168 THE INSTITUTIONOF PATRIARCHS AND PRIMATES. it is visible that St Cyprian does not reckon the papacy, but the episcopacy of Cornelius, to be that top of priesthood, above which there was nothing eminent in the church, [and] untowhich he, pass- ing through the inferior degrees of the clergy, had attained. In fine, it cannot well be conceived that the ancients would have constantly spoken in this manner, if they had allowed the papal office to be such as it now bears itself; which, indeed, is an order no less distant from episcopacy than the rank of a kingdiffers from that of the meanest baron in his kingdom. Neither is it prejudicial to this discourse, or to any preceding, that in the primitive church there were some distinctions and subordina- tions of bishops, as of patriarchs, primates, metropolitans, common bishops;t for, These were, according to prudence, constituted by the church it- self, for the more orderly and peaceable administration of things. These did not import such a difference among the bishops that one should domineer over others, to the infringing of primitive fra- ternity or common liberty; but a precedence in the same rank, with some moderate advantages, for the common good. These stood under authority of the church, and might be changed or corrected, as was found expedient, by common agreement. Byvirtueof these the superiors of this kind could do nothing over their subordinates in an arbitrarymanner, but according to the regu- lation of canons, established by consent in synods, by which their influence was amplified or curbed.' When any of these began to domineer or exceed his limits, he was liable to account and correction; he was exclaimed against as tyrannical.' When primates began to swell and encroach, good men declared their displeasure at it, and wished it removed; as is known parti- cularly by the famous wish of Gregory Nazianzen: "O that there were not at all any presidency, nor any preference in place, and tyrannical prerogative ! "4 But we are discoursing against a superiority of a different nature, which founds itself in the institution of Christ, imposes itself on the motus, et in divinis administrationibus Dominum salpe promeritus, ad sacerdotii sub- lime fastigium cunctis religions gradibus ascendit. Cypr., Ep. lii. The Africans had a particular care that this primacy should not degenerate into tyranny. 2 Conc. Ant., can. ix. Vid. Apost. Can. xxxiv; Conc. Carth., apud Cypr. Cod. Afr. xxxix.; Nestorius; Dioscorus. 3 So Isidor. Pelusiot., Ep. xx. 125, iv. 219. OTá Te cupavvaat Qát (ptxapxias itt14t mp bttzbsx,, ,rtt.Euseb. viii. 1. So Eusebius complains of thebishops in his time. 4 'ne ó¢txer yt ¿4211 ,Tt' vrpetbpia, ptnbi ris Tóvrou 2p07.444e0, 221 rt'panutA vrpovepúa. -- -Greg. Naz., Orat. xxviii. So Socrates of the bishop, not only of Rome, but Alex- andria. Lib. vii. cap. 11. So St Chrysostom in 1 Tim. iii. 1, in Ep., Orat. 11.
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