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Mutina and as much from Forum Cornelii in Flaminia, twentyeight from Ferraria, which was in the next diocese northward; and on the south it had no nearer neighbour than Fæsulæ, beyond the Appennine, within three miles of Florence. Mutina was fifteen miles from Regium Lepidi, and Regium as much from Parma, and Parma thirty-five from Placentia, according to Ferrarius's computation. Brixellum, on the Po, was but eight miles from Parma, but on other sides it might have a larger diocese; for Ferrarius says, it was twenty-four miles from Regium Lepidi, and thirty from Cremona. So that these six dioceses were larger than twenty of those about Rome.

13. Out of Emilia we pass over the river Trebia into one of Of Alpes the Alpine provinces, called Alpes Cottia, which was divided Cottia. also from Liguria by the Po, from which it extended to the Tuscan Sea, including part of Piedmont and Montserrat, and the whole republic of Genoa, and part of the duchy of Milan, on this side the Po. In this province Carolus à Sancto Paulo finds ten dioceses. 1. Augusta Taurinorum, Turin. 2. Asta, Asti. 3. Dertona, Tortona. 4. Alba Pompeia, Alba. 5. Aqua Statiellæ, Acqui. 6. Albingaunum, Albenga. 7. Vigintimilium, Vintimiglia. 8. Bobium, Bobio. 9. Genua. 10. Savona. To which Holstenius 7 adds Nicæa, Nizza. These were large dioceses; for Bobium had no nearer neighbour than Placentia, which Ferrarius reckons twenty-five miles from it, and Genua and Dertona thirty-five. Savona was twenty-six miles from Genua, according to the most accurate computation of Holstenius 9; Ferrarius 10 says, it lay in the middle way between Genua and Albingaunum at thirty miles

7 In Cluver. (p. 4.) Nicia. In subscriptionibus Concilii I. Arelatensis sub Constantino imperatore: Innocentius diaconus ex portu Nicäensi. Et in epistola Hilarii Papæ, t. I. Conciliorum Galliæ, p. 136. Nicäense castellum, quod Cemelenensi episcopo subjicitur. Habuit enim ante proprium episcopum. Unde Amantius, episcopus Nicensis, in eodem, t. 1. p. 21, legitur; et Concilio Aureliensi V. subscripsit Aëtius presbyter directus a Magno episcopo ecclesiæ Cemelensis et Ni

cäensis.

8

8 Voce, Bobium. (t. 1. p. 121.) Bobium.... urbs episc. Liguria sub archiep. Genuensi ad Trebiam fluvium, intra montes .... inter Placentiam 25. et Dertonam totidem mill. pass. a Genua supra 35. quot a Ticino.

9 Ubi supra, (p. 9.) Nam optima Itineraria et Tabulæ exactiores tantum 26. m. p. ponunt inter Genuam et Savonam.

10 Voce, Savona. (t. 2. p. 165.) ... Inter Genuam et Albingaunum 30. mill. pass. &c.

Of Liguria.

distance. Aquæ Statiella was also twenty-two miles from
Savona, as Baudrand computes, but not so far from Asta
and Alba Pompeia; for Alba was but eight miles to the
north of Aquæ, and Asta twelve more beyond that: but
east and west these dioceses might extend very wide; for
Turin the nearest neighbour westward was twenty miles from
Asta and twenty-eight from Alba, and Dertona as much to the
east, according to Ferrarius's computation. Vigintimilium was
more than twenty miles from Nicæa, and Albingaunum forty
from Vigintimilium, and Savona between twenty and thirty from
Albingaunum. The whole province was one hundred and fifty
miles in length, and half as much in breadth, which made those
eleven dioceses equal to fifty of those about Rome and Naples.
14. Out of this province, passing over the Po, we come into
Liguria, the province whereof Milan was the metropolis;
though the reader must note, that the last mentioned pro-
vince in the Roman historians is more commonly called Li-
guria, and this Insubria; but we now speak of them as they
stood divided under the Christian Emperors. This was a
large province including all that lay between the fountain of
the Addua and the Po, and the Alps, and the Athesis, which
divided it from Venetia. Yet here were but ten dioceses to be
discovered by Carolus à Sancto Paulo, and the inquisitive dili-
gence
of Holstenius after him. 1. Mediolanum, Milan. 2. Epo-
redia, Jurea, [or Ivrea.] 3. Vercellæ, Vercelli. 4. Novaria.
5. Ticinum, Pavia. 6. Laus Pompeia, Lodi. 7. Cremona.
8. Brixia, Brescia. 9. Bergomum, Bergamo. 10. Comum, Como.

