cumbent, and that every thing was performed in due order. St. Austin and St. Basil 54, who had pretty large dioceses, speak often upon this account of their being employed in their visitations. And the rule in some places was to visit ordinarily once a year, as appears from the Council of Tarraco in Spain, which lays this injunction on bishops 55, because it was found by experience, that many churches in their dioceses were left destitute and neglected, therefore they were obliged to visit them once a year.' And if a diocese was so large, that a bishop could not perform this duty annually, that was thought a reasonable cause to divide the diocese, and lay some part of the burden upon a new bishop; which was the reason assigned in the Council of Lugo for dividing the large diocese of Gallæcia, as has been observed before 56 in speaking of the Spanish Churches. St. Jerom has a remark upon the exercise of confirmation, which also mightily confirms this notion of ancient episcopal dioceses. He says 57, It was the custom of the Churches, when any persons were baptized by presbyters or deacons in villages, castles, or other remote places, for the bishop to go to them and give them imposition of hands, in order to receive the Holy Ghost; and that many places lay at so great a distance, that the parties baptized died before the bishop could come to visit them :' which is a plain description of such dioceses as we have generally found in every part of the Catholic Church, some few provinces excepted, where the number of cities and populousness of the country made dioceses more numerous and of less extent than in other places.

54 See before ch. 2. s. 1. p. 252. latter part of n. 75.

55 C. 8. (t. 4. p. 1565 a.).... Reperimus nonnullas diocesanas ecclesias esse destitutas. Ob quam rem hac constitutione decrevimus, ut annuis vicibus episcopo dioceses visitentur, &c.

56 See s. 14. of this chapter. 57 Dial. cont. Lucifer. c. 4. [al. 9.] (t. 2. p. 181 a.) Non abnuo hanc esse ecclesiarum consuetudinem, ut

ad eos qui longe in minoribus [al. a majoribus] urbibus per presbyteros et diaconos baptizati sunt, episcopus ad invocationem Sancti Spiritus manum impositurus excurrat.-Ibid. (d.) Alioquin, si episcopi tantum imprecatione Spiritus Sanctus defluit, lugendi sunt qui in villulis, aut in castellis, aut in remotioribus locis per presbyteros aut diaconos baptizati, ante dormierunt, quam ab episcopis inviserentur.

CHAP. VII.

The Notitia, or Geographical Description of the bishoprics of the ancient Church, as first made by the order of Leo Sapiens, compared with some others.

FOR the fuller proof of what has been asserted in the last chapters, and to give the reader a clear view of the state of the ancient Church, I shall here subjoin one of the Notitiæ, or Catalogues of Bishoprics contained in the five greater patriarchates, Constantinople, Rome, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria, according to the account that was taken first by the order of the Emperor Leo Sapiens, about the year 891; for though this does not come up to the antiquity of these other records, which I have generally made use of in this work, yet, being the most ancient and perfect account we have in the kind, and agreeing with the scattered remains of antiquity of this nature, it will be useful, as a collateral evidence, to corroborate the account that has been given of the division and extent of dioceses in the primitive Church. And I the rather choose to insert it here, to satisfy the curiosity of many of my readers, to whose view, perhaps, this Notitia may not otherwise come, being scarce to be met with but in books of great rarity or great price, which fall not into the hands of every ordinary reader. The first of this kind was published by Leunclavius in his Jus Græco-Romanum 58, anno 1596, in Greek and Latin, under the name of Leo Sapiens, the reputed author of it; after which some others, but imperfect, were set forth by Carolus à Sancto Paulo, in his Geography of the ancient Church 59; the defects of which were supplied by Jacobus Goar, from a MS. in the French Kings' library, which he published at the end of Codinus 60 among the Byzantine Historians, anno 1648; and by Bp. Beveridge, from a MS. in the Bodleian Library, published in his Notes 61 upon the Pandects, anno 1672. The last of which being acknowledged to be the most perfect in the kind, has been since re

58 Ap. t. 1. (pp. 88, seqq.) 59 Append. ad Geogr. Sacr. (ad calc. Ed. Amstel. 1704. fol.)

60 De Offic. Constant. in Append. P. 337. (Ed. Venet. 1729. [Byzant.

Scriptor. t. 20.] pp. 291, seqq.)

61 Not. in C. Trull. c. 36. (t. 2. append. pp. 135, seqq.) Táĝis πроκαθεδρίας τῶν ἁγιωτάτων Πατριapx@v, K. T. λ.

printed by the learned Schelstrate 62, with some notes and observations upon the defects and variations of all the former; which, having revised and compared them together, I shall here present to the curious reader, that he may have them all together in one view.

The order of presidency of the most holy patriarchs.— 1. Rome. 2. Constantinople. 3. Alexandria. 4. Antioch. 5. Elia, or Jerusalem.

The order of presidency of the metropolitans, and autocephali, and bishops, subject to the apostolical throne of this divinely-preserved and imperial city, viz. Constantinople.

1

Provinces.

25 Pamphylia.

26 Cappadocia.

27 Lazica.

28 Thracia.

29 Rhodope.

30 Insulæ Cyclades.

31 Hæmimontis.

32 Hæmimontis.

33 Phrygia Pacatiana [Secunda.]

Metropolitans.

25 Perga, or Sileum.

26 Mocessus.

27 Phasis.

28 Philippopolis.

29 Trajanopolis.
30 Rhodos.

31 Adrianopolis.

32 Martianopolis.

33 Hierapolis.

Here ends the account of provinces and metropolitans in the Notitia of Bp. Beveridge and Goar, but in Leunclavius these other metropolitans are added, without any mention of provinces at all. 34. Thessalonica. 35. Corinthus. 36.

44.

Creta. 37. Athenæ. 38. Seleucia. 39. Patræ. 40. Trapezus. 41. Calabria. 42. Larissa. 43. Naupactus. Philippi. 45. Dyrrachium. 46. Smyrna. 47. Catana. 48. Ammorium. 49. Camachus. 50. Cotyaium. 51. Severiana. 52. Mitylene. 53. Novæ Patræ. 54. Euchaita. 55. Amastris. 56. Chonæ. 57. Hydrus. 58. Kelzene. 59. Colonia. 60. Theba. 61. Serræ. 62. Pompeiopolis. 63. Rossia. 64. Alania. 65. Enus. 66. Tiberiopolis. 67. Achaia. 68. Cerasus. 69. Nacolia. 70. Germania. 71. Madyta. 72. Apamea. 73. Basileum. 74. Drystra. 75. Nazianzus. 76. Corcyra. 77. Abydus. 78. Methymna. 79. Christianopolis. 80. Rusium. 81. Lacedæmonia. 82. Naxia. 83. Attalia. To which the Scholiast adds three more, 84. Sebastopolis. 85. Euripus. 86. Cybistis Herculis.

After the metropolitans follow the autocephali, or independent bishops, which the Notitia in Leunclavius calls archbishops. They were such as had neither metropolitans above them, nor suffragans under them, being immediately subject to the patriarch only, as Goar's Notitia informs us. In Bp. Beveridge's Notitia they are as follows.

To these, in Goar's Notitia, are added two more, Delca, [Delcos,] or Derce, and Reni in Armenia. But that in Leunclavius has but thirty-nine, whereof sixteen are different names; viz. Nice, Messana, Garella, Brisis, Carabyzia, Lemnus, Leucas,

8