Because it is evident that he means it not of con

byteros, vel quoscunque reperire potuisset in verbo exhortationis perfectos, ampliùs confirmaret." Cer-firmation, but of the chrism in those times by the tainly St. Gregory did not intend that his legate, Zachary, should confirm bishops and priests in any other sense but this of St. Jerome in the present, to wit, in faith and doctrine, not in rite and mystery; and neither could St. Jerome himself intend, that presbyters should do it all but in this sense of St. Gregory; for else he becomes an antistrephon, and his own opposite.

rites of the church used in baptism. For, in his ninth epistle, he forbids priests to anoint baptized people; now here is precept against precept; therefore, it must be understood of several anointings, and so St. Gregory expounds himself in this ninth epistle: " Presbyteri baptizatos infantes signare bis in fronte chrismate non præsumant:"" Presbyters may not anoint baptized people twice," once they Yea, but there is a worse matter than this. St. might; now that this permission of anointing was Ambrose tells of the Egyptian priests, "that they, that which was a ceremony of baptism, not an act in the absence of the bishop, do confirm." "Denique of confirmation,-we shall see by comparing it with apud Ægyptum presbyteri consignant, si præsens other canons. In the collection of the oriental non sit episcopus." But, canons, by Martinus Bracarensis, it is decreed thus: Presbyter præsente episcopo, non signet infantes, nisi forte ab episcopo fuerit illi præceptum:"y “A priest must not sign infants without leave of the bishop, if he be present."-" Must not sign them;" that is, with chrism in their foreheads, and that in baptism; for the circumstant canons do expressly explicate and determine it; for they are concerning the rites of baptism, and this in the midst of them. And by the way, this may answer St. Ambrose's

1. The passage is suspicious, for it interrupts a discourse of St. Ambrose concerning the primitive order of election to the bishopric, and is no way pertinent to the discourse, but is encircled with a story of a far different consequence, which is not easily thought to have been done by any considering and intelligent author.

66

2. But suppose the clause be not surreptitious, but natural to the discourse, and born with it, yet it is matter of fact, not of right, for St. Ambrose neither" presbyteri consignant, absente episcopo," in case approves nor disproves it, and so it must go for a singular act against the catholic practice and laws of christendom.

3. If the whole clause be not surreptitious, yet the word "consignant" is; for St. Austin, who hath the same discourse of the same thing, viz. of the dignity of presbyters, tells this story of the act and honour of presbyters in Alexandria and all Egypt, almost in the other words of his master, St. Ambrose; but he tells it thus: "Nam et in Alexandriâ et per totam Ægyptum si desit episcopus, consecrat presbyter."u So that it should not be "consignat,' but "consecrat;" for no story tells of any confirmations done in Egypt by presbyters, but of consecrating the eucharist in cases of episcopal absence or commission. I shall give account, in the question of jurisdiction, that that was indeed permitted in Egypt and some other places, but confirmation never, that we can find elsewhere; and this is too improbable to bear weight against evidence and practice apostolical, and four councils, and sixteen ancient catholic fathers, testifying that it was a practice and a law of christendom, that bishops only should confirm, and not priests; so that if there be no other scruple, this question is quickly at an end.

X

But St. Gregory is also pretended in objection; for he gave dispensation to the priests of Sardinia, "ut baptizatos unguant," "to aneal baptized people." Now anointing the forehead of the baptized person was one of the solemnities of confirmation, so that this indulgence does arise to a power of confirming; for "unctio" and "chrismatio," in the first Arausican council, and since that time "sacramentum chrismatis," hath been the usual word for confirmation. But this will not much trouble the business.

s Caus. 11. q. 3. can. Quod Prædecessor.
In Ephes. iv.

Quæst. 101. Vet. et N. Testam. Basilea.

