upon the will of councils and city-bishops, from whom they received it, so by this time their authority began to sink apace in the Church. 80 struck at Council of up περιο 12. The Council of Laodicea gave them the first blow, anno Their 360; for there it was decreed 77,' that for the future no bishops power first should be placed in country villages, but only repɩodevraì, iti- by the nerant or visiting presbyters; and for such bishops as were Laodicea, already constituted, they should do nothing without the consent which set and direction of the city-bishop.' In the Council of Chalcedon Seural in we meet with some such presbyters expressly styled Teρtodev- their room. Tal, as Alexander 78 and Valentinus 79, each of which has the title of presbyter and Teρlodevτns. And so, in the fifth general Council at Constantinople 50, one Sergius, a presbyter, has the same title of Teρiodevτǹs, curator or visitor of the Syrian Churches. Yet still the order of the chorepiscopi was preserved in many places: for not only is mention made of them by Gregory Nazianzen 81 and St. Basil 82, in the fourth century, but also by Theodoret 83, who speaks of Hypatius and Abramius, his own chorepiscopi. And in the Council of Chalcedon, in the fifth century, we find the chorepiscopi sitting and subscribing in the name of the bishops that sent them but this was some diminution of their power, for in former Councils they subscribed in their own names, as learned men 84 77 C. 57. (t. 1. p. 1505 e.) "Ori où δεῖ ἐν ταῖς κώμαις καὶ ἐν ταῖς χώραις καθίστασθαι ἐπισκόπους, ἀλλὰ περιοδευτάς· τοὺς μὲν τοὶ ἤδη προκατασταθέντας μηδὲν πράττειν ἄνευ γνώμης τοῦ ἐπισκόπου τοῦ ἐν τῇ πόλει. 78 Act. 4. (t. 4. p. 535 b.) Ὁ εὐλαβέστατος πρεσβύτερος καὶ περιοδευτῆς ̓Αλέξανδρος. 79 Act. 10. (ibid. p. 647 d.) Baλέντιόν τινα ἐπίρρητον ἄνδρα . . . . χειροτόνησε πρεσβύτερον καὶ περιοδευτήν. 80 C. Constant. sub Menna, act.1. (t. 5. p. 37 c.) ZépуLos πрeσßúтeроs, περιοδευτής, κ. τ. λ. 81 Ep. 88. (t. 1. p. 843 d.) Пapà τῶν κυρίων μου τῶν συμπρεσβυτέρων μαθήσῃ Εὐλαλίου τοῦ χωρεπισκόπου καὶ Κελευσίου, οὓς ἐξ ἔργου πρὸς τὴν σὴν εὐλάβειαν ἀπεστάλκαμεν. 82 Ep. 181. [al. 54.] ad Chorepisc. See n. 67, preceding. 83 agree; but Ep. 113. ad Leon. (t. 4. part. 2. p. 1192.) Ταῦτα διὰ τῶν εὐλαβεστάτων καὶ θεοφιλεστάτων πρεσβυτέρων Ὑπατίου καὶ ̓Αβραμίου τῶν χωρεπισκόπων, καὶ ̓Αλυπίου τοῦ ἐξάρχου τῶν παρ' ἡμῖν μοναζόντων τὴν ὑμετέ ραν ἁγιωσύνην ἐδίδαξα. 84 Blondel. Apol. s. 3. (p. 130.) Potuerunt enim sub jure ac nomine in Conciliis non modo topicis, sed etiam universalibus, cum episcopis sedere ac suffragium ferre. Hinc in Neocæsariensi octodecim capitum Synodo Stephanus et Rhudus, sive Rhodon, Cappadocia chorepiscopi, 8 et 16 loco sederunt, &c.-Bevereg. in C. Ancyr. c. 13. (t. 2. append. p. 176.) Et quidem hujusmodi chorepiscopos plurimos antiquitus constitutos fuisse, ex Actis Conciliorum patet, utpote quibus ipsi, æque ac alii episcopi, non interfuerunt modo, sed et subscripserunt. Exempli gra Of the attempt to chorepi scopi in England, under the name of suffragan bishops. now their power was sinking, and it went on to decay and dwindle by degrees, till at last, in the ninth century, when the forged Decretals were set on foot, it was pretended that they were not true bishops, and so the order, by the Pope's tyranny, came to be laid aside in the Western Church. 13. Some attempt was made in England, at the beginning of restore the the Reformation, to restore these under the name of suffragan bishops; for, as our histories inform us 85, by an Act of the 26th of Henry the VIIIth, anno 1534, several towns were appointed for suffragan sees, viz. Thetford, Ipswich, Colchester, Dover, Guildford, Southampton, Taunton, Shaftesbury, Molton, Marlborough, Bedford, Leicester, Gloucester, Shrewsbury, Bristol, Penreth, Bridgewater, Nottingham, Grantham, Hull, Huntingdon, Cambridge, Pereth, Berwick, St. Germains in Cornwall, and the Isle of Wight. These suffragans were to be consecrated by the archbishop and two other bishops, and by the Act to have the same episcopal power as suffragans formerly had within this realm; but none of them were either to have or act anything properly episcopal, without the consent and permission of the bishop of the city, in whose diocese he was placed and