Sect. 8.

of ordination of

bishops.

:

As to the manner and form of orThe ancient form daining a bishop, it is thus briefly described by one of the councils of Carthage when a bishop is ordained, two bishops shall hold the book of the Gospels over his head, and whilst one pronounces the blessing or consecration prayer, all the rest of the bishops that are present shall lay their hands upon his head. The ceremony of laying the Gospels upon his head, seems to have been in use in all churches. For the author of the Apostolical Constitutions" (a Greek writer, who is supposed to relate the customs of the third century) makes mention of it, only with this difference, that instead of two bishops, there two deacons are appointed to hold the Gospels open over his head, whilst the senior bishop, or primate, with two other bishops assisting him, pronounces the prayer of consecration. This ceremony of holding the Gospels over his head, is also mentioned by St. Chrysostom," and the author of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, under the name of Dionysius, who says it was a peculiar ceremony, used only in the ordination of a bishop.

words:" 16 Grant to him, O Lord Almighty, by thy Christ, the communication of the Holy Spirit; that he may have power to remit sins according to thy commandment, and to confer orders according to thy appointment, and to loose every bond according to the power which thou gavest to the apostles; that he may please thee in meekness and a pure heart, constantly, blameless, and without rebuke; and may offer unto thee that pure unbloody sacrifice, which thou, by Christ, hast appointed to be the mystery or sacrament of the new covenant, for a sweet-smelling savour, through Jesus Christ thy holy Son, our God and Saviour, by whom be glory, honour, and worship to thee, in the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen." It is not to be imagined that one and the same form was used in all churches: for every bishop having liberty to frame his own liturgy, as there were different liturgies in different churches, so it is most reasonable to suppose the primates or metropolitans had different forms of consecration, though there are now no remains of them in being, to give us any further information.

50

re enthronistica.

all saluted him with a holy kiss in the Lord. Then the Scriptures being read, (according to custom, as part of the daily service,) the new bishop made a discourse or exposition upon them, which was usually called sermo enthronisticus, from the time and circumstances in which it was spoken. Such was that famous homily of Meletius, bishop of Antioch, mentioned by Epiphanius" and Sozomen, for which he was immediately sent into banishment by Constantius. Socrates frequently takes notice of such homilies made by bishops" at their instalment; and Liberatus," speaking of Severus of Antioch, mentions his exposition made upon that occasion, calling it, expositio in enthronismo. It was usual also for bishops, immediately after their instalment, to send letters to foreign bishops to give them an account of their faith and orthodoxy, that they might receive letters of peace and communion again from them; which letters were therefore called litera enthronistice, or ovλaßai iv povisuai, as Evagrius terms them, speaking of the circular letters which Severus, bishop of Antioch, wrote to the rest of the patriarchs upon that occasion. These were otherwise called communicatory letters, Koivwvirà ovyypáμμara, as the council of Antioch, that deposed Paulus Samosatensis, terms them for the fathers in that council having ordained Domnus in the room of Paul, gave notice thereof to all churches, telling them that they signified it to them for this reason, that they might write to Domnus, and receive кowvwvikà ovyypáμμara,31 communicatory letters from him: which, as Valesius rightly notes, do not mean there those letters of communion which bishops were used to grant to persons travelling into foreign countries; but such letters as they wrote to each other upon their own ordination, to testify their communion mutually with one another. These letters are also called synodicæ by Liberatus, who says, this custom of every new bishop's giving intimation of his own promotion to those of his own order, was so necessary, that the omission of it was interpreted a sort of refusal to hold communion with the rest of the world, and a virtual charge of heresy upon them.

53

4s Constit. lib. 8. c. 5.

Epiphan. Hær. 73. Sozom. lib. 4. c. 28. 48 Socrat. lib. 2. c. 43. lib. 7. c. 29. 49 Liberat. Breviar. c. 19. 50 Evagr. lib. 4. c. 4. 51 Euseb. lib. 7. c. 30. 53 Liberat. Breviar. c. 17. direxisset, &c.