Of these Milan was reckoned the largest city in Italy next after Rome. Ferrarius says, that in his time it was computed to have three hundred thousand people in it, but that is much short of its ancient greatness; for Procopius 11 says, in Justinian's time when it was taken by the Goths, there were three hundred thousand men put to the sword. When St. Ambrose was bishop there, it had several Christian churches, some of which are named by him in his Epistles 12, as the Basilica Por

11 De Bell. Goth. 1. 2. c. 21. (Oper. t. I. p. 439 c. 3.) Τὴν δὲ πόλιν ἐς ἔδαφος καθεῖλον· ἄνδρας μὲν κτείναντες ἡβηδὸν ἅπαντας, οὐχ ἧσσον ἢ μυριάδας τριάκοντα, κ. τ. λ.

12 Ep. 33. [al. 20.] ad Marcellin.

Soror. (t. 2. p. 852 e. n. 1.) Nec jam Portiana, hoc est, extramurana Basilica petebatur, sed Basilica Nova, hoc est intramurana, quæ Major est. .... Præfectus eo venit, cœpit suadere, ut Basilica Portiana cede

tiana without the walls, and the Basilica Major or Nova within the city, the Basilica Fausta, and the Basilica Ambrosiana: and, when it was all become Christian, we must suppose a great many churches more under one bishop; for it never had two except in the times of the Arian persecution. Without the walls it might also have a large diocese; for no other city among those fore-mentioned was within less than twenty miles of it, and there were some thirty, and some forty miles removed from one another; only Novaria and Vercellæ were but ten miles asunder, being nearer neighbours than any other in this province. Cremona was eighteen miles from Placentia, thirty from Brixia, forty from Ticinum, and, if Ferrarius compute right, no less from Mantua; and yet the territories of Cremona and Mantua joined together, as we may guess from that complaint of Virgil 12,-Mantua væ! miseræ nimium vicina Cremona,-that Mantua was a little too near to Cremona, because when Augustus sent his colony of veterans to settle at Cremona, and the territory of Cremona proved too little for them, he ordered fifteen miles to be taken from the territory of Mantua, to make up the deficiency of the former. Whence it is easy to infer, that the dioceses of this province were exceeding large, since the cities were so far removed from one another.

Secunda.

15. In the two next provinces Rhætia Prima and Secunda, of Rhætia, the dioceses were yet larger; for in the former, which lay next Prima and to Liguria, in the middle of the Alps, and is now the country of the Grisons, Carolus à Sancto Paulo could find but one diocese, which was Curia, now called Coire, and in the other but three. 1. Augusta Vindelicorum, Augsburg. 2. Quintanæ, or Colonia Augusta Quintanorum, now Kyntzen in Bavaria on the Danube. 3. Ratispona, or Regium, and Castra Regina, now Regenspurg, or Ratisbon. To which Holstenius adds Augusta Prætoria, now called Aosta, which is reckoned to Piedmont; and Brixino, now Brixen in the country of Tyrol. For, as I observed before, all that part of Germany which reaches from the Alps to the Danube, was anciently called

remus.—Ep. 85. [al. 22.] ad Eand. (ibid. p. 875 a. n. 2.) .... Transtulimus [ossa martyrum, Gervasii et Protasii,] vespere jam incumbente, ad Basilicam Faustæ :

ibi vigiliæ tota nocte, manus im-
positio. Sequenti die, transtulimus
ea in Basilicam, quam appellant,
Ambrosianam.

12 Eclog. 9. v. 27.

Of Venetia and Histria.

Rhætia, and reckoned among the provinces of Italy, and the dioceses therein were so large, that these five or six were equal for extent of ground, though not for number of people, to thirty or forty of those near Rome.

16. The last of these seven Italic provinces was Venetia and Histria, which were always joined together as one province. Venetia was divided from Rhætia and Liguria by the river Athesis, from Æmilia and Flaminia by the Po, and from Noricum Mediterraneum by a line drawn from the fountain of the river Athesis to the rise of the Savus, where Histria was joined to it, lying between the Sinus Tergestinus on the west, and Sinus Flanaticus on the east, which is the utmost bounds of the north-east part of Italy.

