A26898:294
Church-history of the government of bishops and their councils abbreviated including the chief part…
Church-history of the government of bishops and their councils abbreviated including the chief part of the government of Christian princes and popes, and a true account of the most troubling controversies and heresies till the Reformation ... / by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed by B. Griffin for Thomas Simmons, 1680
Church-History OF BISHOPS And their COUNCILS ABRIDGED, &c. › Chapter 2
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
§. 41. XX. Anno 308. Another Council was held at Carthage, where no less than 270 Donatist Bishops, for moderation, agreed to Communicate with penitent Traditors, without rebaptizing them, and so did for 40 years.
§. 42. XXI. Anno 313. The Schism continuing, the Donatists cleaving to Majorinus, appealed against Caecilianus to Constantine (now Emperor.) He first appointeth three French Bishops to judge the Cause, but after 19 Bishops (called a Roman Council) met at Rome to hear both Parties: where Melchiades and the rest acquitted Caecilianus, and condemned Donatus à Casis nigris (a promoter of the Donatists Cause) as guilty of Schism. But the Donatists accusing Melchiades also as a Traditor, the Schism was never the more ended: A motion was made that both the Bishops should remove (Caecilianus and Majorinus) to end the Schism; But the Donatist Bishops were so very many in number, that they thought they were to be called the Church, and the Caecilianists the Schismatics, and therefore would not so agree. Thus Bishops about Bishoprics set all the Country on a flame.
§. 42. XXI. Anno 313. The Schism continuing, the Donatists cleaving to Majorinus, appealed against Caecilianus to Constantine (now Emperour.) He first appointeth three French Bishops to judge the Cause, but after 19 Bishops (called a Roman Council) met at Rome to hear both Parties: where Melchiades and the rest acquitted Caecilianus, and condemned Donatus à Casis nigris (a promoter of the Donatists Cause) as guilty of Schism. But the Donatists accusing Melchiades also as a Traditor, the Schism was never the more ended: A motion was made that both the Bishops should remove (Caecilianus and Majorinus) to end the Schisme; But the Donatist Bishops were so very many in number, that they thought they were to be called the Church, and the Caecilianists the Schismaticks, and therefore would not so agree. Thus Bishops about Bishopricks set all the Country on a flame.