voluntas genuit voluntatem, ficut fapientia Sapientiam; and 2dly, Quod in Chrifto erant tres Subftantiæ; with Two heads more, which are not named; Pope Benedict, who fucceeded Leo the Second, being offended with those Four heads, he fignified fo much to the Spanish Bishops, hoping by fuch means to have by degrees riggled his Authority into Spain: But that Pope was much mistaken in the Men he had to deal with ; for in the Fifteenth Council of Toledo, the Spanish Bishops were fo far from recanting any of thofe Four Heads, upon that Pope's having declared that

he

he was displeased with them, that, on the contrary, they juftified them all; and in fuch a manner as demonftrated that they had no regard to the Roman Bishop in any matter of Doctrine, any farther than as he agreed with the Primitive Fathers.

For having proved the Two First Heads at large to be Orthodox, from the general Councils and from St. Athanafius, St. Ambrofe, St. Austin, St. Cyril, and others; they branded all that would not Submit to their Authority in that matter, with the infamous Mark of impudent and infolent Scruta

tors.

And as to the Two lait Heads, they did without naming them, fay, That not only their fenfe, but almoft their very words were taken from the moft Bleffed St. Am· brofe, and Fulgentius; and of which Two Doctors they laid on that occafion, Quod omne quod contra illos fapitur, a recla fidei re gula abhorrere fentitur.

What would not the Church of Rome give to have had the fame faid by the Ancient Spanish Church of any of her Bishops? and how impudent a thing, after fuch a confeffion, would he have reckoned it in any one in the leaft to have questioned that Ancient Church having believed Her to be infallible in all matters of Faith? And yet neither She nor no Christian Church elfe, do

from hence conclude, that the Ancient Spanish Church believed either St. Ambrofe, or Fulgentius, or their Sees of Milan and Rafpis, to be infallible. Tho' I do not think there is in all Antiquity any Proof equal to this, of the Bishop of Rome's having been believed to be fo; no more than there is in the Scriptures any Teftimony of St. Peter's having been the fole univerfal Paftor of the Church, equal to that of St. Paul's having faid of himself, Befides thofe that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the Care of all the Churches.

But fo far were the Spanish Bishops, on this Occafion, from faying as much of the Pope they were contending with, or of any of his Predeceffors, that at parting they gave. him a blow which fhows manifeftly how little they regarded his Authority; concluding their vindication of the Four Heads that Pope was offended at, with the following reprimand.

Jam vero, fi poft hæc & ab ipfis dogmatibus' Patrum, quibus hec prolata funt, in quocunque diffentiunt ; non jam cum illis eft amplius contendendum: Sed Majorum directo calle inhærentes veftigiis, erit per Divinum Judicium, Amatoribus Veritatis Refponfio noftra fublimis; etiamfi ab ignorantibus æmulis fentiatur indocilis.

And,

And, as this is the first time we find the Bishop of Rome thrusting his Sickle into the Spanish Harvest; fo, would it not have been more for the Honour, both of that Bishop, and of his See, to have forborn doing of it, untill, by his common Arts, he had difpofed the Spanish Clergy to think he had fome Authority over them?

But as this Transaction being recorded at length in the Fifteenth Council of Toledo, made it too publick for Baronius to pass it over in filence, fo, for that reason, he mentions it in the year 685, but in fuch a manner, and in fo great hafte to get to the end of it, that one fees plainly that he found it too hot for him to handle: And all that he offers to fetch off the Pope upon this repulfe, is, That the Pope was for having tranfacted this matter with the Spanish Bishops amicably, and in a way of Charity, and not of Authority; to which wretched and humble fhift this Annalift was driven, by his perceiving plainly that if the Pope did ufe any Authority in this marter, his Authority was much flighted; and, for that reason, and no other, he will not have him to have used any. Whereas, had the Spanish Bishops happened to have been in the wrong, and to have acknow ledged that they were mistaken in thofe Four Heads the Pope found fault with, we fhould then have had Baronius vapour with

their having recanted what they had before established, barely upon the Bishop of Rome, whom they believed to be infallible in all Matters of Faith, having interpofed his Authority, and declared all those Heads to be Errors: And we should have had this whole Tranfaction pompously displayed in more Pages than he beftows Lines upon it now, carrying his Pope from it very abruptly, and in great hafte, as far as Antioch.

And is it any wonder that a Church, which in the year 688, fhewed fo little refpect to the Bishop of Rome's Authority in matters relating to Faith; fhould in the year 704, when that Bishop laid a barefaced claim to a Supremacy over her, reject that new and bold claim with indignation? as we have before obferved fhe did in the Eighteenth Council of Toledo, whofe Acts the Pope for that reafon has taken care to Supprefs: For there having been but Sixteen years betwixt thofe two Councils, many of the Bishops who were present at the First, probably affifted at the Second; and whose Acts, could they be recovered, would give the Papacy a wound as deep as that which was given it by the Twenty eighth Canon of the General Council of Calcedon; and which Canon, had it not been preferved by the Greeks, would never have been heard of in the Western Churches; there being no mention of it in

any