NO RECOURSE TO THE POPE IN THOSE DAYS. 149 This, indeed, was according to the ancient rule and practice in such cases, that any church, being oppressed with error, or distracted with contentions, should, from the bishops of other churches, receive aid to the removal of those inconveniences. That it was the rule appears from wíiat we have before spoken; and of the practice there be many instances,; for so St Cyprian sent two of his clergyto Rome to compose the schism there, moved by Novatian against Cornelius;' so was St Chrysostom called to Ephesus, although out of his juris- diction, to settle things there, ; so, to omit divers instances occurring in history, St Basil himself was called by the church of Iconium " to visit it, and to give it a bishop," although it did not belong to his ordinary inspection ; and he tells the bishops of the coasts (sapextúwra,), that they should have done well " in sending" some to " visit" and assist his churches "in their distresses." But now how, I pray, comes it to pass that in such a case he should not have a special recourse to the pope, but in so many ad- dresses should only wrap him up in a community? Why should he not humbly petition him to exert his sovereign authority for the re- lief of the eastern churches, laying his charge and inflicting cen- sures on the dissenters? Why should he lay all the stress of his hopes on the consent of the western bishops? Why does he not say a word of the dominion resident in them over all the church? These things are inconceivable if he took the pope to be the man our ad- versaries say he is. But St Basil had other notions;' for, indeed, being so wise and good a man, if he had taken the pope for his sovereign, he would not have taxed him as he does, and so complain of him, when, speak- ing of the western bishops (of which the pope was the chieftain and most concerned), he has these words, occasioned, as I conceive, by the bishop of Rome's rejecting that excellent person, Meletius, bishop of Antioch: " What we should write, or how to join with those that write, I am in doubt; for I am apt to say, with Diomedes, t You ought not to beg, for he is a haughty man;' for, in truth, observance renders men of proud manners more contemptuous than otherwise Quod servis Dei, et maxime sacerdotibus justis et pacificis congruebat, fratercharis- aime, miseramus nuper collegas nostros Caldonium et Fortunatum, at non tantum persuasione literarum nostrarum, sed prasentia sua, et consilio omnium vestrum enite- rentur, quantum possent, et elaborarent, ut ad catholica3 ecclesite unitatem scissi cor- poris membra componeret, &c.Cypr., Ep. xlii., ad Cornet. Pallad. " As it became the servants of God, especially righteous and peaceable priests, most dear brother, we lately sent our colleagues, Caldonius and Fortunatus, that they might, not only by the persuasion of our letters, but also by their presence. and the advice of you all, endea- vour to their utmost, and strive to reduce the members of that divided body to the unity of the catholic church." AII,, zax,ï zai E Ea; El; larows4.IV, w"er, aisñ Liívat laríozaaray. Bas.,.Ep. viii. 'AziAou9av ÿv crape; Pq; Ú¿.EErifa; ciyávr,; act) ,- ,, yvnoíwv Tim; eivao,rix7.EGAa/ avvaxa -i;, Ei; iwríeXt1/.n ,,eG -i, PWY Ka,ras'avasp ivw. Ep. lxxvii. 2 Vide Ep. 272, 273, 321, 325, 349.
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