66

it be so to be read; for here we see a consignation permitted to the presbyters in the Eastern churches to be used in baptism, in the absence of the bishop, and this an act of indulgence and favour, and, therefore, extraordinary, and of use to St. Ambrose's purpose of advancing the presbyters, but yet of no objection in case of confirmation. And indeed 'consignari" is used in antiquity for any signing with the cross, and annealing. Thus it is used in the first Arausican council for extreme unction,2 which is there, in case of extreme necessity, permitted to presbyters: "Hæreticos in mortis discrimine positos, si catholici esse desiderent, si desit episcopus, à presbyteris cum chrismate et benedictione consignari placet." Consigned" is the word, and it was clearly in extreme unction; for that rite was not then ceased, and it was in annealing a dying body, and a part of reconciliation, and so limited by the sequent canon, and not to be fancied of any other consignation.—But I return. The first council of Toledo prohibits any from making chrism but bishops only," and takes order, "ut de singulis ecclesiis ad episcopum, ante diem paschæ diaconi destinentur, ut confectum chrisma ab episcopo destinatum ad diem paschæ possit occurrere :" "that the chrism be fetched by the deacons from the bishop, to be used in all churches." But for what use? Why, it was "destinatum ad diem paschæ," says the canon, "against the holy time of Easter ;" and then, at Easter, was the solemnity of public baptisms, so that it was to be used in baptism. And this sense being premised, the canon permits to presbyters to sign with chrism, the same thing that St. Gregory did to the priests of Sardinia. "Statutum verò est, diaconum non chrismare, sed presbyterum, absente episcopo; præsente

verò, si ab ipso fuerit præceptum." Now although | deserve to be over head and ears; some will have this be evident enough, yet it is something clearer them all one in office with presbyters, as at first they in the first Arausican council: "Nullus ministro- were in name; and they had need bathe up to the rum, qui baptizandi recipit officium, sine chrismate chin; but some stand shallower, and grant a little usquam debet progredi, quia inter nos placuit semel distinction, a precedency perhaps for order's sake, in baptismate chrismari." The case is evident, but no pre-eminence in reglement, no superiority of that chrismation or consigning with ointment was jurisdiction: others by all means would be thought used in baptism; and it is as evident that this to be quite through in behalf of bishops' order and chrismation was it which St. Gregory permitted to power, such as it is, but call for a reduction to the the presbyters; not the other, for he expressly for- primitive state, and would have all bishops like the bade the other; and the exigence of the canons, primitive; but because by this means they think to and practice of the church, expound it so; and it is impair their power, they may well endure to be up the same which St. Innocent the First decreed in to the ancles; their error indeed is less, and their more express and distinctive terms: :d "Presbyteris pretence fairer, but the use they make of it of very chrismate baptizatos ungere licet, sed quod ab epis- ill consequence. But curing the mistake will quickcopo fuerit consecratum;" there is a clear permis-ly cure this distemper. That then shall be the sion of consigning with chrism in baptism; but he subjoins a prohibition to priests, for doing it in confirmation: "Non tamen frontem eodem oleo signare, quod solis debetur episcopis, cùm tradunt Spiritum Sanctum Paracletum."

By the way; some, that they might the more clearly determine St. Gregory's dispensation to be only in baptismal chrism, read it, "Ut baptizandos ungant," not "baptizatos;" so Gratian, so St. Thomas; but it is needless to be troubled with that; for Innocentius, in the decretal now quoted, useth the word "baptizatos," and yet clearly distinguishes this power from the giving the chrism in confirma

tion.

present issue, that in the primitive church bishops had more power, and greater exercise of absolute jurisdiction, than now men will endure to be granted, or than themselves are very forward to challenge.

1. Then the primitive church expressing the calling and offices of a bishop, did it in terms of presidency and authority. "Episcopus typum Dei Patris omnium gerit," saith St. Ignatius: "the bishop carries the representment of God the Father," that is, in power and authority to be sure, (for how else ?) so as to be the supreme "in suo ordine," in offices ecclesiastical. And again, "Quid enim aliud est episcopus quàm is, qui omni principatu et potestate superior est ?" Here his superiority and advantage is expressed to be in his "power:" a bishop is greater and higher than all other in power, viz. "in materiâ," or "gradu re

I know no other objection, and these, we see, hinder not, but that having such evidence of fact in Scripture, of confirmations done only by apostles, and this evidence urged by the fathers for the prac-ligionis." And in his epistle to the Magnesians: tice of the church, and the power of confirmation, by many councils and fathers, appropriated to bishops, and denied to presbyters, and in this they are not only doctors, teaching their own opinion, but witnesses of a catholic practice, and do actually attest it as done by a catholic consent; and no one example, in all antiquity, ever produced of any priest, that did, no law that a priest might, impose hands for confirmation;--we may conclude it to be a power apostolical in the original, episcopal in the succession, and that, in this power, the order of a bishop is higher than that of a presbyter, and so declared by this instance of catholic practice.

