sole bishop of this whole region, as is noted by Sozomen,' and Theodoret, and other ancient writers, by whom he is sometimes called the bishop of Tomi, and sometimes the bishop of Scythia, as being the only superintendent of all the churches in that Scythia, which was made a province of the Roman empire.

Sect. 2. Of Europa.

The province of Europa had also large dioceses. For several cities were under one bishop. We find in the Acts of the Council of Ephesus' a petition offered to that council by the bishops of this province, wherein they pray, That an immemorial custom of their country might be continued, whereby the bishop of Heraclea had also Panium in his diocese, the bishop of Bizya had Arcadiopolis, the bishop of Cole had Callipolis, the bishop of Subsadia had Aphrodisias to which petition the council agreed, and ordered, that no innovation should be made in the matter. Nor was there any alteration in the time of the council of Chalcedon: for there we find one Lucian styled bishop of Bizya and Arcadiopolis still. But in the council of Constantinople under Mennas we meet with some alterations; for there Panium had a distinct bishop from Heraclea, and Callipolis from Cole. And in the notitia of Leo Sapiens in Leunclavius, Bizya and Arcadiapolis are not only distinct bishoprics, but both of them advanced to the honour of autocephali, or titular metropolitans in the church. In this province stood also Byzantium, once subject to Heraclea, the metropolis, till it was rebuilt, and advanced to be the royal city by Constantine, after which it grew so great and populous, as to equal old Rome. Sozomen says, Constantine adorned it with many noble oratories; and it appears from one of Justinian's Novels, that in his time four of these churches had no less than five hundred clergy of all sorts belonging to them. The Novatians themselves, as Socrates observes, had three churches within the city and in the suburbs, or region belonging to the city, the catholics had many parishes and churches at a considerable distance, as Hebdomum, Sycæ, Marianæ, Hieron, Elæa, Therapea, and Hestiæ, otherwise called Michaelium, which Sozomen says was thirty-five furlongs from the city by water, and seventy by land. I think it needless to be more particular in the description of this diocese, since these are sufficient indications of the largeness of it. I shall only add concerning this province of Europa, that though Carolus a Sancto Paulo reckons thirteen dioceses in it, Heraclea, Panium, Cælos, Callipolis, Cyla, Aphrodisias, Theodosiopolis, Chersonesus, Drusipara, Lysimachia,

1 Sozom. lib. 6. c. 21. lib. 7. c. 19.

2 Theodor. lib. 4. c. 35. 3 Concil. Ephes. par. 2. Act. 7. Concil. Chalced. Act. 16. t. 4. p. 800.

5 Concil, sub Men. Act, 3 et 4.

Sect. 6. Of Masia Secunda.

In Masia Inferior, or Secunda, the last of the six Thracian provinces, which is now much the same with Bulgaria, Carolus a Sancto Paulo reckons nine dioceses, Marcianopolis, Nicopolis, Nova, Abritum, Durostorum, Dionysiopolis, Odessus, Apiaria, Comæa; to which Holstenius adds another, called Trista, or Prista, by Socrates, and Nicephorus Calistus σavránpisa. But whether increased or diminished, we know not, for there is no account of them in the notitias of later ages. I make no further remark upon these dioceses, save that they were generally large ones, as any one that will cast his eye upon a map, or examine particular distances of cities, will easily be convinced. And we may make the same general observation upon most of the dioceses of the European provinces in Macedonia, Dacia, and Illyricum, till we come as far as Italy. For which reason, it will be sufficient to give the reader only a catalogue of the names of dioceses in every province of those regions, according to the order and distribution of them in the church, following the model of the civil government, which divided these countries into three great dioceses, and seventeen or eighteen provinces, under

Sect. 7.

civil diocese of Ma

dioceses in Macedonia Prima and Secunda.

The first of these are the provinces Provinces in the of Greece, which by the Romans are cedonia Episcopal all comprehended under one common name, of the civil dioceses of Macedonia, which with the diocese of Dacia was anciently the district of the præfectus-prætorio Illirici Orientalis. In the diocese of Macedonia were anciently six provinces, or according to Hierocles's account, seven: Macedonia Prima and Secunda, Epirus Vetus and Epirus Nova, Thessalia, Achaia, and the isle of Crete. Carolus a Sancto Paulo confounds the two Macedonias together, and reckons seventeen dioceses in both. 1. Thessalonica, the metropolis of the first Macedonia. 2. Philippi, the metropolis of the second. 3. Stobi, the old metropolis of the second province. 4. Berrhoea. 5. Dium. 6. Particopolis. 7. Doberus. 8. Cassandria. 9. Neapolis. 10. Heraclea Pelagoniæ. Il. Torone. 12. Lete. 13. Topiris. 14. Serre. 15. Heraclea Strymonis. 16. Isle of Thassus. 17. Hephæstia in the isle of Lemnos. To which Holstenius" adds Primula and Zapara, but rejects Topiris, as belonging to Rhodope, a province in the Thracian diocese, and observes of Serre, that it was but another name for Philippi.

