uncil to be called."
The same St. Hierom again, in his epitaph upon Paula, maketh mention of
the emperor's letters which gave commandment to call the "bishops of
Italy and Greece to Rome to a council." Continually for the space of
five hundred years, the emperor alone appointed the ecclesiastical
assemblies, and called the councils of the bishops together.

We now therefore marvel the more at the unreasonable dealing of the
Bishop of Rome, who, knowing what was the emperor's right when the Church
was well ordered, knowing also that it is now a common right to all
princes, for so much as the kings are now fully possessed in the several
parts of the whole empire, doth so without consideration assign that
office alone to himself, and taketh it sufficient, in summoning a general
council, to make that man that is prince of the whole world no otherwise
partaker thereof than he would make his own servant. And although the
modesty and mildness of the Emperor Ferdinand be so great that he can
bear this wrong, because, peradventure, he understandeth not well the
Pope's packing, yet ought not the Pope of his holiness to offer him that
wrong, nor to claim as his own another man's right.

But hereto some will reply: The emperor, indeed, called councils at that
time ye speak of, because the Bishop of Rome was not yet grown so great
as he is now, but yet the emperor did not then sit together with the
bishops in council, or once bare any stroke with his authority in their
consultation. I answer, Nay, that it is not so; for, as witnesseth
Theodoret, the Emperor Constantine sat not only together with them in the
Council of Nice, but gave also advice to the bishops how it was best to
try out the matter by the Apostles' and Prophets' writings, as appeareth
by these his own words: "In disputation," saith he, "of matters of
divinity, we have set before us to follow the doctrine of the Holy Ghost.
For the Evangelists' and the Apostles' works, and the Prophets' sayings,
show us sufficiently what opinion we ought to have of the will of God."
The Emperor Theodosius, as saith Socrates, did not only sit amongst the
bishops, but also ordered the whole arguing of the cause, and tare in
pieces the heretics' books, and allowed for good the judgment of the
Catholics. In the council at Chalcedon a civil magistrate condemned for
heretics, by the sentence of his own mouth, the bishops Dioscorus,
Juvenalis, and Thalassius, and gave judgment to put them