Upon the Demise of Boniface, Celestine was chosen in his room, without the least Disturbance or Opposition. Eulalius indeed, who was still alive, and led a retired Life in the neighbouring Province of Campania, was tempted by his Friends in Rome to try his Fortune a Second time; but he did not chuse to quit his Solitude, and involve both himself and them in new Troubles. Celestine was a Native of Rome, the Son of one Priscus, and a Deacon, if not a Presbyter, at the Time of his Election^[1588].

He was scarce warm in the Chair, when he received a Letter from St. Austin on the following Occasion. As the small Town, or rather Village of Fussala, belonging to the Bishoprick of Hippo, the See of St. Austin, stood at a great Distance from that City, the good Bishop thought he could not better consult the spiritual Welfare of the Inhabitants, who had but very lately abandoned the Party of the Donatists, than by causing their Town to be erected into a separate Bishoprick, and letting them have a Bishop of their own. This was indeed abridging both his own Jurisdiction and Revenues; but as he had the Good of the People more at Heart than either, he pursued his Scheme with Success, and prevailed upon his Collegues in Numidia to ordain a young Man named Antony, whom he had brought up from his Infancy, the first Bishop of the Place, though at that time only a Reader. This Promotion, per saltum, as it is styled, was strictly forbidden by the Popes in their Decretals; but to their Orders St. Austin paid no greater Regard than the other Bishops did, though he always spoke of them, and to them, with all the Respect that was due to the first Bishop in the West.|Antony’s scandalous Behaviour.| St. Austin had soon Occasion to repent his transgressing those Regulations, which, it must be owned, are in themselves very wise: for Antony, who was but a Youth, and had been kept by St. Austin under great Restraint, no sooner found himself free from all Controul, than abandoning himself intirely to the Indulgence of his youthful Passions, he thereby scandalized the new Catholics to such a Degree, that they let St. Austin know the Conduct of their Bishop, unless he was quickly removed, would certainly drive them to the last Extremity; meaning, perhaps, that they should be forced either to put him to Death, or to join anew the Donatists, whom they had but lately forsaken. Such Menaces alarmed St. Austin no less than the Conduct of his favourite Disciple surprised him. A Council was immediately summoned at his Request by the Primate of Numidia; Antony was ordered to attend it, and the Inhabitants of Fussala invited to lay their Complaints before the Assembly. The Summons was complied with by all, and Antony, by a great Number of Witnesses, convicted of Rapine, Violence, and Extortion. But, because some capital Crimes laid to his Charge were not sufficiently proved, the Fathers of the Council, out of an unseasonable Compassion, contented themselves with only condemning him to restore to the Inhabitants of Fussala what he had with Violence taken from them. |He is deprived of the Administration, and all Jurisdiction, by a Council.| They were even inclined to leave him in the quiet Possession of his Church; but that being warmly opposed by the People, they deprived him of the Administration, and of all Jurisdiction; but as he still retained the Episcopal Dignity, they did not chuse to remove him to another City to live there even as a private Person, lest they should be thought to transgress the Rules of the Fathers forbidding Translations^[1589]. None could think so who were the least acquainted with those Rules.