52 Vales. Not. in loc. Quia Eteras synodicas non

law against placing bishops in small cities.

ation. The first of which was, That bishops should not be placed in small cities or villages: which law was first made by the council of Sardica, with a design to keep up the honour and dignity of the episcopal order; as the reason is given in the canon made about it; which says, It shall not be lawful to place a bishop in a village, or small city,' where a single presbyter will be sufficient: for in such places, there is no need to set a bishop; lest the name and authority of bishops be brought into contempt. Some add to this the fifty-seventh canon of the council of Laodicea, which forbids the placing of bishops in villages, and in the country, appointing visitors to be constituted in their room: but this canon speaks not of absolute bishops, but of the chorepiscopi, who were subject to other bishops, of which I shall treat particularly hereafter. However, there is no dispute about the Sardican canon; for the reason annexed explains its meaning, that it prohibits universally the ordination of bishops in small cities and country places.

Sect. 2.

to this rule in Egypt, Libya, Cyprus, Arabia, Asia Minor, &c.

But it may be observed, that this Some exceptions rule did never generally obtain: for both before and after the council of Sardica, there were bishops both in small cities and villages. Nazianzum was but a very small city; Socrates' calls it ñódıç evreλýs, a little one: and upon the same account Gregory❘ Nazianzen' styles his own father, who was bishop of it, μurpoñoλírns, a little bishop, and one of the second order. Yet he was no chorepiscopus, but as absolute a bishop in his own diocese, as the bishop of Rome or Alexandria. Geræ, near Pelusium, was but a small city, as Sozomen notes; yet it was a bishop's see. Theodoret observes the same of Dolicha, where Maris was bishop," that it was but a very little city, woλíkvη ojuкpà, he calls it: and he says the like of Cucusus' in Armenia, the place whither Chrysostom was banished: yet as small a city as it was, Chrysostom found a bishop there, who treated him very civilly and respectfully in his exile. Synesius makes mention of the bi

shop of Olbia in one of his epistles,' and at the same time tells us the place was but a village; for he calls the people diμos кwμýrns, a country people. So he says in another epistle," that Hydrax and Palæbisca had for some time each of them their own bishop; though they were but villages of Pentapolis, formerly belonging to the diocese of Erythra, to which they were some time after annexed again. In Sozomen's time, among the Arabians and Cyprians, it was a usual thing to ordain bishops not only in cities but villages, as also among the Novatians and Montanists in Phrygia, all which he affirms " upon his own knowledge. Some think Dracontius was such a bishop, because Athanasius" styles his bishopric xúpaç iñισкояηv: but whether this means that he was an absolute bishop, or only a chorepiscopus, as others think, is not very easy to determine. As neither what kind of bishops those were which the council of Antioch,13 in their Synodical Epistle against Paulus Samosatensis, calls country bishops, for perhaps they might be only chorepiscopi, or dependent bishops, as Valesius conjectures. But this cannot be said of those mentioned by Sozomen, nor of the other instances I have given out of Synesius, and the rest of the forecited authors, from whose testimonies it plainly appears that there were bishops in very small cities, and sometimes in villages, notwithstanding the contrary decree of the Sardican council. It is also very observable, that in Asia Minor, a tract of land not much larger than the isle of Great Britain, (including but two dioceses of the Roman empire,) there were almost four hundred bishops, as appears from the ancient Notitia's of the church. Whence it may be collected, that Cucusus and Nazianzum were not the only small cities in those parts, but that there were many other cities and dioceses of no very great extent in such a number. One thing that contributed much to the multiplication of bishoprics, ing bishoprics in

Sect. 3. Reasons for erect

small places.

