byters. All that I shall observe further here, concerning this throne of the bishops, is, though it be some times called the high and lofty throne, especially by those writers' who speak in a rhetorical strain. Yet that is only meant comparatively, in respect of the lower seats of presbyters; for otherwise, it was a fault in any bishop, to build himself a pompous and splendid throne, in imitation of the state and grandeur of the secular magistrates. This was one of the crimes which the council of Antioch, in their synodical epistle against Paulus Samosatensis, laid to his charge, that he built himself an high and stately tribunal, not as a disciple of Christ, but as one of the rulers of the world; making a secretum to it, in imitation of the secular magistrates, whose tribunals had a place railed out from the rest, and separated by a veil, which they called, the secretum, and the ambitious, bishop gave his the same name; by which, and some other such like practices, he raised the envy and hatred of the heathens against the Christians, as they there complain of him. It was then the great care of the Christian Church, to observe a decorum in the honours which she bestowed upon her bishops, that they might be such as might set them above contempt, but to keep them below envy; make them venerable, but not minister to vanity or the outward pomp and ostentation of secular greatness,

CHAP. X.

Of the Age, and some particular Qualifications required in such as were to be Ordained Bishops.

SECT. 1.-Bishops not to be ordained under Thirty Years of Age, except they were Men of extraordinary Worth.

THOSE qualfiications of bishops, which were common to them with the rest of the clergy, shall be spoken of hereafter; here I shall only take notice of a few that were more pecu

'Naz. Somnium de Eccl. Anastas sublimi throno insidere mihi videbar. Id. Orat. 20. in laud. Basil. p. 342, ¿ñì tòv infλòv τñg iñiokonñg Ipòvov. &c, 2 Ap. Euseb. lib. vii. c. 30.

of

liar to them. Such as, first, their age; which by the canons was required to be at least thirty years. The council of Neocæsarea' requires thirty in presbyters; which is a certain argument that the same age was requisite in a bishop. The council of Agde more expressly limits their age to that time; requiring all metropolitans to insist upon it in their ordination. The reasons given by these councils are; because our Saviour himself did not begin to teach before he was thirty years old, and because that is the perfect age man; therefore though a man was otherwise never so well qualified the council of Neocæsarea says, "he shall wait, and not be ordained so much as presbyter before that time." But whether this rule was always observed from the days of the Apostles, may be questioned; for there is no such rule given by the Apostles in Scripture. That which goes under their name in the Constitutions requires a bishop to be fifty years old before he is ordained; except he be a man of singular merit and worth, which may compensate for the want of years. This shews that the custom of the Church varied in this matter, and that persons of extraordinary qualification were not always tied to be of such an age. Timothy was ordained young, as may be collected from what the Apostle says to him, 1 Tim. iv. 12. "Let no man despise thy youth." The history of the Church affords many other such instances. Eusebius says, "Gregory Thaumaturgus and his brother Athenodorus were both ordained bishops very young; Ti vésç äupw. St. Ambrose' says the same of Acholius, bishop of Thessalonica; "That he was young in years, but of mature age in respect of his virtues.' And Socrates gives the like account of Paulus, bishop of Constanstinople. Theodoret observes also of Athanasius, "that he was but young when he attended his bishop Alexander at

ἔτι νέες

Con. Neocæs. Can. 11. Concil. Agathen. c. 17. Presbyterum vel Episcopum ante triginta annos, id est, antequam ad viri perfecti ætatem perveniat, nullus Metropolitanorum ordinare præsumat. See also Con. Tolet. iv. c. 18. et 19. 8 Constit. Apost. lib. ii. c. 1. • Euseb. 5 Ambr. Ep. 60. ad Anysium. Benedictus processus juventutis ipsius, in quâ ad summum electus est Sacerdotium, maturo jam proSocrat, lib. ii. c. 6. "Avopa viov 7 Theod. lib. i. c, 26.

lib. vi. c. 30.

batus virtutum stipendio.

μεν τὴν ἡλικίαν, προβεβηκότα δε ταῖς φρεσίν νέος μεν ὧν τὴν ἡλικίαν

2

the council of Nice;" and yet within five months after, he was chosen his successor at Alexandria; which probably was before he was thirty years old: for the council of Nice was not above twenty years after the persecution under Maximian; and yet Athanasius was so young, as not to remember the beginning of that persecution, Anno, 303, but only as he heard it from his fathers. For when he speaks of it, he says," He learned of his parents, that the persecution was raised by Maximian, grand-father to Constantius." So that if we compute from that time, we can hardly suppose him to be thirty years old, when he was ordained bishop, Anno, 326. It is agreed by all authors that Remigius, bishop of Rhemes, was but twenty-two years old when he was ordained, Anno, 471. And Cotelerius after Nicephorus, says, "St. Eleutherius, an Illyrican bishop, was consecrated at twenty." Ignatius gives a plain intimation, that Damas, bishop of the Magnesians, was but a very young bishop, though he does not expressly mention his age. He calls his ordination, vEWTEOIKηv Táživ, a youthful ordination; and therefore cautions the people not to despise him for his age, but to reverence and give place to him in the Lord. Salmasius and Ludovicus Capellus miserably pervert this passage, and force a sense upon it, which the author never so much as dreamt of. They will needs have it, that by the words νεωτερικὴν τάξιν, Ignatius means the novelty of episcopacy in general, that it was but a new and late institution; which is not only contrary to the whole tenour and design of all Ignatius's epistles, but to the plain sense of this passage in particular; which speaks nothing of the institution of episcopacy, but of the age of this bishop, who was but young when he was ordained.