Antony satisfied, pursuant to his Sentence, the Inhabitants of Fussala, whom he had wronged. But pretending that he had been unjustly deprived of his Bishoprick, he resolved to appeal to Rome. He was sensible that his appealing at this Juncture, when the Point of Appeals was warmly disputed, as I shall relate hereafter, was Merit enough to recommend him to the Favour of that See. However, not trusting to that alone, as Boniface was still alive, he first engaged in his Favour his own Primate, the Primate of Numidia, who, having been excused on account of his great Age from assisting at the Council, was not well acquainted with what had passed there. |Prevails upon the Primate to write in his Behalf to Rome.| Him therefore he easily persuaded, that he had been very ill used by the Council: For had they thought me guilty, said he, of the Rapine and Extortions, that were laid to my Charge, they ought, and, without all doubt, would have deposed me: they have not deposed me; and therefore did not, as is manifest, think me guilty. If I did not deserve to be degraded from my Dignity, I did not deserve to be driven from my See. Thus he artfully turned the Mercy that had been shewn him against those who had shewn it; and, having by that means imposed upon the Primate, persuaded him to write a Letter in his Behalf to Boniface. |How received by Boniface.| With this Letter he repaired to Rome, but did not meet there with the Reception he expected: for all he could obtain of Boniface was a Letter to the Bishops of Numidia, requiring them to reinstate him in his See, provided he had represented Matters as they truly were. This conditional Request Antony, on his Return to Africa, improved, it seems, into an absolute Command: for he threatened the People of Fussala with a Visit from the Imperial Troops and Commissaries, if they did not receive him as their lawful Bishop, in Compliance with the Orders of the Apostolic See^[1590]. |The People of Fussala write against him to Celestine.| In the mean time Boniface dying, and Celestine being chosen in his room, the People of Fussala apprehending, as St. Austin writes, greater Evils from a Catholic Bishop, after their Return to the Church, than they had done from a Catholic Emperor during their Separation, writ a most pathetic Letter to the new Pope, intreating him to pity their Condition, to curb Antony in his unchristian Attempts, and to redeem them, by his Authority, from the Calamities which they had Reason to apprehend from that Prelate’s Cruelty and Ambition. In the same Letter they imputed all their Misfortunes to Austin, who had set over them such a Bishop. |Are seconded by St. Austin.| And this Austin was so far from taking amiss, that he owned the Charge, and even backed their Request with a Letter of his own, conjuring Celestine, by the Memory of St. Peter, who abhorred all Violence and Tyranny, not to use either with the People of Fussala, who, he said, had but too much Reason not to submit tamely to the galling Yoke from which they had been so lately delivered. He adds, that if, in spite of all his Endeavours and Remonstrances, he should still have the Mortification to see the Church of Fussala plundered and tyrannically oppressed by one whom he had raised to that See, he should think himself obliged to atone for the Share which he had in his Crimes, by resigning his own^[1591]. |Celestine acquiesces in the Sentence of the Council of Numidia.| Celestine was so affected with these Letters, that he immediately acquiesced in the Sentence of the Council of Numidia; and the new Bishoprick of Fussala being suppressed, that Town, with its District, was again subjected to the See of Hippo. From these Letters, that were written by the Africans on this Occasion, it appears, that the Bishops of Rome used, in those Days, to send some of their Ecclesiastics into Africa, to see the Sentences, which they had given, executed there; and that those Ecclesiastics came with Orders from the Court for the Civil Magistrates to assist them, where their Assistance should be required, or thought necessary.

The Schism formed by Eulalius was not, it seems, yet quite extinct in Rome in the Year 425. for I find a Law of that Year, dated the 17th of July, and addressed to Faustus Prefect of the City, commanding all Manichees, Heretics, Schismatics, and Sects of every Denomination, to be driven out of Rome; but more especially those, who, separating themselves from the Communion of the Venerable Pope, kept alive a dangerous Schism. Over these Faustus is injoined to keep a watchful Eye, to summon them to communicate with Celestine, and, if they did not comply with the Summons in Twenty Days, to banish them an Hundred Miles from Rome^[1592]. This Law was issued by Placidia, who, upon the Death of her Brother Honorius, which happened in the Month of August 423. and that of the Usurper John, killed in 425, governed the Western Empire, as Guardian to her Son Valentinian III. The Law she issued, probably put an End to the Schism; for no further Mention is made of it by any Historian.