constituted. Now any one, that compares this with the account that I have given of the ancient chorepiscopi, will easily perceive that these suffragans were much of the same nature with them; but then I must observe that this was a new name for them. Suffragan bishops different from the 14. For anciently suffragan bishops were all the city-bishops of any province under a metropolitan, who were called his suffragans, because they met at his command to give their scopi in the suffrage, counsel, or advice in a provincial synod; and in this sense the word was used in England at the time when Linwood chorepi primitive Church. tia, Synodo Nicænæ primæ sub- 85 Burnet, History of the Re- the fourteenth act provision was made for suffragan bishops, &c.— Ibid. (p. 158.) These were believed to be the same with the chorepiscopi in the primitive church, which as they were begun before the first Council of Nice, so they continued in the Western Church till the ninth century, and then a Decretal of Damasus being forged, that condemned them, they were put down everywhere by degrees, and now revived in England. wrote his Provinciale; which was not above an hundred years before the Reformation, anno 1430. In his comment upon one of the Constitutions of John Peckham, archbishop of Canterbury, which begins with these words, Omnibus et singulis coepiscopis, suffraganeis nostris, To all and singular our fellow-bishops and suffragans; he has this note 86 upon this word suffragans: They were called suffragans, because they were bound to give their suffrage and assistance to the archbishop, being summoned to take part in his care, though not in the plenitude of his power.' Whence it is plain, that in his time suffragan bishops did not signify chorepiscopi, or rural bishops, but all the bishops of England under their archbishops or metropolitans. Thus it was also in other Churches. The seventy bishops, who were immediately subject to the bishop of Rome, as their primate or metropolitan, were called his suffragans, because they were frequently called to his synods: as the reason of the name is given in an ancient Vatican MS. cited by Baronius 87. of the name libra. 15. And here it will not be amiss to observe, whilst we are The suffraspeaking of suffragan bishops, that these seventy bishops, who gan bishops were suffragans to the bishop of Rome, were by a peculiar Roman technical name called libra; which name was given them for provinces called by a no other reason, but because of their number seventy. For the technical Roman libra, as antiquaries 88 note, consisted of seventy solidi, or so many parts; and therefore the number seventy, in any other things or persons, thence took the name of libra: as the seventy witnesses, which are introduced deposing against Marcellinus, in the Council of Sinuessa, that they saw him sacrifice, are by the author of those Acts 89 termed libra occidua; for no other reason, as Baronius 90 conceives, but because they 86 Provincial. 1. 1. tit. 2. c. 1. (p. 11. n. g.) Suffraganeis. Sic dictis, quia archiepiscopo suffragari et assistere tenentur, &c. 87 An. 1057. n. 18. (t. 11. p. 239 b.) Præter septem collaterales episcopos erant alii episcopi, qui dicuntur suffraganei Romani Pontificis, nulli alii primati vel archiepiscopo subjecti, qui frequenter ad synodos vocarentur. 88 Brerewood, de Ponder. et Pret. c. 15. (ap. Walton. Prolegom. p. 34.)... Ita ut 72 [aurei nummi] ex auri libra cuderentur. 89 Ap. Crabb. t. 1. p. 190. (ap. Labb. t. I. p. 939 e.) Hi omnes electi sunt viri, Libra Occidua, qui testimonium perhibent, videntes [al. se vidisse eumdem] Marcellinum thurificasse. 90 An. 302. n. 92. (t. 2. p. 724 d.) Quod.. inferius acta Synodi in causa Marcellini numerum septuaginta duorum testium, Libram Occiduam, nominant: inde patet, quod hic dicitur; omnes electi sunt viri Libra Occidua, qui testimonium perhi Why some bishops called interces African were seventy in number. And Grotius 91 gives the same reason for affixing this title on the seventy bishops, who were assessors or suffragans to the bishop of Rome; they were, as one might say, his libra, or ordinary provincial council. CHAP. XV. Of the intercessores and interventores in the African Churches. 