and that caused them to be erected sometimes in small places, was, that in the primitive church every bishop, with the consent of his metropolitan, or the approbation of a provincial council, had power to divide his own diocese, and ordain a new bishop in some convenient part of it, for the good of the church, whenever he found his diocese too large, or the places to lie at too great a distance, or the multitude of converts to increase, and make the care and encumbrance of his diocese become too great a burden for him. This was the reason why St. Austin" erected a new bishopric at Fussala,

Η Sozom. lib. 7. c. 19. Εστὶν ὅπη καὶ ἐν κώμαις ἐπίσ κοποι ἱεροῦνται, ὡς παρὰ ̓Αραβίοις καὶ Κυπρίοις ἔγνων, &ς. 12 Athanas. Epist. ad Dracont. t. 1. p. 954.

13 Ap. Euseb. lib. 7. c. 30. Επισκόπους τῶν ὁμόρων ἀγρῶν τε καὶ πόλεων.

14 Augustin. Epist. 261. ad Cælestin. Quod ab Hippone memoratum castellum millibus quadraginta sejungitur, cum in eis regendis, et eorum reliquiis licet exiguis colligendis

16

a town in his own diocese, about forty miles from Hippo. It was a place where great numbers had been converted from the schism of the Donatists, and some remained to be converted still; but the place lying at so great a distance, he could not bestow that care and diligence, either in ruling the one, or regaining the other, which he thought necessary; and therefore he prevailed with the primate of Numidia, to come and ordain one Antonius to be bishop there. And this was consonant to the rules of the African church, which allowed new bishoprics to be erected in any diocese where there was need, if the bi-❘ shop of the diocese and the primate gave their consent to it; or, as Ferrandus " has it in his collection, if the bishop, the primate, and a provincial council, by their joint consent and authority, gave way to it. By virtue of these canons, during the time of the schism of the Donatists, many new bishoprics were erected in very small towns in Africa; as appears. from the Acts of the Collation of Carthage, where the catholics and Donatists mutually charge each other with this practice; that they divided single bishoprics sometimes into three or four, and made bishops in country towns and villages to augment the numbers of their parties. Thus, in one place, we find Petilian the Donatist" complaining, that the catholics had made four bishops in the diocese of Januarius, a Donatist bishop, to outdo them with numbers. And in another place, Alypius the catholic orders it to be entered upon record, that a great many Donatist bishops there mentioned, were not ordained in cities, but only in country towns, or villages. To which Petilian" replies, that the catholics did the same; ordaining bishops in country towns, and sometimes in such places where they had no people: his meaning is, that in those places all the people were turned Donatists, and for that very reason the catholic bishops thought themselves obliged to divide their dioceses, and ordain new bishops in small towns; that they might outdo the Donatists, both in number and zeal, and more effectually labour in reducing the straying people back again to their ancient communion with the catholic church. This was the practice of Africa, and this their reason for erecting so many small bishoprics in those times of exigency: they had always an eye to the benefit and edification of the church.

-me viderem latius quam oportebat extendi, nec adhibendæ sufficerem diligentiæ, quam certissima ratione adhiberi debere cernebam, episcopum ibi ordinandum constituendumque curavi.

15 Concil. Carth. 2. c. 5. Si accedente tempore, crescente fide, Dei populus multiplicatus desideravit proprium habere rectorem, ejus videlicet voluntate, in cujus potestate est diœcesis constituta, habeat episcopum. It. Con. Carth. 3. c. 42.

