Note N3 — St. PETER

All the decretal Epistles of the Popes, before Syricius, are so filled with Absurdities, Contradictions, Anachronisms, &c. that they are now given up, even by the most sanguine Advocates for the Papal Supremacy. And yet these very Decretals, absurd as they are, and inconsistent with themselves, as well as with all the genuine Writings of those Times, whether sacred or profane, were, for several Ages, the main Stays of the whole Fabric of the Papal Power. By them that Power was established; by them it was supported; for, in the Days of Ignorance, they were universally received as the genuine Writings of the antient Bishops of Rome, in whose Names they were published. And, truly, were we to rank them, as they were ranked in the monkish and ignorant Ages, with the Decisions of the Oecumenical Councils, and the Canonical Books of the Scripture, no room would be left to question any Branch of the unlimited Power claimed by the Popes. They were held in the greatest Esteem and Veneration from the Beginning of the 9th Century to the Time of the Reformation, when, upon the first Dawn of Learning, the Cheat was discovered, and the Stays removed, which till then had supported the unwieldy Edifice. But it was then in a Condition to stand by itself, at least till new Frauds were devised to prop it up; and this was accordingly done, without Loss of Time.

The Decretals of the first Popes are quoted by Bellarmine, to prove, that the Supremacy of the Bishops of Rome was universally acknowleged in the earliest Times^[1]: but, at the same time, he owns, that he dares not affirm them to be of undoubted Authority. And what can be more absurd than to quote a Forgery, or what he himself owns may be a Forgery, in Vindication of so darling a Point as the Supremacy? But he did it for want of better Evidences, and must therefore be excused. Baronius, ashamed to lay any Stress on such gross and palpable Forgeries, contents himself with only saying, that the Popes had no hand in forging them; and that they never made use of their Authority to support their own. That they were concerned in, or privy to, the forging of those Letters, I dare not affirm: but that they countenanced them, as they did all other Forgeries tending to the Advancement of their See; that they received them as genuine, and endeavoured to impose them upon others; nay, that they made use of them soon after their first Appearance in the World, to establish and promote the Authority of their See; are undoubted Matters of Fact: witness the Letter, which Nicolas I. wrote, in the Year 865. to Hincmarus Archbishop of Rheims, and to the other Bishops of France, who, refusing to comply with some exorbitant Demands of the Pope, had rejected the Decretals, on which those Demands were founded, as Writings that had been lately counterfeited. Nicolas, in his Answer to them, maintains the Authenticity of those Letters, exhorts all, who profess the Catholic Faith, to receive them with due Veneration, and claims, in virtue of such sacred and authentic Writings, an uncontrouled Authority over all the Churches of the World, as lodged from the Beginning in his See^[2]. And was not this making use of the supposed Authority of those Decretals to promote his own? Nicolas seems to have believed the Letters to be genuine: and, if he did, he was certainly mistaken, and erred in proposing, as he does, spurious Pieces for a firm and strong Foundation of our Belief, as well as our Practice. If he did not believe them to be genuine, and yet endeavoured to persuade the Bishops of France that they were so; nay, and claimed, upon the Authority of such Pieces, a Power over them, and their Churches; a worse Epithet would suit him better than that of fallible, which is common to all Men.

The first who published these Decretals was, according to Hincmarus, Riculphus Bishop of Mentz, who was supposed to have brought them from Spain; because the Name of Isidore was prefixed to the Collection, and a famous Writer of that Name, viz. Isidore Bishop of Seville, had flourished in Spain some Centuries before. But such a mean and scandalous Undertaking is altogether unworthy of so great a Prelate; and besides the Author of the supposed Decretals has copied, verbatim, some Passages from the Council of Toledo in 675. and from the Sixth Council in 681. whereas Isidore of Seville died in 636. The learned Ellies du Pin lays this Forgery at the Door of some German or Frenchman, the Letters being all written in the Style of the Germans and French, of the 9th Century, and many of them addressed to Persons of these two Nations. Hincmarus was mistaken, in supposing the forged Decretals to have been first published by Riculphus of Mentz; for in some of them are found Fragments of the Council held at Paris in 829. and he died in 814. They were first ushered into the World, and forged too, in all likelihood, by one Benedict, Deacon of the Church of Mentz, though, in his Preface to that Collection, he would fain make us believe, that Autcarius, the Successor of Riculphus, found them in the Archives of that Church, and that they had been placed there by Riculphus, who had brought them from Spain. Autcarius, in whose Time Benedict published his Collection, is thought to have been privy to the Imposture. The Name of Isidore, which was then very common in Spain, was prefixed to it, to persuade the World, that the Decretals were brought from that Country, and not forged at Mentz, where they first appeared. However, they were suspected by some, even in that dark Age, and absolutely rejected by Hincmarus of Rheims, as Writings of no Authority. But the Popes, whose Pretensions they were calculated to favour, exerting all their Authority to bring them into Repute, they were in the End universally received, and inserted into all the Collections of Canons. At present they are so universally exploded, that there is not a single Writer, no, not even in the Church of Rome, who is not ashamed to patronize or defend them. But the Work is done, for which they were intended; and now that the Edifice can stand by itself, no matter what becomes of the Stays that supported it, when it could not. These Decretals may be justly looked upon as a standing Monument of the Ignorance, Superstition, and Credulity, that universally prevailed in the Church, from the Beginning of the Ninth Century to the Time of the Reformation. I shall conclude with observing, that, from these Decretals, Anastasius the Bibliothecarian, and after him Platina, have chiefly copied what they relate of the first Popes, supposing them to have really done what, in those spurious Pieces, they are said to have done.