PART I.

auctoritate. Scimus enim bono et utili consilio a Patribus Ecclesiasticam disciplinam hoc modo, ut veteres canones describunt, constitutam esse. Sed Episcopi sacerdotes nostros aut cogunt hoc doctrinæ genus, quod confessi sumus, abjicere et damnare, aut novâ et inauditâ crudelitate miseros et innocentes occidunt. Hæ causæ impediunt, quo minus agnoscant hos Episcopos nostri sacerdotes. Ita sævitia Episcoporum in causâ est, quare alicubi dissolvitur illa canonica politia, quam nos magnoperè cupiebamus conservare. Ipsi viderint, quomodo rationem Deo reddituri sint, quod dissipant Ecclesiam.

66

Porro hic iterum volumus testatum, nos libenter conservaturos esse Ecclesiasticam et Canonicam politiam, si modo Episcopi desinant in nostras Ecclesias sævire. Hæc nostra voluntas et coram Deo, et apud omnes gentes, ad omnem posteritatem excusabit nos, ne nobis imputari possit quod Episcoporum auctoritas labefactatur, ubi legerint atque audierint homines, nos injustam sævitiam Episcoporum deprecantes, nihil æqui impetrare potuisse."

The above is the LUTHERAN statement; for the ARMINIAN, the language of GROTIUS (above, pp. 84. 88, and below, pt. ii. ch. v.) may be referred to; and the following are the words of CALVIN and BEZA:

CALVINUS, Epist. ad Cardinal. Sadolet. Disciplinam, qualem habuit vetus Ecclesia, nobis deesse non diffitemur -sed cujus erit æquitatis nos eversæ disciplinæ ab iis accusari qui eam penitus sustulerunt ? Episcopatus a Deo profectus est; Episcopi munus Dei authoritate constitutum est et legibus definitum. CALVINUS, de Necessit. Reform. Eccles. Talem nobis hierarchiam si exhibeant in quâ sic emineant Episcopi ut Christo subesse non recusent, ut ab Illo tanquam ab unico Capite pendeant et ad Ipsum referantur; tum vero nullo non anathemate dignos fatear, si qui erunt, qui non eam revereantur, summâque obedientiâ observent. See also STRYPE'S Parker, A.D. 1560, i. pp. 139, 140.

BEZA ad Sarav. Tract. de Ministrorum Gradibus. Si qui sunt qui omnem Episcoporum ordinem rejiciant, absit ut quisquam sanæ mentis furoribus illorum assentiatur!

On this subject, see the avowals of the Reformers quoted by Bishop WORDSWORTH, of St. Andrew's, in his Discourse on the Scottish Reformation, p. viii. p. 29.

2 See the desires to this effect expressed by Abp. Laud, Bps. ANDREWES and SANDERSON, Christian Institutes, iii. pp. 261. 216-219.

3 The exhortation of GROTIUS to the Reformed Churches of his own times may be reiterated now.-Epist. p. 975. Suaderem eis ut constituerent inter se quosdam in eminentiore gradu ut Episcopos, et ut is xeipobeσíav sume

rent ab Archiepiscopo Hiberno, qui ibi est, et ita ordinati CHAP. XI ordinarent, deinde pastores cæteros, atque sic initium facerent redeundi ad mores et antiquos et salutares; quibus contemptis licentia invaluit pro novis opinionibus faciendi novas Ecclesias, quæ quid post aliquot annos credituræ sint, nescimus. How fully have the melancholy forebodings of these last words been realized in Germany, Switzerland, Holland, and elsewhere!

CHAPTER XII.

OF BISHOPS AS DIOCESANS, METROPOLITANS,
AND PATRIARCHS.

. You have spoken of Bishops in general, and of their institution and offices; is not the performance of their duty, individually, and the exercise and application of their powers, restrained habitually in Christian States by laws ecclesiastical and civil, within certain limits?

A. Yes.

Q. And do not Bishops bear certain titles according to the limits within which their functions are exercised?

A. They do.

. Can you give any instances of such restrictions from Holy Scripture ?

Gal. ii. 7-9.

A. Yes. Our Lord Himself says, He was not Matt. xv. "sent but to the lost sheep of the House of 24. Israel." St. Peter was specially the Apostle of Rom. xi. 13 the circumcision, and St. Paul of the Gentiles. Acts xii. 17 St. James had special jurisdiction at Jerusalem; xv. 13. xxi. St. Timothy at Ephesus; St. Titus in Crete; 19. ii. 12. and the seven Asiatic Churches had each their 1 Tim. i. 3. Tit. i. 5. own Bishop respectively 1.

1 Archbp. USHER, Original of Bishops and Metropolitans, Oxford, 1641. Archbp. De MARCA de Concordiâ, vi. 1. WORDSWORTH on the Apocalypse, pp. 83-103.

. Does this principle of distribution and re

18. Gal. i.

Rev. i. 20.

PART I. striction appear to have been generally received in the Church in ancient times?

A. Yes: and there were certain circumstances of a providential nature which rendered the uniform reception of it very easy and natural.

Q. What were these?

A. The civil divisions of the Roman Empire', that is to say, of the greater part of the civilized world, in the early ages of Christianity, were admirably adapted to, and prepared for, the application of this distributive system and economy of Church government, throughout the whole extent of the Roman sway.