16 Ferrand. Breviar. Canon. c. 13. Ut episcopus non ordinetur in diœcesi, quæ episcopum nunquam habuit, nisi cum voluntate episcopi ad quem ipsa diœcesis pertinet, ex

Gregory Nazianzen highly commends St. Basil's piety and prudence for the like practice. It happened in his time, that Cappadocia was divided into two provinces, and Tyana made the metropolis of the second province, in the civil account: this gave occasion to Anthimus, bishop of Tyana, to lay claim to the rights of a metropolitan in the church; which St. Basil opposed, as injurious to his own church of Cæsarea, which, by ancient custom and prescription, had been the metropolis of the whole province. But Anthimus proving a very contentious adversary, and raising great disturbance and commotions about it, St. Basil was willing to buy the peace of the church with the loss of his own rights; so he voluntarily relinquished his jurisdiction over that part of Cappadocia, which Anthimus laid claim to: and, to compensate his own loss in some measure, he erected several new bishoprics in his own province; as, at Sasima, and some other such obscure places of that region. Now, though this was done contrary to the letter of a canon, yet Nazianzen extols the fact upon three accounts. First, because hereby a greater care was taken of men's souls." Secondly, by this means every city had its own revenues. And lastly, the war between the two metropolitans was ended. This, he says, was an admirable policy, worthy the great and noble soul of St. Basil, who could turn a dispute so to the benefit of the church, and draw a considerable advantage out of a calamity, by making it an occasion to guard and defend his country with more bishops. Whence we may collect, that in Nazianzen's opinion, it is an advantage to the church to be well stocked with bishops; and that it is no dishonour to her to have bishops in small towns, when necessity and reason require it.

concilio tamen plenario et primatis auctoritate.

17 Collat. Carth. 1. c. 117. Petilianus episcopus dixit, In una plebe Januarii collegæ nostri præsentis, in una diœcesi, quatuor sunt constituti contra ipsum; ut numerus scilicet augeretur.

is Ibid. c. 181. Alypius dixit, Scriptum sit istos omnes in villis vel in fundis esse episcopos ordinatos, non in aliquibus civitatibus.

19 Ibid. c. 182. Petilianus episcopus dixit: Sic etiam tu multos habes per omnes agros dispersos; imo crebros ubi habes, sane et siue populis habes.

20 Naz. Orat. 20. de Laud. Basil. t. 1. p. 356.

presbyters. In the time of Cornelius, there were forty-six presbyters' in the church of Rome, seven deacons, as many sub-deacons, and ninety-four of the inferior orders of the clergy: and the body of the people, at a moderate computation, are reckoned by some to be about fifty thousand; by others,' to be a far greater number; yet there was but one bishop over all these. So that when Novatian got himself ordained bishop of Rome, in opposition to Cornelius, he was generally condemned over all the world, as transgressing the rule of the catholic church. Cyprian' delivers it as a maxim upon this occasion; that there ought to be but one bishop in a church at a time, and one judge as the vicegerent of Christ. Therefore he says Novatian was no bishop, since there could not be a second after the first; but he was an adulterer, and a foreigner, and ambitious usurper of another man's church, who had been regularly ordained before him. And so he was told not only by Cyprian,' but a whole African council at once; who, in return to Novatian's communicatory letter, which (according to custom) he wrote to them upon his ordination, sent him this plain and positive answer: That he was an alien; and that none of them could communicate with him, who had attempted to erect a profane altar, and set up an adulterous chair, and offer sacrilegious sacrifice against Cornelius the true bishop; who had been ordained by the approbation of God, and the suffrage of the clergy and people. There were, indeed, some confessors at Rome, who at first sided with Novatian: but Cyprian wrote a remonstrating letter to them, wherein he soberly laid before them the sinfulness of their practice. And his admonition wrought so effectually on some of the chief of them, that not long after they returned to Cornelius, and publicly confessed their fault in these words: We acknowledge our error; we have been imposed upon and deluded by treacherous and deceitful words; for though we seemed to communicate with a schismatical and heretical man, yet our mind was always sincerely in the church. For we are not ignorant, that as there is but one God, one

Cornel. Ep. ad Fabium. ap. Euseb. lib. 6. c. 43. Bishop Burnet, Letter 4. p. 207. 'Basnag. Exerc. ad Annal. Baron. an. 44. p. 532. Cypr. Epist. 55. al. 59. ad Cornel. p. 129. Unus in ecclesia ad tempus sacerdos, et ad tempus judex vice Christi.