"Hortor ut hoc sit omnibus studium in Dei concordiâ, omnia agere, episcopo præsidente loco Dei :" "Do all things in unity, the bishop being president in the place of God." "President" in all things. And with a fuller tide yet, in his epistle to the church of Smyrna : "Honora episcopum, ut principem sacerdotum imaginem Dei referentem, Dei quidem propter principatum, Christi verò propter sacerdotum." It is full of fine expression both for eminency of order and jurisdiction. The bishop is "the prince of the priests, bearing the image of God for his principality," that is his jurisdiction and power: but "of Christ himself for his priesthood;" that is his order. St. Ignatius hath spoken fairly; and if we consider that he was so primitive a man that himself saw Christ in the flesh, and lived a man of exemplary sanctity, and died a martyr, and hath been honoured as a holy catholic by all posterity, certainly these testimonies must needs be of great pressure, being "sententiæ repetiti dogmatis," not casually slipped from him, and by incogitancy, but resolutely and frequently.

b

the re

But this is attested by the general expressions of after-ages. "Fungaris circa eum potestate honoris tui," saith St. Cyprian to Bishop Rogatianus : "Execute the power of thy dignity" upon fractory deacon; and "vigor episcopalis," and "auctoritas cathedræ" are the words expressive of that power, whatsoever it be, which St. Cyprian calls Epist. ad Trall. b Lib. iii. Epist. 9.

bishop, and in nothing to be refractory to him." | the authority of so great a man will bear so great a Here is both a "decet" and a 66 necesse est," burden. What the man was, I said before; what already. "It is very fitting, it is necessary." But these epistles are, and of what authority, let it rest if it be possible, we have a fuller expression yet, in upon Vedelius, a man who is nowise to be suspectthe same epistle: "Quemadmodum enim Dominus ed as a party for episcopacy; or rather upon the sine Patre nihil facit, 'Nec enim possum facere à credit of Eusebius, St. Jerome,d and Ruffinus,® who meipso quicquam:' sic et vos sine episcopo, nec reckon the first seven, out of which I have taken diaconus, nec laiconus, nec laicus; nec quicquam these excerpta, for natural and genuine. And now videatur vobis consentaneum quod sit præter illius I will make this use of it; Those men that call for judicium; quod enim tale est, et Deo inimicum." reduction of episcopacy to the primitive state, should Here is obedience universal, both in respect of do well to stand close to their principles, and count things and persons; and all this no less than abso- that the best episcopacy which is first; and then lutely necessary. "For as Christ obeyed his Father consider but what St. Ignatius hath told us for in all things, saying, 'Of myself I can do nothing;' direction in this affair, and see what is gotten in the so nor you without your bishop, whoever you be, bargain. For my part, since they that call for such whether priest, or deacon, or layman: let nothing a reduction, hope to gain by it, and then would please you, which the bishop dislikes; for all such most certainly have abidden by it, I think it not things are wicked, and in enmity with God." But reasonable to abate any thing of Ignatius's height, it seems St. Ignatius was mightily in love with this but expect such subordination and conformity to the precept, for he gives it to almost all the churches he bishop, as he then knew to be a law of christianity. writes to. We have already reckoned the Trallians But let this be remembered all along, in the specifiand the Magnesians. But the same he gives to the cation of the parts of their jurisdiction. But, as yet, priests of Tarsus, οἱ πρεσβύτεροι ὑποτασσέτωσαν I am in the general demonstration of obedience. ἐπισκόπῳ. "Ye presbyters, be subject to your bishop." The same to the Philadelphians : "Sine episcopo nihil facite:" "Do nothing without your bishop.” But this is better explicated in his epistle | to the church of Smyrna : "Sine episcopo nemo quicquam faciat eorum, quæ ad ecclesiam spectant:" "No man may do any thing without the bishop," viz. “ of those things which belong to the church." So that this saying expounds all the rest; for this universal obedience is to be understood according to the sense of the church, viz. to be in all things of ecclesiastical cognizance, all church-affairs. And, therefore, he gives a charge to St. Polycarp, their bishop, that he also look to it, that nothing be done without his leave. "Nihil sine tuo arbitrio agatur, nec item tu quicquam præter Dei facies voluntatem:" "As thou must do nothing against God's will, so let nothing (in the church) be done without thine." By the way, observe, he says not, that as the presbytery must do nothing without the bishop, so the bishop nothing without them;-but, so the bishop nothing without God. But so it is. 66 Nothing must be done without the bishop;" and therefore, although he encourages them that can, to remain in virginity; yet this, if it be either done with pride or without the bishop, it is spoiled. For, "Si gloriatus fuerit, periit, et si id ipsum statuatur sine episcopo, corruptum est." His last dictate in this epistle to St. Polycarp, is with an "Episcopo attendite, sicut et Deus vobis:" " The way to have God to take care of us, is to observe our bishop." "Hinc et vos decet accedere sententiæ episcopi, qui secundum Deum vos pascit; quemadmodum et facitis, edocti à Spiritu:" "You must, therefore, conform to the sentence of the bishop; as indeed ye do already, being taught so to do by God's Holy Spirit." a

