210 ORIGIN OF METROPOLITAN DIGNITY. people,' whom he used to consult, without being controllable by any other, or accountable to any, farther than his obligation to uphold the verity of Christian profession, and to maintain fraternal com- munion, in charity and peace, with neighbouring churches, required; in which regard, if he were notably peccant, he was liable to be dis- claimed by them as no good Christian, and rejected from com- munion, together with his church, if it adhered to him in his mis- demeanours. This may be collected from the remainders of state [traces of the ancient state] in the times of St Cyprian. But because little, disjointed, and incoherent bodies were, like dust, apt to be dissipated by every wind of external assault or intestine faction, and peaceable union could hardly be retained without some ligature of discipline, and churches could not mutually support and defend each other without some method of intercourse and rule of confederacy engaging them; therefore, for many good purposes (for upholding and advancing the common interests of Christianity, for protection and support of each church from inbred disorders and dis- sensions, for preserving the integrity of the faith, for securing the con- cord of divers churches, for providing fit pastors to each church, and correcting such as were scandalously bad or unfaithful'), it was soon found needful that divers churches should be combined and linked together in some regular form of discipline;' that if any church wanted a bishop, the neighbourbishops might step in to approveand ordain a fit one;4 that if any bishop notoriously swerved from the s Cypr., Ep. 52, 55, 72, 73, 76. Omnis hic actus populo erat insinuandus. P. Corn., aped Cypr., Ep. xlvi. " All this business was to have been imparted to the people." Secundum arbitrium quoque vestrum, et omnium nostrum commune consi- lium, ea quas agenda sunt disponere. Cypr., Ep. xi, Plebi. Univ. "Toorder what was . to be done according to your judgment, and the common advice of us all." Et limanda plenius ratio non solum cum collegis meis, sed et cum plebe ipsa universa. Id., Ep. xxviii. "And the reason is more thoroughly to be examined, not only with my col- leagues, but with the whole people." Præjudicare ego et soli mihi rem communem vindicare non audeo. Ep. xviii. "I dare not, therefore, prejudge nor assume to my- self alone amatter which is common to all." 2 Particularly in the dispensation of church goods. Conc. Ant., can. xxv. 3 Hoc enim et verecundias et disciplinas et vitas ipsi omnium nostrum convenit ut episcopi plures in unum convenientes, prcesente et stantium plebe (quibus et ipsis pro fide et timore suo honor habendus est), disponere omnia consilii communia religione possimus.Cypr., Ep. xiv. "For it becomes the modesty, thediscipline, and the man- ner of our living, that many bishops meeting together, thepeople being also present (to whom respect ought to be had for their faith and fear), we may order all things with the common advice." quoniam non paueorum, nec ecclesice unius aut unius pro- vincice, sed totius orbis hast causa est, &c.Cypr., Ep. xiv. " because this is the concern, not of a few men, or of one church, or one province, but of the whole world." Idcirco copiosum corpus est sacerdotum ... ut si quis ex collegionostro hasresin facere, et gregem Christi lacerare et vastare tentaverit, subveniant cnteri, &c. Id.,Ep. lxxvi " Therefore the clergy is a large body ... that if any one of our own society should vent an heresy, and attempt to rend andwaste the flock of Christ, the rest might come in to their help." ' Nov. cxxxvii. cap. 4, cxxiii. cap. 10.
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