It was in the Time of Celestine, and the following Year 426. the Fourth of his Pontificate, that the Bishops of Africa, quite tired out with the daily Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome, and not able to brook the despotic and arbitrary Power which they had begun to exercise over them, took the no less laudable than necessary Resolution of breaking their Chains before they were thoroughly riveted, and asserting their antient Liberty, by effectually removing what had endangered it, the pernicious Abuse of appealing to Rome. |Apiarius, a Presbyter of Sicca, appeals to Rome.| The Incident, which gave Occasion to that Resolution, was the Appeal of a Presbyter of Sicca, named Apiarius, who, being convicted of many Crimes, and thereupon degraded and excommunicated by his own Bishop Urbanus, appealed to Zosimus then Bishop of Rome. |Zosimus restores him to the Rank from which he had been degraded.| Zosimus, who missed no Opportunity of acquiring new Power, or improving the Power which he had acquired, not only received the Appeal, but, without ever hearing the other Side, restored Apiarius both to his Rank, and the Communion of the Church. This was the boldest Attempt that had yet been made upon the Rights and Liberties of the African Churches; and therefore the Bishops in those Parts, all uniting in a Cause that was common to all, loudly complained of such an arbitrary Act, as an open Violation of the Canons of the Church, forbidding those, who had been excluded from the Communion by their own Bishop, to be admitted to it by any other^[1593]. Zosimus, finding the African Bishops had taken the Alarm, and were determined to restrain his Power within the Limits prescribed to it by the Canons, and, on the other hand, being well apprised, that he could allege no Canons, that had ever been received by them, to countenance the Power which he claimed, and had exercised, thought it would be no great Crime to recur to Fraud on so urgent an Occasion. |To support his Pretensions, endeavours to impose upon the African Bishops the Canons of Sardica for the Canons of Nice.| Agreeably to this Scheme, he caused Two Canons to be transcribed from the Council of Sardica; the one allowing Presbyters and Deacons, when rashly excommunicated by their own Bishops, to appeal to the neighbouring Bishops; and the other, authorizing the Appeal of all Bishops to the Bishop of Rome. Had the Africans received these Canons, he intended to have justified, by the former, his judging and absolving Apiarius, notwithstanding the Distance between Rome and Numidia; and, in virtue of the latter, to get the Canon revoked, which the African Bishops had lately made, forbidding, on Pain of Excommunication, Appeals beyond Sea; that is, to Rome. Nothing less than an intire Subjection of the African Churches to the See of Rome would satisfy the boundless Ambition of Zosimus; and such a Subjection would infallibly have ensued, had the Two above-mentioned Canons been received by the African Bishops in the Sense which Zosimus did, and seemed determined to make others, put upon them. But the main Point was, to persuade the Bishops of Africa to admit such Canons, especially at so critical a Juncture. The Council of Sardica had never been received there: nay, they were, it seems, at this very Time, utter Strangers both to that Council and its Canons; so that it was useless to quote them as such. Of this Zosimus was aware; and therefore, as he stuck at nothing that stood in the way of his Ambition, he resolved, by one of the most impudent and barefaced Impostures recorded in History, to try whether he could not impose upon the Bishops of Africa the Canons of Sardica for the Canons of Nice. |With this View he sends a Solemn Embassy into Africa.| With this knavish View, and to render the Imposture more solemn, and less suspected, he dispatched into Africa Three Legates, viz. Faustinus Bishop of Potentia in Picenum, and Two Roman Presbyters, Philippus and Asellus. Their Instructions, contained in a Letter addressed to themselves, were, to require of the African Bishops a strict Observance of the Two above-mentioned Canons of Nice; to complain of their repairing so often to Court; and to desire them not to communicate with Urbanus of Sicca, who had deposed Apiarius, or even to send him to Rome, if he refused to correct what he had done amiss^[1594]; that is, we may suppose, if he did not restore Apiarius to his Rank, and the Communion of the Church.

With these Instructions the Legates set out for Africa, where they no sooner arrived, than a Council was convened, at which assisted, among the rest, Alypius Bishop of Tagaste, St. Austin’s great Friend, and Aurelius Bishop of Carthage. When the Legates first appeared before the Council, the Bishops desired them to lay their Instructions before the Assembly; which they were at first unwilling to do, contenting themselves with declaring their Commission by Word of Mouth. But the Africans knowing whom they had to deal with, and thereupon pressing them to communicate their Instructions is Writing, they complied at last, and produced the Letter I have mentioned above, which was immediately registred. |The Surprize of the African Bishops on this Occasion.| When it was publicly read, it is impossible to conceive the Surprize and Astonishment that appeared in the whole Assembly. They had never heard of those Canons; and to find them thus confidently ascribed to the Council of Nice, was what appeared to them strange beyond Expression. Warm Disputes arose, of which, however, we know no Particulars. Several different Greek Copies, several Latin Copies, were sent for, and carefully examined and compared; but no such Canons could be found there. However, as the Legates continued to maintain, with an unparalleled Impudence, the disputed Canons of Nice, the Council agreed to observe them, till they had, by a more diligent Inquiry, discovered the Truth^[1595].