In Histria, Carolus à Sancto Paulo reckons but five dioceses. 1. Forum Julii, Friuli. 2. Tergestum, Trieste. 3. Parentium, Parenzo. 4. Pola. 5. Emonia, which he takes to be the same that is now called Citta Nova, but Holstenius says it is Lubiana or Labach on the Save. In Venetia he recounts eighteen dioceses. 1. Aquileia. 2. Patavium, Padua. 3. Torcellum. 4. Altinum, Altino. 5. Acelum, Asolo. 6. Tarvisium, Treviso. 7. Marianum. 8. Verona. 9. Gradus, Grado. 10. Nova. 11. Caprulla, Cahorla. 12. Ceneta, Ceneda. 13. Tridentum, Trent. 14. Feltria, Feltri. 15. Bellunum, Belluno. 16. Sabiona, Siben. 17. Optergium, Oderzo. 18. Celina, Celine.

Some of these were very large dioceses. Trent was above thirty miles from Verona; and Sabiona, and Forum Julii, and Emonia, and Tergestum, Parentium, and Pola, were no less from one another. The rest were ten or twenty miles removed from any other neighbouring city. Only Altinum and Torcellum, Ferrarius 12 says, were but five miles apart; but he questions whether they were both bishop's sees at the same time, and thinks rather that Torcellum came only in the room of Altinum, when that was destroyed by Attila toward the middle of the fifth century. However, the greatest part of these dio

12 Voce Altinum. (t. 1. p. 30.) Altinum, Altino, urbs præclara olim Venetiæ, episcopalis, sub archiep. Aquileiensi, ab Hunnis eversa, apud Silis flum. ostium, quando Aquileia et Concordia ab Attila excisa fue

runt: media ferme inter Petavium et Concordiam, paullo supra 30. mill. passuum. Illi Torcellum successit, episc. sub archiep. Veneto, medium inter Venetias et Altinum, 5. mill. pass. utrimque.

ceses were one way or other of large extent, as most of the northern dioceses in Italy were, in comparison of those which lay round about Rome.

And now I think the observation made in the beginning of this chapter has been fully verified, that in Italy there were anciently some of the smallest, and some of the largest dioceses in the world, and yet the same species of episcopacy was preserved in them all; the bishop of Eugubium,' as St. Jerom 13 words it, being, ejusdem meriti, and ejusdem sacerdotii,-of the same merit and equal as to his priesthood with the bishop of Rome.' A larger or smaller diocese made no division in the unity of the Catholic Church.

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CHAP. VI.

Of the dioceses in France, Spain, and the British Isles.

bounds and

Gallia into

seventeen

1. I have now gone through all parts of the Christian world, Of the anexcept France, Spain, and Britain, which made up three civil cient dioceses, and twenty-nine or thirty provinces of the Roman divisions of empire. But I shall not need to be so nice and particular in inquiring into the bounds and extent of episcopal dioceses in provinces. these countries, because their number being but small in proportion to the largeness of the countries, it will easily appear to any man, that the dioceses were large, as they continue to be at this day, though some alterations have been made in their bounds since the original settlement of them.

France, as it now stands, is but a part of old Gallia, which included also some of the Belgic, Helvetic, and German provinces. It was at first divided by Augustus into four parts, Narbonensis, Aquitanica, Lugdunensis, and Belgica. Afterwards, about the time of Adrian, or Antoninus, as De Marca 14 thinks, these four were made fourteen. Narbonensis was divided into four: Narbonensis, Viennensis, Alpes Maritimæ,

13 [Ep. 35. al. 145. ad Exuperantum. (t. I. p. 1076 d.) Ubicumque fuerit episcopus, sive Romæ, sive Eugubii, sive Constantinopoli, sive Rhegii, sive Alexandriæ, sive Tanis, ejusdem meriti, ejusdem est et sacerdotii. ED.]

14 [De Primatibus, &c. ad calc. Oper. Francofurt. 1708. Vid. Dissert. 2. de Primatibus Lugdunensibus, n. 72. (p. 45.) Hic locus a me postulat ut de Gallicanæ divisione paucis agam, &c. ED.]

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