304. XV.]

PROVINCIAL SYNODS.

53

their equals, and the honourable servants of a free people. Whenever the episcopal chair became vacant by death, a new president was chosen among the presbyters by the suffrage of the whole congregation, every member of which supposed himself invested with a sacerdotal character.*

Such was the mild and equal constitution by which the Christians were governed more than a hundred years after the death of the apostles. Every society formed within self a separate and independent republic; and although the most distant of these little states maintained a mutual as well as friendly intercourse of letters and deputations, the Christian world was not yet connected by any supreme authority or legislative assembly. As the numbers of the faithful were gradually multiplied, they discovered the adantages that might result from a closer union of their interests and designs. Towards the end of the second century, the churches of Greece and Asia adopted the useful institutions of provincial synods, and they may jastly be supposed to have borrowed the model of a representative council from the celebrated examples of their own rountry, the Amphictyons, the Achæan league, or the assemblies of the Ionian cities. It was soon established

Nonne et Laici sacerdotes sumus? Tertullian, Exhort. ad Castitat. c. 7. As the human heart is still the same, several of the obser vations which Mr. Hume has made on enthusiasm (Essays, vol. i, p. 76, quarto edit.), may be applied even to real inspiration. + Synods were not the first collective bodies, into which separate churches drew themselves together. Dioceses were first formed by the union of many small country churches with that of a neighbouring city. Several of the latter then combined with one of higher celebrity, to which the designation of metropolitan was given. Dioceses do not appear till towards the beginning of the second century. Before that time there were not so many country churches as to require incorporation; and it is about the middle of the same century, that we discover the first traces of metropolitan government. Provincial synods did not begin to be held till about the middle of the third century; but other synods preceded them. History gives us positive ideas of some that met towards the end of the second century--at Ephesus, Jerusalem, Rome, and in Pontus, to settle the dispute between the Latin and Asiatic churches, respecting the time at which Easter should be telebrated. But these synods were without regular form, nor were they held periodically. This systematic arrangement began with the provincial synods, which were composed of the bishops of a district, sembled under their metropolitan chicf. Planck's Geschichte, Ster Band, p. 90.--GUIZOT. [This gradual organization of the church was

64

COUNCILS AND THEIR CANONS.

[CH. I as a custom and as a law, that the bishops of the ind pendent churches should meet in the capital of the provinc at the stated periods of spring and autumn. Their delibe rations were assisted by the advice of a few distinguishe presbyters, and moderated by the presence of a listenin multitude.* Their decrees, which were styled canons, regu lated every important controversy of faith and discipline and it was natural to believe that a liberal effusion of the Holy Spirit would be poured on the united assembly of the delegates of the Christian people. The institution of synod was so well suited to private ambition and to public interest that in the space of a few years it was received throughout the whole empire. A regular correspondence was estab lished between the provincial councils, which mutually communicated and approved their respective proceedings;. and the Catholic church soon assumed the form, and ac quired the strength, of a great federative republic. As the legislative authority of the particular churches was insensibly superseded by the use of councils, the bishops obtained by their alliance a much larger share of executive and arbitrary power; and as soon as they were connected by a sense of their common interest, they were enabled to attack, with united vigour, the original rights of their clergy and people. The prelates of the third century imperceptibly changed the language of exhortation into that of command, scattered the seeds of future usurpations, and supplied, by scripture allegories and declamatory rhetoric, their deficiency of force and of reason. They exalted the unity and power of the church, as it was represented in the episcopal office, of which every bishop enjoyed an equal and undivided portion. Princes and magistrates, it was often repeated, night boast an earthly claim to a transitory dominion: it was the episcopal authority alone which was more probably suggested by Plato's Republic than by the Greek Leagues and assemblies, to which it is attributed by Gibbon.-ED.]

Acta Concil. Carthag apud Cyprian. edit. Fell. p. 158. The council was composed of eighty-seven bishops from the provinces of Mauritania, Numidia, and Africa; some presbyters and deacons assisted at the assembly; præsente plebis maxima parte. + Aguntur præterea per Græcias illas, certis in locis concilia, &c. Tertullian de Jejuniis, c. 13. The African mentions it as a recent and foreign institution The coalition of the Christian churches is very ably explained by Mosheim, p. 164-170. Cyprian, in his admired treatise De

[12. IV.] INCREASE OF THE EPISCOPAL DIGNITY.

55

erived from the Deity, and extended itself' over another world. The bishops were the vicegerents of Christ, the Buccessors of the apostles, and the mystic substitutes of the high priest of the Mosaic law. Their exclusive privilege of conferring the sacerdotal character invaded the freedom both of clerical and of popular elections; and if, in the iministration of the church, they still consulted the judgment of the presbyters, or the inclination of the people, they most carefully inculcated the merit of such a voluntary condescension. The bishops acknowledged the supreme Bathority which resided in the assembly of their brethren; but in the government of his peculiar diocese, each of them exacted from his flock the same implicit obedience as if that favourite metaphor had been literally just, and as if the shepherd had been of a more exalted nature than that of his sheep. This obedience, however, was not imposed without some efforts on one side, and some resistance on the other. The democratical part of the constitution was, many places, very warmly supported by the zealous or interested opposition of the inferior clergy. But their patriotism received the ignominious epithets of faction and schism; and the episcopal cause was indebted for its rapid progress to the labours of many active prelates, who, like Cyprian of Carthage, could reconcile the arts of the most ambitious statesman with the Christian virtues which seem adapted to the character of a saint and martyr.t

The same causes which at first had destroyed the equality of the presbyters, introduced among the bishops a preeminence of rank, and from thence a superiority of jurisdiction. As often as in the spring and autumn they met in provincial synod, the difference of personal merit and reputation was very sensibly felt among the members of the assembly, and the multitude was governed by the wisdom and eloquence of the few. But the order of public proceedings required a more regular and less invidious Edistinction: the office of perpetual presidents in the councils

Unitate Ecclesiæ, p. 75-86. * We may appeal to the whole tenor of Cyprian's conduct, of his doctrine, and of his epistles. Le Clerc, in short life of Cyprian (Bibliothèque Universelle, tom. xii, p. 207— 378), has laid him open with great freedom and accuracy.