They continued their Sessions; but as they were few in Number, as the Point in Dispute was of the utmost Consequence, and nearly affected all the Bishops of Africa, they thought it should be communicated to all; and that, without the Concurrence of all, no Resolution should be taken. |A General Council assembled at Carthage.| A General Council was accordingly assembled at Carthage, consisting of Two hundred and Seventeen Bishops, from the different Provinces of Africa. They met, for the first time, on the 25th of May 419. Faustinus being placed next after Aurelius of Carthage, and Valentine Primate of Numidia, and the Two Presbyters Philippus and Asellus after the other Bishops. Being all seated, Aurelius moved, that the Canons of Nice might be read, from the Copies which they had of that Council in Africa. |The Conduct of Faustinus, the Pope’s Legate, on this Occasion.| But this was warmly opposed by Faustinus, insisting upon their reading, in the first place, his Instructions, and coming to some Resolution concerning the Observance of the Canons of Nice, which he was charged by the Apostolic See to require of them. It matters not, said he, whether or no those Canons are to be found in your Copies, or, indeed, in any other. You must know, that the Canons and Ordinances of Nice, which have been handed down to us by Tradition, and established by Custom, are no less binding than those that have been conveyed to us in Writing. To this Speech the Bishops returned no Answer; without doubt, because they thought it deserved none. However, at his Request, his Instructions were read, and warm Debates ensued. |The Resolution taken by the Council.| Alypius was of Opinion, that since the disputed Canons were not to be found in any of their Copies, Messengers and Letters should be immediately dispatched to the Bishops of Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch, for authentic Copies of the Acts and Canons of Nice. This Proposal Faustinus highly resented, as an Outrage offered to the Apostolic See, which, he said, was thereby arraigned of Fraud and Forgery. He therefore advised them to write to Boniface, who, by this time, had succeeded Zosimus, and, leaving to him the Care of examining the Authority of those Canons, submit the Whole to his Judgment, to his known Prudence and Discretion. He added, that by acting otherwise they might give Occasion to great Divisions and Disturbances in the Church. Aurelius, not to exasperate the Legate, whom he found to be a Man of a haughty, imperious, and intractable Temper, made no other Reply, but that they would write to Boniface. St. Austin promised to observe those Canons so long as it could be reasonably supposed that they were the Canons of Nice. The other Bishops made the same Promise; which was confirming the Resolution the Council had taken the Year before. Here the Legate exaggerated anew the Affront they offered to the Roman Church; adding, that the only Reparation they could make, for questioning the Authenticity of Canons proposed by her, was to leave the deciding of that Point to her, and acquiesce in her Judgment. But the Warmth, the Earnestness, the Passion which he betrayed in his Speech, and in his whole Conduct, served only to heighten the Jealousy, and confirm the Suspicions, of the African Bishops. It was therefore universally agreed, in spite of the Remonstrances, Intreaties, and Menaces of the Legate, that Aurelius should write to the Bishops of Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch, for authentic Copies of the Canons of Nice: that if the Canons, quoted by Faustinus, were found in those Copies, they should be punctually observed; if not, that a new Council should be convened, and such Resolutions taken, as the Fathers, who composed it, should think proper^[1596].

Matters being thus settled, with respect to the pretended Canons of Nice, concerning Appeals, the Council took next into Consideration the Case of Apiarius which had given Occasion to the present Dispute between Rome and Africa; and it was agreed, that Apiarius should make the due Submission to his Bishop, and there upon be re-admitted to his Communion, and restored to his Rank. However, as he had given great Offence to the People of Sicca, by his scandalous Life, he was ordered, by the Council, to quit that City; but, at the same time, allowed to exercise the Functions of his Office in any other Place^[1597]. This Medium the Council wisely chose between the Two opposite Sentences; that of Urbanus excommunicating and deposing him, and that of Zosimus restoring him to the Communion and the Priesthood. Such was the Issue of the Appeal of Apiarius: and I leave the Reader to judge, whether Baronius should boast of it as he does. And now nothing remained, but to acquaint Boniface with the Acts and Resolutions of the Council; and this was done accordingly by a Letter, which they all signed, and delivered to the Legates. In that Letter they begged Boniface to procure, from the East, authentic Copies of the Canons of Nice, promising to observe the Canons in Dispute, till such Copies were procured; but this upon Condition, that if those Canons were not found to be genuine, they should recover their antient Privileges, and not be forced to submit to a Yoke, which Ambition alone could impose^[1598].

