some bishops did impose the burthen of orders upon men against their consent, they granted liberty in that case, either to the party himself, or any other accuser to bring an action at law against the archdeacon; who was liable to be fined ten pounds of gold, to be paid to the injured party, or to the informers, or to the states of the city. The bishop also was to be censured by his superiors, and the party ordained to be set at liberty, as if he had never been ordained. Pursuant to this law, John, bishop of Ravenna, for a transgression of this kind, was threatened to be deprived of the power of ordination by Simplicius,' bishop of Rome, anno 482. And the third council of Orleans, anno 538, made a decree for the French Churches, "that if any bishop ordained a clerk against his will, he should do penance for the fact a whole year, and remain suspended from his office till that term was expired." So great an alteration was there made in one age in the rules and practice of the Church, from what they had been in the former,

SECT. 4.-Yet a Bishop Ordained against his Will, had not the Privilege to relinquish.

But I must note, that, after this correction was made, there was still some difference to be observed between the forced ordination of a bishop, and that of an inferior clerk, presbyter, deacon, or any other. For though the forementioned imperial law gave liberty to all inferiors, so ordained, to relinquish their office, which was forced upon them, if they pleased, and betake themselves to a secular life again; yet it peremptorily denied this privilege to bishops, decreeing, that their ordination should stand good; and that no action, brought against their ordainers, should be of force to evacuate or disannul their consecration. Which seems to

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licentiam, commodemus apud judices competentes hujusmodi admissa damnare, ut si inter leges objecta constiterint, decem libras auri Archidiaconus cogatur inferre ei qui pertulerit exsolvendas: dehinc si ille desistit, accusatoris censibus et civitatis ordini profuturas: illo suæ reddito voluntati, qui coactus non potuit consecrari, &c. Simplic. Ep. 2. ad Johan. Raven* Con. Aurelian. iii. c. 7. Episcopus qui invitum vel reclamantem præsumpserit ordinare, annuali pœnitentiæ subditus Missas facere non præsumat. 3 Leo Novel. 2. Ibid. Si qui sanè Episcopus invitus fuerit ordinatus, hanc consecrationem nullâ violari accusatione permittimus.

natens.

be grounded upon that ancient rule of the Church, mentioned in the council of Antioch,' and confirmed in the council of Chalcedon," that if any bishop was ordained to a Church, to which he refused to go, he should be excommunicated till he complied, or something were determined in his case by a provincial synod." Which seems to authorise the using a sort of violence in compelling men to undergo the burthen of the episcopal function; agreeably to that other law of Leo and Anthemius in the Justinian Code, which puts this among other qualifications of a bishop, that he shall be so far from ambition, as to be one rather that must be sought for and compelled to take a bishopric. Such were anciently the laws of Church and State relating to forced ordinations.

SECT. 5.-Re-ordinations generally condemned.

As to re-ordinations, before we can answer to the question about them, we must distinguish between the orders, that were given regularly and canonically by persons rightly qualified in the Church, and such, as were given irregularly by persons unqualified, or by heretics and schismatics, out of the Church. As to such orders as were given regularly in the Church, they were supposed, like baptism, to impress a sort of indelible character, so as that there was no necessity upon any occasion to repeat them; but on the contrary it was deemed a criminal act so to do. The third council of Carthage, following the steps of the plenary council of Capua, or Capsa, decreed, "that it was equally unlawful to re-baptize and re-ordain." And those called the Apostolical Canons make it deposition both for the ordainer and ordained to give or receive a second ordination. St. Austin says, it was not the custom of the Catholic Church to repeat either orders or baptism. For

1 Con. Antioch. c. 17, tin. lib. i. tit. 3. de Episc. leg. 31. ut quæratur cogendus, &c.

8 Cod. Jus

2 Con. Chalced. Act. 11. Tantum ab ambitu debet esse sepositus, Con. Carth. iii. c. 38. In Capsensi ¡lenaria Synodo statutum, quod non liceat fieri rebaptizationes, et recrdinationes, vel translationes Episcoporum. 5 Canon. Apost. c. 67.

6 Aug. Cont. Parmen, lib, ii. c. 13. In Catholicâ utrumque non licet iterari, 3 E

VOL I.

men did not lose their orders,' as to the internal character and virtue, though they were suspended from the execution of their office for some misdemeanor. Optatus testifies the same, telling us," that Donatus was condemned in the council of Rome under Melchiades, for re-ordaining such bishops, as had lapsed in time of persecution; which was contrary to the custom of the Catholic Church." And others accuse the Arians upon the same account, for reordaining such of the Catholic clergy, as went over to their party.

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SECT. 6.-The Proposal made by Cæcilian to the Donatists, examined. There is indeed a passage in Optatus, concerning Cæcilian, bishop of Carthage, which at first view seems to import, as if Cæcilian had been willing to have submitted to a reordination. For Optatus says, "Cæcilian sent this message to the Donatist bishops, that, if Felix had given him no true ordination, as they pretended, they should ordain him again, as if he were still only a deacon." But St. Austin, who perhaps best understood Caecilian's meaning, says, "he only spoke this ironically to deride them, not that he intended to submit to a second ordination, but because he was certain, that Felix and the rest of his ordainers were no traditors, as they accused them." So that we have no instances of re-ordaining such, as were regularly ordained, in the Catholic Church; it being esteemed "unlawful," as Theodoret words it,6 "to give any man the same ordination twice." Whence neither in the translation of bishops from one Church to another do we ever read of a new ordination,