Sect. 8.

The next province upon the Ægean

Of Thessalia. Sea is Thessalia, where Carolus a Sancto Paulo finds but eight dioceses: Larissa the metropolis, Demetrias, Echinus, Cypera, Metropolis, Lamia, Triccæ, and Theba Pthioticæ. But Holstenius" adds three more, Dicæsarea, Gomphi, and Scarphia, the last of which Carolus a Sancto Paulo confounds with Echinus. The notitia in Leunclavius calls this province Hellas Secunda, and names eleven dioceses in it, four of which retain their old names, by which it is reasonable to conjecture, that Hellas Secunda and Thessalia were but two names for the same province; and the number of dioceses agreeing exactly in both accounts, we may conclude there never were above eleven dioceses in all this province.

Sect. 9.

Of Achaia, Pelo

baa.

The next province to Thessaly is ponnesus, and Ea. Achaia, which was a very large province, including not only what the ancients called Attica and Achaia, but also all Peloponnesus, and the isle of Euboea. Here Carolus a Sancto Paulo finds twenty-six dioceses, four of which were in the isle of Euboea. 1. Chalcis, now called Negroponte. 2. Oreum. 3. Porthmus. 4. Caristus. Nine in Peloponnesus. 1. Corinthus, the metropolis of the whole province. 2. Argos. 3. Tegea. 4. Megalopolis. 5. Lacedæmon. 6. Messena. 7. Corone. 8. Petræ. 9. Helice. Thirteen in the other part of Achaia. 1. Athenæ. 2.

Sect. 10.

and Epirus Nova.

6. Elatea. 7. Opus. 8. Strategis. 9. Theba. 10. Platea. 11. Tanagra. 12. Marathon. 13. Carsia, al. Corissia. Holstenius adds another Corone, or Coronia, in Boeotia, beside the Corone that was in Peloponnesus. The notitia of Leo Sapiens, in Leunclavius and the seventh chapter of this Book, makes three provinces of this, calling them Hellas Prima, and Peloponnesus Prima and Secunda, and the number of dioceses is pretty near the same, by which we may guess no great alteration was made in them for several ages. The largeness of these dioceses may easily be concluded from the greatness of many of the cities and their large territories, which the reader may find already demonstrated by Dr. Maurice, in his discourse of Diocesan Episcopacy, p. 380, concerning Thebes, Athens, Lacedæmon, Megalopolis, and other cities of this province in particular. The next region is Epirus, separated from Achaia by the river Achelous. of Epirus Vetus This was anciently one kingdom, but the Romans divided it into two provinces, Epirus Vetus and Epirus Nova. In the former Carolus a Sancto Paulo reckons ten dioceses. 1. Nicopolis, the metropolis. 2. Anchiasmus. 3. Phoenicia. 4. Dodone. 5. Adrianopolis. 6. Buthrotum. 7. Euria. 8. Photica. 9. Isle of Cephalenia. 10. Isle of Corcyra. In the new Epirus, only eight. 1. Dyrrachium, or Doracium, the metropolis. 2. Scampes. 3. Apollonia. 4. Aulon. 5. Amantia. 6. Lychnidus. 7. Bullidum, or Bulis. 8. Prina, or Prisna. To which Holstenius adds Listra, or Helistra, but with some doubting, whether it do not rather belong to Lycaonia. These were very large dioceses, above forty or fifty miles long; notwithstanding which, two of them were sometimes united together: for in the Acts of the Council of Ephesus, as Holstenius has observed, one Felix is called " bishop of Bulis and Apollonia together. In the Greek notitia of Leo Sapiens, old Epirus goes by the name of Ætolia, and has the same number of ten dioceses only, though not the same names. The other Epirus has sixteen, but then the province of Prævalitana is joined to it, and most of its dioceses taken in to make up the number. Whence I conclude, that the dioceses in these provinces have been of great extent in all ages; the isle of Corcyra itself being reckoned by some geographers forty-five miles long, and by Pliny" no less than ninety

tium. 11. Cantanum. The notitia of Leo Sapiens in Leunclavius makes them twelve, but Hierapetra is there by mistake of some transcriber divided into two, which being corrected reduces them to the same number. Whence I conclude, this was pretty near the standing number for several ages. Now, Crete is reckoned by Ferrarius and others out of Pliny and Strabo, two hundred and seventy or three hundred miles long, and fifty broad. Which makes these twelve dioceses equal to the rest of the Macedonian provinces, all which appear visibly to be dioceses of great extent, without descending any further to give a more particular account of them.