Now, from all this it appears, that though there was a rule in the Church, requiring bishops to be thirty years old when they were ordained; yet it was frequently dispensed with, either in cases of necessity, or in order to promote persons of more extraordinary worth and singular

'Athan. Ep. ad Solitar. tom. i. p. 853. Baron. an. 471. p. 298.

Niceph, lib. iii. c. 29.

2 Hincmar. Vit. Remig.

8 Coteler. Not. in Const. Apost. lib. ii. c. I. Ignat. Ep. ad Magnes. n. 3. 5 Vid.

Pearson. Vindic. Ignat. præf. ad Lector.

VOL. I.

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qualifications. Yet such dispensations, as qualify boys of eleven or twelve years old to be made bishops are no where to be met with in the primitive Church; though the history of the Papacy affords frequent instances of such promotions, as those that please may see in a catalogue of them, collected by Dr. Reynolds and Mr. Mason, two1 learned writers of our Church.

SECT. 2.-Bishops to be chosen out of the Clergy of the Church to which they were ordained.

But to return to the bishops of the primitive Church. Another qualification in a bishop, anciently very much insisted on, was, that he should be one of the clergy of the same Church, over which he was to be made bishop. For strangers, who were unknown to the people, were not reckoned qualified by the canons. This is plainly implied by Cyprian, when he says, "The bishop was to be chosen in the presence of the people, who had perfect knowledge of every man's life and actions, by their conversation among them." St. Jerom observes," That this was the constant custom of Alexandria, from St. Mark, to Dionysius and Heraclas, for the presbyters of the Church to choose a bishop out of their own body." And therefore Julius makes it a strong objection against Gregory, whom the Arians obtruded on the Church of Alexandria in the room of Athanasius, that he was a perfect stranger to the place; neither baptized there, nor known to any; whereas, the ordination of a bishop ought not to be so uncanonical; but he should be ordained by the bishops of the province in his own Church, and be ἀπ ̓ αυτῷ τῷ ἱερατείο, ἀπ ̓ αυτό το κλήρs, one of the clergy of the Church to which he was ordained. The ancient bishops of Rome were all of the same mind, so long as they thought themselves obliged to walk by the laws of the Church; for

' Vid. Rainoldi Apolog. Thes. n. 26. Mason of the Consecrat, of Bishops. lib. i. c. 5. Cypr. Ep. 68. al. 67. ad Fratr. Hispan. p. 172. Episcopus deligatur plebe præsente, quæ singulorum vitam plenissimè novit, et uniuscujusque actum de ejus conversatione perspexit. 8 Hieron. Epist. 85. ad Evagr. Alexandriæ à Marco Evangelistâ usque ad Heraclam et Dionysium Episcopos, Presbyteri semper unum ex se electum, in excelsiori gradu collocatum Episcopum nominabant. Jul. Ep. ad Oriental.

ap. Athan. Apol. ii tom. i. p. 749.

5

"

Celestin,' and Hilary and Leo insist upon the same thing as the common rule and canon of the Church. And we find a law as late as Charles the Great, and Ludovicus Pius, to the same purpose. For in one of their Capitulars it is ordered, "that bishops shall be chosen out of their own diocese, by the election of the clergy and the people.' Though, as Baluzius notes, this law did not extend to very many dioceses, for by this time, the French kings had the disposal of all bishoprics in their dominions, except some few Churches, which by special privilege retained the old way of electing; and they did not bind themselves to nominate bishops always out of the clergy of that Church which was vacant, but used their liberty to choose them out of any other. As now it is become the privilege and custom of kings and princes almost in all nations; which is the occassion of the difference betwixt the ancient and modern practice in this particular. For while the ancient way of elections continued, the general rule was for every Church to make choice of one of her own clergy to be her bishop, and not a stranger.

SECT. 3.-Some Exceptions to this Rule.

Yet in some extraordinary cases this rule admitted of legal exceptions; particularly in these three cases. 1. When it was found for the benefit of the Church to translate bishops from one see to another. In this case though the bishop was a stranger, yet his translation being canonical, was reckoned no violation of this law. 2. When the Church could not unanimously agree upon one in their own body, then to pacify their heats and end their controversies, the emperor or a council proposed one of another Church to their choice, or promoted him by their own authority. Upon this ground Nectarius, Chrysostom, and Nestorius, all strangers, were made bishops of Constantinople. It

1 Cælestin. Ep. ii. ad Episc. Narbon. c. 4, et 5. Epist. 1. ad Ascan. Tarracon. c. 3.

2 Hilar. Pap.

Leo Ep. 84. ad Anastas. c. 6. * Capitular. Caroli et Ludov. lib. i. c. 84. Episcopi per electionem Cleri et Populi, secundum statuta canonum, de propriâ diœcesi eligantur. 5 Baluz.

Not. ad Concilia Gall. Narbon. p. 34. It. Not. ad Gratian. Dist. lxiii. c. xxxiv. p. 467.