1 HOOKER, VII. VIII. 7. BARROW on the Pope's Supremacy, p. 163. BINGHAM, Antiquities, II. xvi. xvii. ix. i. 7. Hence the expression of S. OPTATUS, iii. 3. Non Respublica in Ecclesiâ, sed Ecclesia in Republicâ, i. e. in Imperio Romano. PANCIROLI, Notitia Dignitatum utriusque Imperii, in Grævii Thesaur. Antiq. vii. p. 1308. Bp. BEVERIDGE, Codex Canonum, v. 13, de Metropolitanis, in Patres Apostolici, ed. Cotelerii, 11. 2, p. 87. JOHNSON'S Code of the Universal Church (in vol. 11. of Clergyman's Vade Mecum, 1709).- CANONES Apostol. et Concil. Sæculorum IV. V. VI. VII. Bruns. Berolin. 1839.

Q. You mean, that the system of civil government invited the application of a similar system of ecclesiastical polity?

1

A. Yes: and this aptitude was recognized by General Councils of the Church, and made by them the groundwork of their own legislation; so that, when the Empire became Christian, (i. e. early in the fourth century,) the lines of the ecclesiastical map coincided very nearly with those of the civil chart of the whole empire.

1 Concil. Antioch. A.D. 341, can. 9, p. 80, ed. Bruns. τοὺς καθ ̓ ἑκάστην ἐπαρχίαν ἐπισκόπους εἰδέναι χρὴ τὸν ἐν τῇ μητροπόλει προεστῶτα ἐπίσκοπον, καὶ τὴν φροντίδα ἀναδέχεσθαι πάσης τῆς ἐπαρχίας διὰ τὸ ἐν τῇ μητροπόλει πανταχόθεν συντρέχειν πάντας τοὺς τὰ πράγματα ἔχοντας —ἕκαστον ἐπίσκοπον ἐξουσίαν ἔχειν τῆς ἑαυτοῦ παροικίας —περαιτέρω δὲ μηδὲν πράττειν ἐπιχειρεῖν δίχα τοῦ τῆς

μητροπόλεως ἐπισκόπου.

See also Archbp. De MARCA CHAP. XII. de Concordiâ, vi. cap. 1. BARROW on the Pope's Supremacy, p. 165. DUPIN de Ant. Eccles. Discipl. 1, § 8.

Q. As, then, at that time, the Eastern Empire consisted, politically, of seven districts called Dioceses (dokýσeis), and seven also composed the Western, there were, I suppose, seven ecclesiastical districts coinciding with them in the East, and seven in the West also?

A. Yes; and these ecclesiastical districts were also termed Dioceses.

Q. And as in these fourteen dioceses there were altogether about one hundred and eighteen minor territorial divisions called Provinces (πapxía), so there were as many sub-divisions in the Church?

A. Yes; and these ecclesiastical sub-divisions were also termed Provinces.

Q. And as in each province there were several cities, with their respective precincts (πapoiкía) attached to them, so there were several chief Churches, each having its own territorial range allotted to it?

A. There were; and these too were called Taроikiaι, Paraecia, which word in English has now descended to describe a Parish, from signifying what we now term a Diocese; as Stoiknσis has also descended to designate a Diocese, from signifying, as it once did, a combination of several Dioceses.

Bp. BILSON, Appendix to Perpetual Government of Christ's Church, p. 540. Пapoikia Paræcia non civitatem solùm in quâ Episcopus sedem habuerit, sed totam regionem finitimam civitati assignatam sive subjectam significat. CABASSUTIUS, Concil. cap. xxviii. and cap. xxvii. p. 114. Iste Canon (Antioch. 9) tres commemorat Ecclesiastica Præfecturæ gradus, scilicet

1. èrapxíav, Provinciam, sub Metropolitano Præsule; 2. Taрoikiav, Paræciam, sub comprovinciali sive suffraganeo Episcopo;

H

PART I.

3. xúpav, locum, seu minorem locum, unde xwperíoKonoi dicti, locorum particularium intra Parociam præfecti ;

Sed omnes gradus illos antecellebat Diocesis, habens plures Provincias, qualis erat singulorum Patriarcharum ditio.

Nunc vero Diocesis usurpari pro Parœciâ solet, ipsa verò Paracia pro intimâ Præfecturâ pagorum, quorum præfectus vulgo Parochus audit, meliùs tamen juxta Græcorum Canonum expressionem Paracus diceretur. On the word Taρоikia see also Vales. ad Euseb. i. 1.

. And now, to ascend in an inverted order, what, first, were the rulers of these chief Churches called?

A. Bishops.

Q. Could there be more than one Bishop in a city ?

A. No'; there could not; this was specially prohibited by the laws of the Church, and censured by them as schismatical; and a second Bishop in a city is regarded by them as no Bishop'.

1 Concil. Nicæn. c. 8. ἵνα μὴ ἐν τῇ πόλει δύο ἐπίσκοποι Bol. S. HIERON. ad Ep. Philipp. i. Non in una urbe plures Episcopi esse potuissent. S. CORNEL. ap. Euseb. vi. 43. εἷς ἐπίσκοπος ἐν καθολικῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ. There were, however, Bishops of various nations, speaking different languages, in the same city. See Le Moyne, Varia Sacra, vol. ii. * 28. 2.

2 S. CYPRIAN ad Antonian. ep. 52. Quisquis post unum (Episcopum) factus est, non jam secundus ille, sed nullus

est.

S. CYPRIAN ad Step. ep. 67. Foris esse cœpit, qui, Episcopo Cornelio ordinato, profanum altare erigere, adul teram cathedram collocare, et sacrilega sacrificia offerre tentaverit. See also S. CHRYSOST. Theodoret. et Ecumen. in Epist. ad Phil. i., and BINGHAM, II. xiii. 1. XVII. v. 3.

Q. What were the Episcopal Rulers of the Provinces styled?

A. Metropolitans, (Ecclesiastical Governors of the mother city, unrрóroλus,) and sometimes. Archbishops, though this latter title was more generally applied to a still more dignified ecclesiastical office; and all were called Apostolici.