Note N12 — St. PETER (continued 3)

The Style of the Letter from the Council to Sylvester is quite barbarous and unintelligible. It begins thus: Gloriam corroborata de Divinis Mysteriis. Ecclesiasticæ utilitatis quæ ad robur pertinent Ecclesiæ Catholicæ & Apostolicæ ad sedem tuam Romanam explanata & de Græce redacta scribere confitemur--Nunc itaque ad vestræ sedis argumentum accurrimus roborari. The rest is written in the same Style; the Consuls are called Sovereigns, and the Letter is dated Five or Six Days after the Opening of the Council. The Design of the Impostor was, to make the Fathers of Nice recur to Sylvester for a Confirmation of their Decrees. Sylvester’s Answer is of a piece with the Letter of the Council; it supposes him to have added something to the Council; mentions the Cycle of Victorinus, who was not born in Sylvester’s Time, nor many Years after; and bears a false Date. As for the Council said, and by some still maintained, to have been held at Rome, to confirm the Canons of Nice, it was utterly unknown to all the Antients. And who can believe, that none of the Antients should ever have heard of a Council held in the Metropolis of the Empire, and consisting, as we are told, of Two hundred and Seventy-five Bishops, or, if they had heard of it, that they would never have mentioned it? Besides, it is said to have been held at Rome, in the Presence of Constantine; and it is certain, that the Emperor was not in Rome at the Time the Council is supposed to have been held. The Canons, which are supposed to have been made on this Occasion, contain Regulations repugnant to the Practice of those Times, and which it was then impossible to observe. The first Canon relates to the Time when Easter was to be kept; but what is there determined no Man can know. The Second is no less unintelligible than the First: Ut unusquisque Episcopus rediens ad Parochiam suam Compaginem Salutationis plebi tuæ innotescat. These are the Words of this Canon. The Third forbids the Ecclesiastics to appear before secular Judges, let the Action be what it will; which is repugnant to the Discipline of those Times. The Fourth will have those, who enter themselves among the Clergy, to pass through all the Degrees, and fixes the Time which they are to continue in each Degree. They are to be Janitors or Door-keepers one Year, Lectors or Readers Twenty, Exorcists Ten, Acolytes Five, Subdeacons Five, Deacons Five, and Priests Six; so that none under Threescore could attain to the Episcopal Dignity; which is highly absurd in itself, and contrary to the Practice of those Times.