Id. Epist. 52. al. 55. ad Antonian. p. 104. Cum post primum secundus esse non possit, quisquis post unum, qui solus esse debeat, factus est, non jam secundus ille, sed nullus est.

Ibid. p. 112. Nisi si episcopus tibi videtur, qui episcopo in ecclesia a sedecim coepiscopis facto, adulter atque extraneus, episcopus fieri a desertoribus per ambitum nititur.

Cypr. Ep. 67. al. 68. ad Steph. p. 177. Se foris esse cœpisse, nec posse a quoquam nostrum sibi communicari; quí, episcopo Cornelio in catholica ecclesia de Dei judicio, et cleri ac plebis suffragio ordinato, profanum altare erigere, adulteram cathedram collocare, et sacrilega contra verum sacerdotem sacrificia offerre tentaverit.

Christ the Lord, and one Holy Spirit; so there ought to be but one bishop in a catholic church. Pamelius" and others, who take this for a confession of the bishop of Rome's supremacy, betray either gross ignorance, or great partiality for a cause for though this was spoken of a bishop of Rome, yet it was not peculiar to him, but the common case of bishops in all churches. Ignatius, and all the writers after him, who have said any thing of bishops, always speak of a single bishop in every church. And though Origen" seems to say otherwise, that there were two bishops in every church; yet, as he explains his own notion, his meaning is the same with all the rest: for he says, the one was visible, the other invisible; the one an angel, the other a man. So that his testimony (though there be something peculiar in his notion) is a further confirmation of the church's practice.

The writers of the following ages do so frequently mention the same thing, that it would be as tedious as it is needless to recite their testimonies.12 Therefore I shall only add these two things: First, That the council of Nice repeats and confirms this ancient rule. For in the eighth canon, which speaks of the Novatian bishops that return to the catholic church, it is said, that any bishop may admit them to officiate as presbyters in the city, or as chorepiscopi in the country, but not as city bishops, for this reason, ἵνα μὴ ἐν τῇ πόλει δύο ἐπίσκοTo wow, that there may not be two bishops in one city. Secondly, That in fact the people were generally possessed with the opinion of the absolute unlawfulness of having two bishops sit together: insomuch that Theodoret tells us," when Constantius proposed to the Roman people to have Liberius and Felix sit as copartners, and govern the church in common, they unanimously agreed to reject the motion, crying out, One God, one Christ, one bishop. Yet it must be observed, that as the great end and design of this rule was to prevent schism, and preserve by compromise, to the peace and unity of the church; so, on the other hand, when it mani

Sect. 2. Yet two bishops sometimes allowed, end a dispute, or cure an inveterate schism.

Cypr. Ep. 44. al. 46. ad Nicostrat. et Maxim. Cornel. Ep. 46. al. 49. ad Cyprian. Nec enim ignoramus unum Deum esse, unum Christum Dominum, quem confessi sumus, unum Spiritum Sanctum, unum episcopum in catholica ecclesia esse debere.

10 Pamel. Not. in loc.

"Orig. Hom. 13. in Luc. Per singulas ecclesias bini sunt episcopi, alius visibilis, alius invisibilis.---Ego puto inveniri simul posse et angelum et hominem bonos (leg. binos) ecclesiæ episcopos.

12 See Chrysost. Epist. 125. ad Cyriac. et Hom. 1. in Philip. Jerom. Epist. 4. ad Rustic. Ep. 85. ad Evagr. Com, in Tit. ii. Pseudo-Hieron. Com. in 1 Tim. iii. Hilar. Diac. Com. in Phil. i. 1. It. in 1 Cor. xii. 28. et in 1 Tim. iii. 12. Pacian. Ep. 3. ad Sempronian. Socrat. lib. 6. c. 22. Sozom. lib. 4. c. 14 et 15. Theod. lib. 3. c. 4. 13 Theod. lib. 2. c. 14.