A Brief and Pithy Sum of the Christian Faith

^aNamely, did not he witness that it is by the commandment of the Emperor, that he was Bishop? Much less then did the Pope make the Emperors. In the time of Constantine, in the cause of² a Bishop of Carthage named Caecilian, was not the Bishop of Rome with other Bishops Delegates, as Judges appointed by the Emperor? And afterward, because there was an appeal from his judgement, the Bishop of Arle was he not sent as Delegate by the Emperor, for to know the cause of the appeal? When ^aLeo the first would extol his preeminence, by his Ambassadors ⟨p. 166⟩in the council of Calcedon, although that which he pretended was a small thing, in respect of that which is done since: was it not put back and denied quickly by the Council? Was it not expressly forbidden in the counsel Milevitane (where as Saint Augustine⁴ was) that from Africa they should not appeal over the Sea? And when three Popes one after another, to wit, Zozinius, Boniface, and Celestine, alleged in the sixth council of Carthage, a false Canon of the council of Nicene, for to usurp jurisdiction over Africa^c, this falsehood was it not discovered and condemned by express letters? In the which it is also declared to Celestine, that he hath not to do to send, neither Legates, nor other of his part into Africa, for as much as it was not so ordained in the Church, nor in no wise to be received. Now these testimonies being most true and certain, by what title doth he call himself, successor of Saint Peter, and head of the Church, under the shadow of ordinances, which they ⟨image 180⟩alleged notoriously false, and attributed unjustly to thrice whom they list. As hath heretofore been said, and partly also made by them selves, after their own appetite, against God and all the ancient decrees, of whom they would seem to be the defenders. Or shall it be for that about the year. 607. Boniface the fourth, did bye first of this horrible monster Phocas, (murderer of Maurice the Emperor his Master) the title of universal head or Bishop, which Gregory his predecessor so earnestly did refuse, saying that it was the very manifest title of Antichrist? Or shall it be because that Zechariah and Steven the second (for the reward of their cruelties,