A26898:320
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 3
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.
§. 2. Because the Case of the Meletians is brought in by this Council, I think it useful (for our warning in these times) to recite the sum of their story out of Epiphanius, p. 717, &c. Haer. 63.
Meletius (saith he) was a Bishop in Th•bais in Egypt, of sincere Faith even to the death. In Diocletian's Persecution, Peter Bishop of Alexandria, and he, were the chief of the Bishops that were laid in Prison, as designed to Martyrdom; while they were there long together with many fellow-prisoners, many called to Trial before them were put to death, and many for fear subscribed to Idolatry, or denied Christ: And when they had done, professed repentance and craved peace of the Church: As it had been in Novatus his Schisms, so it fell out here; Peter Bishop of Alexan. was for peace and pardon; Meletius and most of the other suffering prisoners were against it, and said, If they may thus revolt to save themselves, and be presently pardoned, it will tempt others to revolt: Peter seeing his opinion was rejected, rashly took his Cloak and hanged it like a Curtain over the midst of the prison-room, and said, Those that are for me, come to me on this side, and those that are for Meletius go on that side to him: Whereupon far most of the Bishops, Priests, Monks, and people that were in prison went to Meletius, and but few to Peter. (A •ouler Rupture ⟨p. 46⟩than that of the English Fugitives at Frankford.) This unhappy word and hour began the misery, among good men, expecting death: From that hour they keep all their meetings separate. Shortly after Peter was Martyred, and Meletius was judged to the Mines: As he went thither through the Country, he every where made new Bishops and gathered new Churches, so that there were two in the several Cities: 1Those old ones that followed Peter called their Meeting, The Catholic Church; The other called theirs, The Martyrs Church: But yet they held a Unity of Faith. Even the sufferers that laboured in the Mines divided,