With this Letter the Three Legates set out from Africa, on their Return to Rome. Upon their Departure, the African Bishops writ, agreeably to the Resolution they had taken, to Atticus of Constantinople, and Cyril of Alexandria, begging they would cause to be transcribed, and sent into Africa, the most authentic Copies they had of the Canons of Nice. With this Request the Two Bishops readily complied; and the same Year 419. the Messengers sent to Alexandria and Constantinople returned with the wished-for Copies, and very friendly and obliging Answers, which are still extant^[1599], from Cyril and Atticus, addressed to Aurelius, to Valentine, and to all the Bishops of Africa assembled at Carthage. As for the Bisop of Antioch, the Africans probably did not write to him; at least, they had no Answer from him^[N69]. |The pretended Canons not found in those Copies, and the Dispute dropt by Boniface.| They immediately compared the Two Copies, sent them from the East, with their own, especially with that which Cæcilianus of Carthage had brought with him from Nice, where he had assisted at the Council; and found them agree in every Particular, without any Trace of the Canons that Zosimus had produced: upon which they dispatched the same Ecclesiastics with them to Rome, whom they had sent into the East. Boniface, who was an Enemy to all Fraud and Imposition, acquiesced; the Dispute was dropped; so that the Canon, which the African Bishops had lately made, forbidding Appeals to Rome, and Zosimus had thus fraudulently attempted to defeat, remained in its full Vigour; and the Churches of Africa were suffered quietly to enjoy their antient Rights and Privileges, so long as Boniface lived. But in the Pontificate of his Successor Celestine, the Storm broke out anew.

It may not be improper here to observe, that Zosimus, though wholly bent on exalting his See, and straining every Prerogative to the highest Pitch, yet did not presume to exalt it above the Canons; did not claim the disputed Power of receiving Appeals, of judging, deciding, &c. independently of the Canons. And was not this owning himself, but for the Canons, to be upon the Level with the other Bishops his Collegues; at least in respect to this Point? Is not the scandalous Method, which he took on this Occasion to extend his own Power, and curtail that of the African Bishops, a Demonstration of his deriving his Claim from the Canons alone? Could there ever offer a better Opportunity, could there ever occur a more urgent Necessity, of asserting a Divine Right? As Zosimus therefore never asserted, nor even mentioned, such a Right, we may well conclude, that he either had no Notion of it, or did not think it sufficiently grounded to be of any Use in the present Dispute. And yet this Divine Right of receiving Appeals from all Parts of the World, of constituting, confirming, judging, censuring, suspending, deposing, removing, restoring Bishops, and all other Ecclesiastics, is now held, as an Article of Faith, by all true Roman Catholics; insomuch that to dispute such an Article, would be no less dangerous, in Countries where the Inquisition prevails, than to dispute any Article of the Apostolic or Nicene Creed. It is true, Innocent the First, as the Advocates for the See of Rome observe, had claimed, by Divine Right, the Power of finally deciding all Controversies. But he himself seems to have been sensible, that he had gone too far, For what else could have induced him to restrain that Claim, as soon as he had set it up, to Matters of Faith alone^[1600]? Had Zosimus thought the general Claim capable of being maintained, he need not have recurred, as he did, to Fraud and Imposture. The Pretensions of Innocent, in their utmost Extent, were indeed renewed, in Process of Time, by his Successors; but not till the intolerable Abuse, which they made of the Power granted them by the Canons of Sardica, on which they founded all their Usurpations, obliged other Councils to revoke those Canons; and then it was, that, no other Means being left of maintaining their ill-gotten Power, they revived the Claim of Innocent, and, challenging no longer by the Canons, but by Divine Right, the Prerogative of receiving Appeals, they put it out of the Power of all future Councils to abridge or restrain it.

The Three Cardinals Baronius, Bellarmine, and Noris, thinking the Imputation of Ignorance less injurious to the Memory of Zosimus, less derogatory to the Dignity of the Apostolic See, than that of Fraud and Imposture, suppose him to have ignorantly mistaken the Canons of Sardica for the Canons of Nice; which is supposing, that in the whole Archives of the Roman Church there was not a single genuine Copy of the Council of Nice, or that Zosimus had never perused it; and to suppose either is highly absurd. Besides, the whole Conduct of the Legate, the Pains he took to divert the African Bishops from consulting other Copies, and, when he could not prevail, his recurring to unwritten Canons; and, as that too proved ineffectual, his striving by all possible means to persuade the Africans to leave to the Pope the Care of examining other Copies, and to acquiesce, without any further Inquiry, in what should thereupon be determined by him; plainly shews, that the Legate was privy to the Fraud, and apprehended a Detection.

