V. 1The consuls of Rome Polybius affirmeth2 to have had a kind of regal authority, in that they might call together the senate and people whensoever it pleased them. Seeing therefore the affairs of the Church and Christian religion are public affairs, for the ordering whereof more solemn assemblies sometimes are of as great importance and use, as they are for secular affairs; it seemeth no less an act of supreme authority to call the one than the other. Wherefore amongst sundry other3 prerogatives of Simon’s dominion over the Jews, this4 is reckoned as5 not the least, “that no man might gather any great assembly in the land without him.” For so the manner of Jewish regiment had always been, that whether the cause for which men assembled themselves in peaceable, good, and orderly course6, were ecclesiastical or civil, supreme authority should assemble them. David gathered all Israel together unto Jerusalem, when the ark was to be removed; he assembled the sons of Aaron and the Levites7. Solomon did the like at such time as the temple was to be dedicated8: when the Church was to be reformed, Asa in his time did the same: the same upon like occasions done afterwards by Joas, Ezekias, Josias, and others9.
10The ancient imperial law11 forbiddeth such assemblies as the emperor’s authority did not cause to be made. Before emperors became Christian12, the Church had never any synod general13; their greatest meetings14 consisted15 of bishops and others the gravest in each province. As for the civil governor’s authority, it suffered them only as things not regarded or accounted16 of, at such times as it did suffer them. So that what right a Christian king hath as touching assemblies of that kind we are not able to judge, till we come unto later times, when religion had won the hearts of the highest powers. Constantine (as Pighius17 doth grant) was not only the first that ever did call any general council together, but even the first that devised the calling of them for consultation about the business18 of God. After he had once given the example, his successors19 a long time followed the same; insomuch that S. Jerome, to disprove the authority of a synod which was pretended to be general, useth20 this as a forcible argument21, “Dic quis imperator hanc synodum jusserit convocari.” Their answer hereunto is no answer, which say, “that 22emperors did not this without conference had with 23bishops:” for to our purpose it is enough, if the clergy alone did it not otherwise than by the leave or24 appointment of their sovereign lords and kings.