Sect 12.

vinces in the dio

Prævalitana.

The other civil diocese of Illyricum

Of the five pro- Orientale went by the common name cese of Dacia. of of Dacia, consisting of five provinces, Prævalitana, Masia Superior, Dacia Mediterranea, Dacia Ripensis, and Dardania. Prævalitana lies on the north of Epirus to the Adriatic Sea, being part of that country which is now called Albania. Carolus a Sancto Paulo names but two dioceses in it, Scodra, the old metropolis of the province, and Achrida, which was anciently called Prævalis, but afterwards Justinian honoured it with his own name, Justiniana Prima, and advanced it to patriarchal dignity, assigning it all the five provinces of the Dacian diocese, and the two Pannonias in the diocese of Illyricum Occidentale, for the limits of its jurisdiction. Besides these two bishoprics, Holstenius has found out two more in this province, Rhizinium and Lissus, now called Alessio, on the Adriatic Sea; Carolus a Sancto Paulo also by mistake places Scodra in the province of Dalmatia, making Justiniana Prima a metropolitan see, without any suffragans under it.

Sect. 13.

On the north of Prævalitana to the Of Masia Superior. Danube lay Moesia Superior, between Pannonia on the west and Dacia on the east. Carolus a Sancto Paulo confounds the episcopal dioceses of this province and the Dacias together, making Sardica the metropolis of them all, and calling them from that by the common name of Provincia Sardicensis; and, beside Sardica, he finds but three more dioceses in the three provinces, Remessiana, Aquæ, and Castrum Martis. But Holstenius is a little more accurate, and treats distinctly of them. He assigns to Masia Superior, Castrum Martis, and another called Margus, seated on the confluence of the river Margus and the Danube. To Dacia Mediterranea he assigns ranea, and Dacia Sardica, the metropolis, and Romatiana and Naissus, which he and Pagi make to be the birth-place of Constantine the Great. In the other Dacia, called Ripensis, from its running along the banks of the Danube between Moesia

Sect. 14. Of Dacia Mediter

Ripensis,

15 Justin. Novel. 131. c. 3.

Prima and Secunda, he places Aquæ, which is mentioned in the council of Sardica, in St. Hilary's Fragments, and Iscus, or Iscopolis, another city, whose bishop subscribed out of the same province in the foresaid council. In his Annotations also upon Ortelius," he observes two other episcopal cities in this province, one called Martis by Hierocles, or Stramartis by Procopius, and another called Budine, now Bodine, in Bulgaria, upon the Danube: but perhaps these are both modern sees, for he cites no other authority but that of the notitias for them, and Stramartis seems to be a corruption of Castra Martis.

Mount Scardus, and from Thracia by part of Mount Hœmus. It is now part of Servia, and was anciently a part of Mosia, as Dacia also was, till the Daci, passing over the Danube, got themselves planted in the middle of Mosia, which, from that time, was called Dacia Nova, as the other beyond the Danube was called Dacia Antiqua, and Gothia. In this province of Dardania, Carolus a Sancto Paulo finds four dioceses. 1. Scupi, the metropolis. 2 Ulpianum, otherwise called Justiniana Secunda. 3. Diocletiana, which, at the time of the council of Sardica, was reckoned a city of Macedonia. 4. Nessyna, or Nessus. Holstenius adds another, called Pautalia, which Hierocles, in his notitia, reckons among the cities of Dacia Mediterranea, and Stephanus and Ptolemy among the cities of Thracia, as lying in the confines of those provinces. Besides these five provinces of the Dacian diocese, on the south side of the Danube, there was another on the north side out of the bounds of the Roman empire, called Dacia Antiqua, and Gothia, from the time that the Goths seated themselves in it. Epiphanius speaks of one Silvanus, bishop of Gothia beyond Scythia, taking Scythia for the Roman Scythia on this side the Danube, whereof Tomi was the metropolis. Whence Holstenius rightly concludes, that Gothia was that region which is now called Transylvania, or Wallachia. But what episcopal sees they had, or whether they had in all this region any more than one bishop, as the Scythians, and Saracens, and some other such barbarous nations, is uncertain. Carolus a Sancto Paulo thinks Zarmizegethusa was the seat of their bishop, because Ptolemy makes it the royal seat and metropolis of the kingdom. And this he supposes to be the same with Gothia, mentioned in the notitia of Leo Sapiens, among the autocephali, or such bishops as had no suffragans under them. But these being matters involved in obscurity, I leave them to further inquiry.

