196 BISHOPS WERE LONG HELD EQUAL IN OFFICE. One bishop might exceed another in splendour, in wealth, in re- putation, in extent of jurisdiction, as one king may surpass another in amplitude of territory; but as all kings, so all bishops are equal in office and essentials of power, derived from God. Hence they ap- plied to them that in the psalm: " Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth."1 This was St Jerome's doctrine, in these famous words: " Where- ever a bishop be, whether at Rome or at Eugubium, at Constanti- nople or at Rhegium, at Alexandria or at Thanis, he is of the same worth and of the same priesthood. The force of wealth or lowness of poverty does not render a bishop higher or lower; for all of them are successors of the apostles."' To evade which plain assertion they have forged distinctions whereof St Jerome surely never thought, he speaking simply concerning bishops as they stood by divine insti- tution, not according to human models, which gave some advan- tages over others. That this notion continued long in the church, we may see by the eulogies of bishops in later synods; for instance, that in the synod of Compeigne: " It is proper that all Christians should know what kind of office is that of bishops; who, it is plain, are the vicars of Christ, and keep the keys of the kingdom of heaven."' And that of the synod of Melun: " Unworthy as we are, yet all of us are the vicars of Christ, and successors of his apostles."6 In contemplation of which verity, St Gregory Nazianzen, observ- ing the declension from it introduced in his times by the ambition of some prelates, vented that famous exclamation, " O that there were no presidency at all, nor any preference in place, and tyrannical prerogatives!' which earnest wish he surely did not mean to level against the ordinance of God, but against that which lately began to be intruded by men. Andwhat would the good man have wished, if he had been aware of those pretences about which we discourse, which then only began to bud and peep up in the world? 1. Common practice is a good interpreter of common sentiments in any case; and it therefore shows that in the primitive church the pope was not deemed to have a right of universal sovereignty: for if such a thing had been instituted by God, or established by the apostles, the pope certainly, with evident clearness, would have ap- ' Baron. an. 57, § 30, Ps. xlv. 16. s Ubicunquefuerit episcopus, liveRomsesiveEugubii,&c.Hieron. adEvagr., Ep.lxxxv. 3 Omnibus in Christiana religione constitutis wire convenit quale sit ministerium episcoporum, quos constat ease vicarios Christi, et clavigeros regni cceloram, &c. Syn. Compend. ann. Dom. 833, apud Bin., tom. vi. p. 361. k Nos omnes licet indigni Christi tarnen vicarii, et apostolorum ipsius successores. Syn. Meldens. ann. Dom. 845, apud Bin. tom. vi. p. 402. 3 `n ¿' 4Xí, y8 ¡.401 7is orpoaó,' , paili Ti, -ris-u' s-posí/Aw ls, zai a'pc+opia, &C. Greg. Naz., Oral. xxviii.
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