If Novatus, Felicissimus. &c., whom the bishop of Carthage pelled from his church and from Africa, were not the most detest.

*

[сн.

of each province was conferred on the bishops of the pri cipal city; and these aspiring prelates, who soon acquire the lofty titles of metropolitans and primates, secret 7 på pared themselves to usurp over their episcopal brethre the same authority which the bishops had so lately assume above the college of presbyters. Nor was it long befor an emulation of pre-eminence and power prevailed amon the metropolitans themselves, each of them affecting t display, in the most pompous terms, the temporal honour and advantages of the city over which he presided; th numbers and opulence of the Christians who were subjec to their pastoral care; the saints and martyrs who ha risen among them; and the purity with which they pre served the tradition of the faith, as it had been transmitted through a series of orthodox bishops, from the apostle of the apostolic disciple to whom the foundation of thei church was ascribed.† From every cause, either of a civil or of an ecclesiastical nature, it was easy to foresee that Rome must enjoy the respect, and would soon claim the obedience, of the provinces. The society of the faithful bore a just proportion to the capital of the empire; and the Roman church was the greatest, the most numerous, and, in regard to the west, the most ancient, of all the Christian establishments, many of which had received their religion from the pious labours of her missionaries. Instead of one apostolic founder, the utmost boast of Antioch, of Ephesus, or of Corinth, the banks of the Tiber were supposed to have been honoured with the preaching and mar tyrdom of the two most eminent among the apostles;‡ and the bishops of Rome very prudently claimed the inheritance of whatsoever prerogatives were attributed either to the

able monsters of wickedness, the zeal of Cyprian must occasionally have prevailed over his veracity. For a very just account of these obscure quarrels, see Mosheim, p. 497-512. * Mosheim, p. 269. 574. Dupin, Antiquæ Eccles. Disciplin. p. 19, 20. + Tertullian, in a distinct treatise, has pleaded against the heretics, the right of prescription, as it was held by the apostolic churches. The journey of St. Peter to Rome is mentioned by most of the ancients (see Eusebius, 2. 25), maintained by all the Catholics, allowed by some Protestants (see Pearson and Dodwell de Success. Episcop. Roman.), but has been vigorously attacked by Spanheim (Miscellanea Sacra, 8. 3). According to father Hardouin, the monks of the thirteenth century, who composed the Eneid, represented St Peter under the

person or to the office of St. Peter. The bishops of Italy nd of the provinces were disposed to allow them a primacy of order and association (such was their very accurate expression) in the Christian aristocracy. But the power of monarch was rejected with abhorrence; and the aspiring genius of Rome experienced, from the nations of Asia and Africa, a more vigorous resistance to her spiritual, than she had formerly done to her temporal, dominion. The patriotic Cyprian, who ruled with the most absolute sway the church of Carthage and the provincial synods, opposed with resolation and success the ambition of the Roman pontiff, artfully connected his own cause with that of the eastern bishops, and, like Hannibal, sought out new allies in the heart of Asia.‡ If this Punic war was carried on without y effusion of blood, it was owing much less to the moderation than to the weakness of the contending prelates. Invectives and excommunications were their only weapons; and these, during the progress of the whole controversy, they hurled against each other with equal fury and devotion. The hard necessity of censuring either a pope, or a int and martyr, distresses the modern Catholics, whenever they are obliged to relate the particulars of a dispute, in which the champions of religion indulged such passions as seem much more adapted to the senate or to the camp.§

The progress of the ecclesiastical authority gave birth to the memorable distinction of the laity and of the clergy, which had been unknown to the Greeks and Romans.T allegorical character of the Trojan hero. It is in French only, that the famous allusion to St. Peter's name is exact. Tu es Pierre, et sur cette pierre.-The same is imperfect in Greek, Latin, Italian, &c., and totally unintelligible in our Teutonic languages. [In the language spoken by Jesus, the allusion is exact. (Matthew, c. 16, v. 17) Kepha, in Syro-Chaldaic, signifies a basis, foundation, rock, and Peter had likewise the name of Kephas.-GUIZOT.] Irenæus adv. Hæreses, 3. 3. Tertullian de Præscription. c. 36, and Cyprian, Epistol. 27. 55. 71. 75. Le Clerc (Hist. Eccles. p. 764) and Mosheim (p. 258. 278) labour in the interpretation of these passages. But the loose and rhetorical style of the fathers often appears favourable to the pretensions of Rome.

See the sharp epistle from Firmilianus, bishop of Caesarea, to Stephen, bishop of Rome, ap. Cyprian. Epistol. 75. § Concerning this dispute of the re-baptism of heretics, see the epistles of Cyprian, und the seventh book of Eusebius. For the origin of these words, see Mosheim, p. 141, Spanheim, Hist. Ecclesiast. p. 633. The distinction of clerus and laicus was established before the time of Tertulian.