] Chap. xi. 32, &c.

[12] Chap. xi. 36, &c.

[13] Chap. xi. 40, &c.

* * * * *

CHAP. XIII.

_Of the King who did according to his will, and magnified himself above
every God, and honoured _Mahuzzims_, and regarded not the desire of women_.

In the first ages of the Christian religion the Christians of every city
were governed by a Council of Presbyters, and the President of the Council
was the Bishop of the city. The Bishop and Presbyters of one city meddled
not with the affairs of another city, except by admonitory letters or
messages. Nor did the Bishops of several cities meet together in Council
before the time of the Emperor _Commodus_: for they could not meet together
without the leave of the _Roman_ governors of the Provinces. But in the
days of that Emperor they began to meet in Provincial Councils, by the
leave of the governors; first in _Asia_, in opposition to the
_Cataphrygian_ Heresy, and soon after in other places and upon other
occasions. The Bishop of the chief city, or Metropolis of the _Roman_
Province, was usually made President of the Council; and hence came the
authority of Metropolitan Bishops above that of other Bishops within the
same Province. Hence also it was that the Bishop of _Rome_ in _Cyprian_'s
days called himself the Bishop of Bishops. As soon as the Empire became
Christian, the _Roman_ Emperors began to call general Councils out of all
the Provinces of the Empire; and by prescribing to them what points they
should consider, and influencing them by their interest and power, they set
up what party they pleased. Hereby the _Greek_ Empire, upon the division of
the _Roman_ Empire into the _Greek_ and _Latin_ Empires, became _the King
who_, in matters of religion, _did according to his will_; _and_, in
legislature, _exalted and magnified himself above every God_: and at
length, by the seventh general Council, established the worship of the
images and souls of dead men, here called _Mahuzzims_.

The same King placed holiness in abstinence from marriage. _Eusebius_ in
his Ecclesiastical history [1] tells us, that _Musanus_ wrote a tract
against those who fell away to the heresy of the _Encratites_, which was
then newly risen, and had introduced pernicious errors; and that _Tatian_,
the disciple of _Justin_, was the author thereof; and that _Irenaeus_ in his
first book against heresies teaches this, writing of _Tatian_ and his
heresy in these words: _A Satur