1 Id. de Bona Conjugal. c. xxiv. tom. vi. Manet in illis ordinatis sacramentum ordinationis; et si aliquâ culpâ quisquam ab officio removeatur, sacramento Domini semel imposito non carebit, &c. 2 Optat. lib. i. p. 44. In Donatum sunt hæ sententiæ latæ. Quod confessus sit se rebaptizâsse, et Episcopis lapsis manum imposuisse ; quod ab ecclesiâ alienum est. Vid. Vales. Not. in Sozom. lib. vi. c. 26. ex Marcellin. Libel. Precum. 4 Optat. lib. i. p. 41. A Cæciliano mandatum est, ut si Felix in se, sicut illi arbitrabantur, nihil contulisset, ipsi tanquam adhuc Diaconum ordinarent Cæcilianum. Aug. Brevic. Collat. Die iii. c. 16. Quod quidem si dictum est, ideò dici potuit ad illos deridendos, quibus hoc mandâsse perhibetur, quoniam certus erat ordinatores suos non esse traditores. 6 Theod. Histor. Relig. c. 13. Ου δανατὸν δὶς τὴν αὐτὴν ἐπιτεθεῖναι χειροτονίαν.

but only of an enthronization or instalment; as of a new matriculation of presbyters and deacons, when they were taken out of one Church to be settled in another. Cyprian,' speaking of his admission of Numidicus into his own Church from another, where he was presbyter before, does not say, he gave him a new ordination, but only a name and a seat among the presbyters of Carthage. And this was the constant practice of the Church, in all such cases, for any thing that appears to the contrary.

SECT. 7.-Schismatics sometimes re-ordained.

As to such, as were ordained out of the Church by schismatical or heretical bishops, the case was a little dif ferent. For the Church did not always allow of their ordinations, but sometimes for discipline's sake, and to put a mark of infamy upon their errors, made them take a new ordination. This was decreed by the great council of Nice in the case of those bishops and presbyters, whom Meletius, the schismatic, ordained in Egypt, after he had been deposed by his metropolitan of Alexandria. They were not to be admitted to serve in the Catholic Church, till they were first authorised by a more sacred ordination," as that council words it in her Synodical Epistle or Directions to the Church of Alexandria. In pursuance of this decree, Theodore, bishop of Oxyrinchus, re-ordained the Meletian presbyters upon their return to the Church; as Valesius 3 shows out of Marcellinus, and Faustinus's petition to the emperor Theodosius: and other learned men are of the same opinion. Yet in some cases the Church consented to receive schismatical bishops and presbyters without obliging them to take a new ordination. As in Afric, St. Austin' assures us, it was the custom to allow of the ordinations of

Cypr. Ep. xxxv. al. 40. Admonitos nos et instructos sciatis dignatione divinâ, ut Numidicus Presbyter adscribatur Presbyterorum Carthaginiensium numero, et nobiscum sedeat in Clero. Ep. Synod. ap. Socrat. lib. i. c. 9, 8 Vales.

Aug.

Et Theod. lib. i. c. 9. Μυτικωτέρα χειροτονία βεθαιωθέντας, &c. Not. in Socrat. lib. i. c. 9. * Du Pin Biblioth. Cent. iv. p. 251. Cont. Parmen. lib. ii. c. 13. Si visum est opus esse, ut eadem officia gererent quæ gerebant, non sunt rursus ordinati, sed sicut baptismus in eis, ita ordinatio mansit integra, &c. Vid. Cont. Crescon. lib. ii. c. 11. It. Ep. 50. p. 87. Ep. 162. p. 279.

the Donatists, and to admit them to officiate in whatever station they served before their return to the unity of the Church, without repeating their ordination any more than their baptism. He repeats this in several places of his writings. And that it was so, appears both from the canons of the African councils,' and the concessions made in the Collation of Carthage, where the proposal was, "that the Donatist bishops should enjoy their honours and dignities, if they would return to the unity of the Catholic Church." This had before been determined in the Roman council, under Melchiades, where the Donatists had their first hearing. For there, as St. Austin informs us, it was also decreed, "that only Donatus, the author of the schism, should be cashiered; but for all the rest, though they were ordained out of the Church, they should be received upon their repentance, in the very same offices and quality, which they enjoyed before." So that the rigour of Church discipline was quickened, or abated in this respect, according as the benefit or necessities of the Church seemed to require.

SECT. 8.—And Heretics also upon their Return to the Church, in some Places. And the treatment of persons ordained by heretics was much of the same nature. Some canons require all such without exception to be re-ordained. It was so in the Greek Church, at the time when those called the Apostolical Canons were made. For the same Canon, that condemns re-ordinations in the Church, makes an exception in the case of such as were ordained by heretics; pronouncing their ordination void, and requiring them to be ordained again. And this was generally the practice of all those Churches, in the third century, which denied the validity of heretical baptism; for by much stronger reason they denied their ordinations. Therefore Firmilian, who was of this opinion, tells us also, that the council of Ico

'Cod. Can. Afric. c. 69 et 70.

Collat. Carth. Die i. c. 16.

Aug. Ep. 50. ad Bonifac. p. 87. Damnato uno quodam Donato, qui Author Schismatis fuisse manifestatus est, cæteros correctos, etiamsi extra Ecclesiam ordinati essent, in suis honoribus recipiendos esse censuerunt. • Canon. Apost. c. 67.