1. THERE is one appellation more given to some bishops in the African Councils, which must here be taken notice of, sors in the whilst we are speaking of bishops, which is the name interChurches. cessor and interventor; a title given to some bishops upon the account of a pro-tempore office, which was sometimes committed to them. In the African Churches, and perhaps in others also, upon the vacancy of a bishopric, it was usual for the primate to appoint one of the provincial bishops to be a sort of procurator of the diocese; partly to take care of the vacant see, and partly to promote and procure the speedy election of a new bishop: and from this he had the name of intercessor and interventor. The office of an intercessor not a year. 2. The design of this office was manifestly to promote the good of the Church, but it was liable to be abused two ways: to last above for the intercessor, by this means, had a fair opportunity given to ingratiate himself with the people, and promote his own interest among them, instead of that of the Church; either by keeping the see void longer than was necessary, or, if it was a wealthier or more honourable place than his own, by getting himself chosen into it. To obviate any such designs, the African fathers, in the fifth Council of Carthage, made a decree, that no intercessor should continue in his office for above a year; but if he did not procure a new bishop to be chosen within that time, another intercessor should be sent in his room. No intercessor to be made bi 3. And the more effectually to cut off all abuses, and prevent corruption, they enacted it also into a law 92, that no inter bent. Numerum septuaginta duo- massa transmittitur, in septuaginta duos solidos libra feratur accepta. 91 In Luc. 10, I. (t. 2. v. I. p. 396. 5.).... Romanis episcopis jam olim septuaginta episcopi adsessores libra dicti, quod libra Romana tot solidos contineret. 92 C. Carth.v. c. 8. (t. 2. p. 1216 e.) place where cessor should be capable of succeeding himself in the vacant shop of the see, whatever motions or solicitations were made by the people he was in his behalf. So extremely cautious were these holy African constituted fathers to prevent abuses in matters of this nature. CHAP. XVI. Of primates or metropolitans. intercessor. rive the original of me from apostolical con 1. THE same reasons, which first brought in chorepiscopi Some deand coadjutors, as subordinate to bishops in every city-church, made the bishops of every province think it necessary to make tropolitans one of themselves superior to all the rest, and invest him with certain powers and privileges for the good of the whole; stitution. whom they therefore named their primate or metropolitan, that is, the principal bishop of the province. Bishop Usher 93 derives the origin of this settlement from apostolical constitution; so also bishop Beveridge 94, Dr. Hammond 95, Peter de Marca, and some others; and there are several passages in Eusebius and Chrysostom which seem to favour this. For Eusebius 96 says, Titus had the superintendency of all the Ut nulli intercessori licitum sit, cathedram, cui intercessor datus est, quibuslibet populorum studiis, vel seditionibus retinere: sed dare operam, ut intra annum eisdem episcopum provideat. Quod si neglexerit, anno expleto [al. exempto], interventor alius tribuatur. 93 De Orig. Episc. et Metropol. (Works, v. 7. pp. 43, seqq.) See p. 45. But nothing being so familiar now-a-days, &c. 94 Cod. Canon. Vindic. 1. 2. c. 5. n. 12. (ap. Cotel. t. 2. p. 96.) Cum apostoli itaque, cœlitus evocati et adjuti, ecclesiæ, a Christo fundatæ, per universum terrarum orbem propagandæ operam navarent, imperium Romanum, ubi religio Christiana multo citius faciliusque quam apud rudiores gentes suscepta est, ita dispositum invenientes, omnes ejusdem provincias singillatim peragrabant; et ubicumque aliquos ad fidem Christianam converterant, ecclesiam ibidem instituebant, ab ista provincia denominatam in qua constituta est, vel a primaria aliqua ejusdem civitate. Hierosolymis, quæ istis diebus nondum deleta, provin- 95 Pref. to Titus, (v. 3. p. 715.) 96 L. 3. c. 4. (v. 1. p. 91. 15.) Tıμόθεός γε μὴν τῆς ἐν Ἐφέσῳ παροικίας ἱστορεῖται πρῶτος τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν ειληχέναι· ὡς καὶ Τίτος τῶν ἐπὶ Κρήτης ἐκκλησιῶν. |