162 SCRIPTURAL EQUALITY OF BISHOPS. the Roman episcopacy had long since advanced into a high degree of power beyond the priesthood."' 3. This pretence thwarts the Scripture by destroying that brotherly co-ordination and equality which our Lord appointed among the bishops and chief pastors of his church. He (as we before showed) prohibited all his apostles to assume any domination or authoritative superiority over one another; which command, together with others concerning the pastoral function, we may well suppose to reach their successors. So St Jerome supposed; collectingthence that all bishops byoriginal institution are equals, or that no one, by our Lord's order, may challenge superiority over another. " Wherever," says he, " a bishop is, whether at Rome or at Eugubium, at Constantinople or at Rhegium, at Alexandriaor at Thanis, he is of the same worth, and of the same priesthood. The force of wealth or lowness; of poverty does not make a bishop higher or lower; but all are successors of the apostles. "' Where does not heplainly deny the bishop of Eugubium to be inferior to him of Rome, as being no less a successor of the apostles than he? Does he not say these words in the way of proof that the authorityof the Romanbishop or church was of no validity against the practice of other bishops and churches?' (upon occasion of deacons there taking upon them more than in other places, as cardinal deacons do now); which excludes such distinctions as scho- lastical fancies have devised to shift off his testimony; the which [testimony] he uttered simply, never dreaming of such distinctions. This consequence St Gregory supposed [took for granted] when he condemned the title of Universal Bishop ; because it " implied an affectation of superiority" and dignity in one bishop above others, of " abasing the name of other bishops in comparison of his own," of extolling "himself above the rest of priests,"6 &c. This the ancient popes remembered, when usually, in their corn- pellation of any bishop, they styled them " brethren, colleagues, fel- low-ministers, fellow-bishops ;"5 not intending thereby compliment or mockery, but to declare their sense of the original equality among bishops, notwithstanding some differences in order and privileges i Ti, 'Pa/caiwv ivriazcRñt 0 n' g f7 'AX[;aviimv 4,,, Tiii; ic-woúvnG £cri óvvasrciav vráx. rpoE dlogía7g. iSocr. uu. 11. 2 Ubicunque fuerit episcopus, sive Rom sive Eugubii, sive Constantinopoli sive Rhegii, sive Alexandrine sive Thanis, ejusdem meriti, ejusdem et sacerdotii. Potentia divitiarum et paupertatis humilitas vei sublimiorem vel inferiorem episcopum non Tacit; cseterum omnes apostolorum successores sunt. Hier., Ep. ]xxxv., ad Evagriuva. 3 Si auctoritas quseritur, orbis major est urbe; Ubicunque, &c. Illud appetunt uncle omnibus digniores videantur. Gr., Ep. iv. 34. Quia super- biendo se coeteris prxponit. Ep. vi. 38. Super cateros sacerdotes se extollit.Ibid. Cupis episcoporum nomen tui comparatione calcare. Ep. iv. 38. Cuncta ejus membra tibimet conaris supponere. Ibid. 5 Invigiletur ergo ut omnibus coepiscopis nostris et fratribus innotescat. P. Corn., apud Cypr., Ep. xlvüi.
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