16 Holsten. Annot, in Ortel. p. 116.

of Italy. In this diocese were six provinces, Dalmatia, Savia, Pannonia Superior, Pannonia Inferior, Noricum Mediterraneum, and Noricum Ripense. In Dalmatia Carolus a Sancto Paulo reckons four episcopal dioceses. 1. Salona, the metropolis. 2. Jadera, now called Zara. 3. Epidaurus, now Ragusa. 4. Scodra, or Scutari. But Scodra is wrong placed in Dalmatia, for, as has been noted before, it was rather the metropolis of Prævalitana. But Holstenius adds two more in the room of it, Doclea and Senia, now called Segna, a city upon the Liburnian shore.

Sect. 17. Of Savia.

The next province to this was Savia, which seems to be so named from the river Savus running through the middle of it. It is sometimes called Pannonia Sava, being part of Pannonia on the Savia, and sometimes Pannonia Sirmiensis and Cibaliensis, from the cities Sirmium and Cibalis, which lay in this part of it. But here we consider it as a distinct province from Pannonia, from which it was separated by the river Dravus, and is what we now call Slavonia, and part of Bosnia and Servia. In this province were six episcopal dioceses. 1. Sirmium, the metropolis, near the confluence of the Savus and the Danube. 2. Singidunum. 3. Mursa, now called Essek. 4. Cibalis. 5. Noviodunum. 6. Siscia.

Sect. 18.

Between the river Dravus and the

of Pannonia Supe- Danube lay the two Pannonias, Su

rior and Inferior. perior and Inferior, which are now the southern part of Hungary. In the former of these Carolus a Sancto Paulo out of Lazius speaks of four dioceses: Vindobona or Vienna, Sabaria, Scarabantia, and Celia. To which Holstenius adds Petavia, now called Petow, which the other confounds with Patavia, or Batavia Castra, in Noricum, now called Passaw in Bavaria. Victorinus Martyr was bishop of this city, though Baronius and many others commonly style him Pictaviensem, as if he had been bishop of Poictiers in France; whereas he was bishop of this city in Pannonia Prima, called Petavia, or Petow, as is observed by Spondanus, and Pagi, and Du Pin, in their critical remarks upon the Life of that ancient writer. In the lower Pannonia there were but three dioceses, Curta, Carpis, and Stridonium, the birth-place of St. Jerom.

Sect. 19.

diterraneum and Ripense.

More westward from Pannonia was

of Noricum Me the province of Noricum, confined on the north with the Danube, and on the south and west with Venetia and Rhætia, two Italic provinces. This the Romans divided into two, Noricum Mediterraneum and Ripense, in both

which Lazius mentions but four dioceses, Laureacum, now called Lork, Juvavia or Saltsburg, Ovilabis, and Solva. Carolus a Sancto Paulo by mistake adds a fifth, Petavio, Petow; but that, as was said before, belongs to another province. And the rest were not erected till the sixth century, when that part of Germany was first converted, which is now Carniola and Carinthia, with part of Bavaria, Stiria, Tirol, and Austria. By which it is easy to judge of what vast extent those dioceses anciently were, as they are now at this day; two of them, as I observed, being as large as ten or twenty in some other parts of the world, particularly in Palestine and Asia Minor, which have been already considered; and the observation will be more fully verified by taking a particular view of Italy, whose episcopal dioceses come now in order in the next place to

be considered.

CHAPTER V.

A PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF THE DIOCESES OF ITALY.

Sect. 1. Of the extent of the diocese of the

ITALY, in the sense we are now to speak of it, as it was taken for the whole jurisdiction of the præfectus bishop of Rome. urbis et vicarius Italiæ under the Roman emperors, was of somewhat larger extent than now it is: for not only the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica were taken into the account, but also Rhætia Secunda, which is that part of Germany that lies from the Alps to the Danube. In this extent it was divided into two large civil dioceses, containing seventeen provinces of the Roman empire, as has been showed before;' and in these provinces there were about three hundred episcopal dioceses, the names of which are still remaining, but the places themselves many of them demolished or sunk into villages, and other new bishoprics set up in their room. I shall not concern myself with the number or extent of the modern dioceses, but only those that were ancient, and erected within the first six hundred years; of which I am to make the same observation in general, as I have done upon those of Palestine and Asia Minor, that here were some of the largest and some of the smallest dioceses, for extent of ground, of any in the world, and yet the same species of episcopacy retained in all without any variety or distinction. The dioceses of the suburbicary provinces that lay next to Rome were generally small, in comparison of those that lay further to the north and west in the Italic provinces. For about Rome the country was extremely popu

See chap. 1. sect. 5. of this Book,