Of Peter Crabbe's Tomes of the Councils: Wherein he agrees with, and wherein he differs from Isidore and Merlin.

Besides the Forgeries that are in Merlin and the Bastard Isidore, Peter Crabbe, whose Tomes of the Councils were published eight years after the first Edition of Merlin, published more, of as great importance as the former; not omitting those of Isidore and Merlin, but recording and venting them altogether.

He pretends to give an account of all those councils that have been from S. Peter the Apostle, down to the Times of Pope John 11.

He wrote before Turrian, as Carranza and Surius did, whom it is Turrian's business to defend.

The End being proposed before the Means, with what design these Editions of the Councils are so carefuly multiplied, we may conjecture by a Treatise that is set in the Front of them, concerning the Roman Primacy. Almost all the Compilers, after Peter Crabbe, having prefixed the same with one consent before their Work, as the Aim of their ensuing Labours.

It is extant in Crab, Surius, Nicolinus, Binius, Labbe and Cossartius, and the Collectio Regia. Carranza hath it not nor Paul v.

Paul V. in his own Work, published at Rome, Anno Dom. 1608. touches the Forgeries but very sparingly. It does not become the Majesty of a Pope in his own Name to utter them: It is moreover a thing of hazardous consequence for him to appear in Person in such a disgraceful business: It befits his Holiness to act rather by Emissaries and Inferiour Agents, as all great Statesmen and Polititians do, being unseen themselves in matters that reflect too much upon their safety: that Method (you know) is more stately, as well as more Honourable and secure. Yet he approveth others at a distance, as his dear Son Severinus Binius in particular, who dedicated all his Tomes to Pope Paul v. in the year 1608. and has a particular Letter of Thanks from Pope Paul himself, as a Badge of his Favour before the Work. As for Carranza, he is but an Abstract, or brief Compendium.