Church-history of the government of bishops and their councils abbreviated including the chief part…

§. 67. CXLIV. One of these honest Councils is Agathense by the permission of Alaricus, by 35 Bishops, Casarius Arelatensis being chief: Where many Canons for the Clergy were made or repeated.

The 3d Canon is, that if Bishops wrongfully excommunicate any one, other Bishops shall receive them. ¹(Did the Popes observe this with Acacius, Euphemius, &c.) Can. 63. If any Citizens on the great solemnities, that it, Easter, the Lords Nativity, or Whitsuntide, shall neglect to meet where the Bishops are, (seeing they are set in Cities for Benediction and Communion,) let them be three years deprived of the Communion of the Church. ²(Doth not this prove that the City Churches then met all in one place, and so were but one Assembly at those times? How else could all the Citizens be with the Bishop at one time?) But even these Canons forbid Clergy-men to sue any before a Secular Judge, or to appear or answer at another's suit, Can. 32. Otherwise both are to be excommunicate, Can. 37. It punisheth those that kill men, but with denying them Communion. Can. 50. Only if a Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon, commit a Capital crime, he shall be deposed and put into a Monastery, and have but Lay-communion. (When Murderers are hanged, and Traitors also quartered, this Canon is laid aside.) I thought a Monastery had been a desirable place, and not bad enough to serve Traitors and Murderers instead of the Gallows.

The 3d Canon is, that if Bishops wrongfully excommunicate any one, other Bishops shall receive them. ¹(Did the Popes observe this with Acacius, Euphemius, &c.) Can. 63. If any Citizens on the great solemnities, that it, Easter, the Lords Nativity, or Whitsuntide, shall neglect to meet where the Bishops are, (seeing they are set in Cities for Benediction and Communion,) let them be three years deprived of the Communion of the Church. ²