Apiarius, being obliged to quit Sicca, as I have related above, retired to Tabraca, another City of Numidia, and led there so scandalous a Life, that he was excommunicated anew. Hereupon he appealed again to Rome, and Celestine, which is very surprising, notwithstanding the vigorous Opposition which his Predecessors had, but very lately, met with from the African Bishops, in attempting to restore this very Presbyter, not only declared him innocent, and admitted him to his Communion, but sent him back into Africa, attended by the Legate Faustinus, who was ordered to see him reinstated. The Africans were but too well acquainted already with the Presumption and Arrogance of the Bishops of Rome; and yet such an insolent Act quite surprised them. For Celestine had neither examined the Crimes, which Apiarius was charged with, nor heard the Witnesses, nor even condescended to let them know, that he intended to judge him anew. He writ, indeed, Two Letters to them on this Occasion, but which seemed merely designed to insult them: for, by the First, he gave them Notice of the Arrival of Apiarius at Rome, which, he said, had given him great Joy; and by the Second, which was brought by Faustinus, he acquainted them, that he was overjoyed to have found him innocent. From this despotic and extraordinary way of acting, the African Bishops concluded, that Celestine was determined to keep no Measures with them, and that nothing less than an intire Subjection of the African Churches to the See of Rome would satisfy his Ambition. But they were resolved to maintain, at all Events, the Liberty wherewith Christ had made them free. |A General Council assembled. Apiarius appears before it, with Faustinus.| A General Council was therefore assembled, and Apiarius summoned to attend. He obeyed the Summons, and appeared before the Council at the Time appointed, but in Company with Faustinus, shewing thereby, that he placed greater Confidence in him than in his own Innocence. Faustinus spoke first, and pressed, with great Warmth, the Fathers of the Assembly to re-admit Apiarius to their Communion, since he had been declared innocent by the Apostolic See, and admitted by Celestine to the Communion of the Roman Church. The Bishops replied, that in Africa Apiarius had been found guilty, and that in Africa his Innocence must be made to appear, before they could receive him again to their Communion. |The Legate’s insolent Conduct.| As they stuck to this Point, Faustinus undertook his Cause; but, instead of proving, as he had promised to do, or even attempting to prove his Innocence, he inveighed, from the Beginning of his Speech to the End, and in very harsh and opprobrious Language, against the Council, and all the Members, who composed it. |Apiarius pleads his own Cause.| Apiarius was sensible, that the Speech of Faustinus, instead of reconciling the African Bishops to him, had incensed them more than ever against him; and therefore thinking it adviseable to take the Cause into his own Hands, he stood up as soon as the other had done; and, with a Modesty capable, as he thought, of atoning for the Insolence of Faustinus, endeavoured to clear himself from the Crimes that had been laid to his Charge. |Faustinus assists him.| When he had spoken, the Witnesses against him were heard; and the Tryal lasted Three whole Days, Apiarius striving, with great Art and Subtilty, to invalidate the Depositions, and Faustinus prompting him when he was at a Stand. He might, perhaps, have escaped Condemnation, partly by his own Craft and Address, partly by the powerful Protection of the Bishop of Rome, had he been able to withstand the Stings of his own Conscience. |Apiarius, struck with sudden Remorse, owns the Crimes laid to his Charge.| But, on the Fourth Day, when Faustinus began to triumph as sure of Victory, Apiarius, struck with sudden Remorse, damped at once all his Joy, by voluntarily owning, to the great Surprize of all present, and the unspeakable Confusion of Faustinus, every Crime with which he had been charged. Those Crimes the Fathers have thought fit to wrap in Oblivion; and indeed it was not proper, that Posterity should know them; since they were heinous, incredible, such as ought not to be mentioned, and drew Sighs and Tears from the whole Assembly^[1601]. And this is the Man whom Two Popes, both now worshiped as Saints in the Church of Rome, absolved as innocent; and, as innocent, would have supported with Force and Violence, had not Providence almost miraculously interposed, to prevent the Evils that would have ensued. They could not but know, that Apiarius was guilty; at least they did not know, that he was innocent. But as he had been declared guilty in Africa, their declaring him innocent, whether he was so or not, gave them an Opportunity of renewing the Attempts of the Apostolic See on the Liberties of the African Churches; and it was, no doubt, with this View that they absolved and restored him. But, as he was not hardened enough in Iniquity for their Purpose, he owned himself guilty, in spite of their Judgment declaring him innocent, and thereby defeated their Schemes for the present. For the Africans, now sensible that there was no Wickedness which the Bishops of Rome would not countenance, in order to establish their Power in Africa, to the utter Subversion of all Ecclesiastical Order and Discipline there, thought themselves bound, as they tendered the Welfare, Peace, and Tranquillity of the Churches committed to their Care, to act with that Vigour and Steadiness, which so urgent an Occasion seemed to require. |The African Bishops renew the Canon forbidding Appeals to Rome.