SILENCE OF IGNATIUS AND OF POPES. 145 supereminent rank, but avers " episcopacy to be the first and highest of divine orders, in which the hierarchy is consummated."' And in his epistle to Demophilus there is a remarkable place, wherein he could hardly have avoided touching the pope, had there been then one in such vogue as now; for, advising that monk to gentleness and observance towards his superiors, he thus speaks: " Let passion and reason be governed by you, but you by the holy deacons, and these by the priests, and the priests by the bishops, and the bishops by the apostles, or by their successors" (that is, says Maximus, " those which we now call patriarchs "); " and if, perhaps, any one of them shall fail of his duty, let him be corrected by those holypersons who are co-ordinate to him.' Why not, in this case, let himbe corrected by the pope, his superior? But he knew none of an order superior to the apostles' successors. 18. Likewise, Ignatius in many epistles frequently describes the several ranks of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, extols their dignity and authority to thehighest pitch, mightilyurges the respect due to them; yet never does he so much as mention or touch this sovereign degree, wherein the majesty of the clergy chiefly shone. In his very epistle to the Romans, he doesnot yield any deference to their bishop, nor, indeed, so much as take notice of him. Is it not strange he should so little mind the sovereign of the church? or was it for a sly reason, because being bishop of Antioch he had a pique to his brother Jacob, who had supplanted him, and got away his birthright? The counterfeiter, therefore, of Ignatius personates himwell when he says that " in the church there is nothing greater than abishop,"3 and that " a bishop is beyond all rule and authority ;"4 for in thetime of Ignatius there was no domineering pope over all bishops. 19. We have some letters of popes (though not many, for popes were then not very scribatious [fond of writing], or not so pragmati- cal; whence, to supply that defect, lest popes should seem not able to write, or to have slept almost four hundred years, they have forged divers for them, and those so wise ones, that we, who love the memory of those good popes, disdain to acknowledge them authors of such idle stuff),we have yet some letters of and to popes, to and from "Ewa? 4áç itpavlats R'á{yErç wai 271.09rANZa'EIÇ.. halLEO a aÚ4NV KaÌ ivspysias tip4wa(4E1 vs ñ/LTv i(8,, -h. De Eccl. Bier., cap. v. c 2 Alin-4 pis, al'v ivrAlty.4a xai .9Up9o_I wa) Ásyw 4[G za4" ¿Ìa1 áfópsZe roi ai al 2E7or ).u- 4cv2yo zed 4airof iepS75* sE; cpxe 4o7ç zai 407, ¡spápxar 02 árráuraXor xai of 4niv 2rr4Óa.wv aápoxar wed Eiotav 4rç wai iv ixs 504ç 40v rpoeolxays,Ç ri9ro0(ila.ìe;n, wage s.&, lFLa4ayes áyiwv i9rxvopled(ur rar, &c.Dionys. Ar., Ep. Viii. 3A9roary!).av ai aaaóxoxç Talc ,îv 9rarprápxov5 iiyoTipLxr ETo,ar. Max. Schol., ibid. 3 Otre OsoL 4Is .xpEl44wv, b 9rapa9rX,o,oç iY 7000V 4o7ç Zen., on! ai iv iwxñ0PÌa ix'rdx49rov 4E p.ETSay.Pseud. Ignat. ad Sntyrn. s Tí yáp irr,, i714e14o,r95, ¿XX' b ar.'.xs lÓ n "s xxi itourias iaixova, &C. Id. ad Trail. VOL I.
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