ority should be
craved, and he may also design the time, place, and other circumstances;
but much more,(1047) if he be a Christian and orthodox prince, should his
consent, authority, help, protection, and safeguard be sought and granted.
And that according to the example, both of godly kings in the Old
Testament, and of Christian emperors and kings in the New.(1048) Chiefly,
then, and justly(1049) the magistrate may and ought to urge and require
synods, when they of the ecclesiastical order cease from doing their duty.
_Veruntamen si contra_,(1050) &c. "Nevertheless (say they), if,
contrariwise, the magistrate be an enemy and persecutor of the church and
of true religion, or cease to do his duty; that is, to wit, in a manifest
danger of the church, the church notwithstanding ought not to be wanting
to herself, but ought to use the right and authority of convocation, which
first and foremost remaineth with the rulers of the church, as may be
seen, Acts xv."

But that this be not thought a tenet of anti-episcopal writers alone, let
us hear what is said by one of our greatest opposites:(1051) _Neque
defendimus ita_, &c.: "Neither do we so defend that the right of
convocating councils pertaineth to princes, as that the ecclesiastical
prelates may no way either assemble themselves together by mutual consent,
or be convocated by the authority of the metropolitan, primate, or
patriarch. For the apostles did celebrate councils without any convocation
of princes. So many councils that were celebrate before the first Nicea,
were, without all doubt, gathered together by the means alone of
ecclesiastical persons; for to whom directly the church is fully
committed, they ought to bear the care of the church. Yet princes in some
respect indirectly, for help and aid, chiefly then when the prelates
neglect to convocate councils, or are destitute of power for doing of the
same, of duty may, and use to convocate them." Where we see his judgment
to be, that the power of convocating councils pertaineth directly to
ecclesiastical persons, and to princes only indirectly, for that they
ought to give help and aid to the convocation of the same, especially when
churchmen either will not or cannot assemble themselves together. His
reasons whereupon he groundeth his judgment are two, and those strong
ones.

1. The apostolical councils, Acts vi. 2; iv. 16, and so many as were
assembled before the first council of Nice, were not convocated by
prin