The council of Laodicea,' having specified some particular instances of subordination and dependence to the bishop, sums them up thus: σavτws dè kai τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους, μηδὲν πράττειν ἄνευ γνώμης τοῦ έTIOкÓTOυ "So likewise the presbyters, let them do nothing without the precept and counsel of the bishop;" so is the translation of Isidore, "ad verbum." h This council is ancient enough, for it was before the first Nicene. So also was that of Arles, commanding the same thing exactly: "Ut presbyteri, sine conscientià episcoporum, nihil faciant. Sed nec presbyteris civitatis sine episcopi præcepto amplius aliquid imperare, vel sine auctoritate literarum ejus in unâquâque parochiâ aliquid agere," says the thirteenth canon of the Anzyran council, according to the Latin of Isidore. The same thing is in the first council of Toledo, the very same words for which I cited the first council of Arles; viz. "That presbyters do nothing without the knowledge or permission of the bishop. "Esto subjectus pontifici tuo, et quasi animæ parentem suscipe." It is the council of St. Jerome: "Be subject to thy bishop, and receive him as the father of thy soul." k

God

I shall not need to derive hither any more particular instances of the duty and obedience owing from the laity to the bishop; for this account will certainly be admitted by all considering men. hath intrusted the souls of the laity to the care of the ecclesiastical orders; they, therefore, are to submit to the government of the clergy, in matters spiritual, with which they are intrusted. For either there is no government at all, or the laity must govern the church, or else the clergy must. To say there is no government, is to leave the church in worse condition than a tyranny. To say that the laity should govern the church, when all ecclesias

There needs no more to be said in this cause, if tical ministries are committed to the clergy, is to

In

say, Scripture means not what it says; for it is to
say, that the clergy must be "præpositi," and
πроεσтwτes, and " prælati ;" and yet the prelation,
and presidency, and rule, is in them who are not
ever, by God's Spirit, called presidents or prelates,
and that it is not in them who are so called.
the mean time, if the laity, in matters spiritual, are
inferior to the clergy, and must, in things pertain-
ing to the soul, be ruled by them, with whom their
souls are intrusted; then also, much rather they
must obey those of the clergy, to whom all the
other clergy themselves are bound to be obedient.
Now since, by the frequent precept of so many
councils and fathers, the deacons and presbyters
must submit, in all things, to the bishop, much more
must the laity; and since the bishop must rule in
chief, and the presbyters, at the most, can but rule
in conjunction and assistance, but ever in subordina-
tion to the bishop, the laity must obey “ de inte- |
gro." For that is to keep them in that state, in
which God hath placed them.

SECTION XXXVI.

Appointing them to be Judges of the Clergy, and
Spiritual Causes of the Laity.

πος.