| Accordingly they first absolutely cut off Apiarius from the Communion of the Church; then renewed, in stronger Terms than ever, the Canon, which had given so great Offence at Rome, prohibiting, on Pain of Excommunication, Appeals beyond Sea, under any Pretence whatsoever; and this Prohibition they extended to Ecclesiastics of all Conditions and Ranks. Faustinus blustered, vapoured, threatened; but all in vain. The Bishops not only signed, all to a Man, the above-mentioned Canon, but writ a Synodal Letter to Celestine, acquainting him with what had passed in the Case of Apiarius, and earnestly intreating him not to give Ear for the future to those, who should have recourse to him from Africa, nor receive to his Communion such as they had excluded from theirs: |Their Letter to Celestine.| For we must let your Venerableness (Venerabilitas tua) know, say they, that it has been so established by the Council of Nice. And though Mention is there made of Clerks only, and Laymen; yet there is no room to doubt but it was their Intention, that such a Regulation should extend to Bishops too; and it would be a great Irregularity, should your Holiness (a Title then common to all Bishops) over-hastily and unduly admit to your Communion Bishops, who have been excommunicated in their own Provinces. Your Holiness therefore must not receive the Presbyters, and other Clerks, who, to avoid the Punishment, which they deserve, recur to you; the rather as we know of no Constitutions thus derogatory to the Authority of our Churches; and the Council of Nice has subjected the Bishops themselves to the judgment of their Metropolitan. The Fathers of that Council have decreed, with great Wisdom and Equity, that all Disputes should be finally determined in the Places where they began, being sensible, that the Grace of the Holy Spirit, necessary for judging rightly, would not be wanting in any Province; especially as every Man, who thinks himself injured, may apply for Redress, if he pleases, to the Synod of his own Province, or to a national Council. Would it not be Presumption in any of us to suppose or imagine, that God will inspire a particular Person with the Spirit of Justice, and refuse it to many Bishops assembled in Council? And how can a Judgment, given out of the Country, and beyond Sea, be right, where the necessary Witnesses cannot be present, by reason of their Sex, of their Age, or of some other Impediment? As for your sending Legates, we find no such Ordinance in any Council, nor in the Writings of the Fathers. As for what you have sent us by our Collegue Faustinus, as a Canon of the Council of Nice, we must let you know, that no such Canon is to be found in the genuine and uncorrupt Copies of that Council, which have been transcribed and sent us by our Fellow-Bishop Cyril of Alexandria, and the Reverend Atticus of Constantinople. Those Copies we sent to Boniface, your Predecessor of worthy Memory. We therefore earnestly beg you would send no more Legates, nor Ecclesiastics, to execute your Judgments here, lest you should seem to introduce worldly Pride and Arrogance (typhum sæculi) into the Church of Christ. They conclude with intreating him not to suffer Faustinus to continue any longer among them^[1602]. Celestine, finding the Spirit with which they acted, and sensible that it would be useless to employ Force at this Juncture, thought it advisable to acquiesce for the present, and wait till a more favourable Opportunity should offer for him, or his Successors, to renew the Attempt^[N70].

The following Year 427. Sisinius Bishop of Constantinople being dead, the Bishops in those Parts were for appointing Proculus in his room. But, as Proculus had been ordained before, though never installed Bishop of Cyzicus, they were under some Apprehension, lest his Promotion to the See of Constantinople should be deemed a Breach of the Canons forbidding Translations. But Celestine, whom they consulted on this Occasion, delivered them from that Apprehension, declaring, in a Letter, which he writ at this time to Cyril of Alexandria, John of Antioch, and Rufus of Thessalonica, that they might safely place on one See a Bishop named to another, nay, and a Bishop who actually governed another^[1603]; that is, he declared Translations lawful^[N71].