THE bishops were ecclesiastical judges over the presbyters, the inferior clergy, and the laity. What they were in Scripture who were constituted in presidency over causes spiritual, I have already twice explicated; and from hence it descended, by a close succession, that they who watched for souls, they had the rule over them, and because no regiment can be without coercion, therefore there was inherent in them a power of cognition of causes, and coercion of persons. The canons of the apostles, appointing censures to be inflicted on delinquent persons, make the bishop's hand to do it. Εἰ τὶς πρεσβύτερος, ἢ διάκονος, ἀπὸ ἐπισκόπου γένηται ἀφωρισμένος, τοῦτον μὴ ἐξεῖναι παρ' ἑτέρου δέχεσθαι, ἀλλ ̓ ἢ παρὰ ἀφορίσαντος αὐτὸν, εἰ μὴ ἂν κατὰ συγκυρίαν τελευτήσει ὁ ἀφορίσας αὐτὸν ἐπίσκο"If any presbyter or deacon be excommunicated by the bishop, he must not be received by any else, but by him that did so censure him, unless the bishop that censured him be dead." a The same is repeated in the Nicene council; only it is permitted that any one may appeal to a synod of bishops: "Si fortè aliquâ indignatione, aut contentione, aut quâlibet commotione episcopi sui, excommunicati sint," if he thinks himself wronged by prejudice or passion; and when the synod is met, "hujusmodi examinent quæstiones." " b But by the way, it must be "synodus episcoporum;" so the canon : "Ut ita demum hi, qui, ob culpas suas, episcoporum suorum offensas merito contraxerunt, dignè etiam à cæteris excommunicati habeantur, quousque in communi, vel ipsi episcopo suo visum fuerit humaniorem circa eos ferre sententiam:” "The synod of bishops must ratify the excommunication of all those, who, for their delinquencies, have justly incurred the displeasure of their bishop, and this censure to stick upon them, till either the synod or their own bishop shall give a more gentle sentence." This canon, we see, relates to the canon of the apostles, and affixes the judicature of priests and deacons to the bishops; commanding their censures to be held as firm and valid; only as the apostles' canon names presbyters and deacons particularly; so the Nicene canon speaks indefinitely, and so comprehends all of the diocess and jurisdiction.

But for the main : St. Clement, in his epistle to St. James, translated by Ruffinus, saith it was the doctrine of Peter, according to the institution of Christ, "That presbyters should be obedient to their bishop in all things;" and in his third epistle, "That presbyters and deacons, and others of the clergy, must take heed, that they do nothing without the license of the bishop." And to make this business up complete, all these authorities of great antiquity were not the prime constitutions in those several churches respectively, but mere derivations from tradition apostolical; for not only the thing, but the words so often mentioned, are in the fortieth canon of the apostles. Οἱ πρεσβύτεροι καὶ διάκονοι ἄνευ γνώμης τοῦ ἐπισκόπου μηδὲν ἐπιτελείτωσαν, (the same is repeated in the twenty-fourth canon of the council of Antioch,) αὐτὸς γάρ ἐστιν ὁ πεπιστευμένος τὸν λαὸν τοῦ Κυρίου, καὶ τὸν ὑπὲρ τῶν ψυχῶν αὐτῶν λόγον ἀπαιτηθησόμενος· "Presbyters and deacons must do nothing without leave of the bishop; for to him the Lord's people is committed, and he must give an account for their souls." And if a presbyter shall contemn his own bishop, making conventions apart, and erecting another altar, he is to be deposed, s píλapxos, saith the thirty-second canon, as a lover of principality;" intimating, that he arrogates episcopal dignity, and so is ambitious of a principality, The issue then is this. The presbyters, and clergy, and laity must obey; therefore, the bishop must govern and give them laws. It was particularly instanced in the case of St. Chrysostom, καὶ τὴν Ποντικὴν τούτοις κατεκόσμει τοῖς The fourth council of Carthage gives, in express vóμous, saith Theodoret : " He adorned and instruct-terms, the cognizance of clergy-causes to the bishop, ed Pontus with these laws;" so he, reckoning up the calling aid from a synod in case a clergyman prove extent of his jurisdiction.1 refractory and disobedient. Discordantes clericos But now descend we to a specification of the power episcopus vel ratione vel potestate ad concordiam and jurisdiction of bishops.

66

66

trahat, inobedientes synodus per audientiam damnet :" "If the bishop's reason will not end the controversies of clergymen, his power must " but if any man list to be contentious, intimating (as I suppose, out of the Nicene council) with frivolous appeals, and impertinent protraction," the synod (of bishops)