REASONS WHY THE POPE'S CONSENT WAS ASKED. 265 all synods, for notification of things and promulgation of their orders, for demonstration and maintenance of concord, for adding weight and authority to their determinations, for engaging all bishops to . a willing compliance in observing them, for attestation to the com- mon interest of all bishops in the Christian truth, and in thegovern- ance and edification ofthe church,having framed decrees concerning the public state, to demand, in fairest terms, the consent to them of all catholic bishops who were absent from them, to be attested by their subscription. So Constantine recommended the Nicene decrees to all bishops, undertaking that they would assent to them .1 So, more expressly, the synod of Sardica, in their epistle to all bishops of the catholic church: " Do ye also, our brethren and fellow ministers, use the more diligence, as being present in spirit with our synod, to yield consent by your subscription, that concord may be preserved everywhere by all the fellow-ministers."' So Pope Liberius requested of the Emperor Constantius, " that the faith delivered at Nice might be confirmed by the subscription of all bishops."' So Athanasius " procured a synod at Alexandria to confirm the decrees at Sardica and in Palestine concerninghim."' So the Macedonian bishops are said to have authorized their agents "to ratify the faith of consubstantiality."'* Many such instances occur in story, by which it may appear that the decrees of synods concerning faith, or concerning any matters of common interest, were presented to all bishops, and their consent re- quested or required; because, say the Roman clergy in St Cyprian, " a decree cannot be firm which has not the consent of many."' Whence it is no wonder if any synods thus proceeded toward so eminent a bishop as was he of Rome, that they should endeavour to give him satisfaction; that they should desire to receive satisfaction from him of his conspiring with them in faith, of his willingness to I'Ao/a[vaç SixaoAa vgv To; eco; xa'prv semi slimy eh áinAa-ç íyTOT.f]v, á,c. De Vit. Const. iii. 20. pKai aivóç Si vfl úpaaTépm n¢yxrvaíá &pivar úoraoxópanv. Ibid,.iü. 19. 82arouadaaC Si pcaT.xav zai ú/<aïç, áSaT.Qo) zmi auT.T.uvoupyai, n`iç Tä a'varipcavr ouvóyvaç Ti] ova?, ñ¡amv vuvaarg,n4sadar Sl uaoypaQñç ú,aavápaç, 17p Tou zapá adman, vr;v 'ñavTaxo; ouT.T.arraupyw`v vñv ópccQavíav SrmadrY,ca9ar. Dyn. ard. Epist., apud Athan. in Apol. ii. p. 706. s 'ENTnr N Tñv /Ay iv Nrxaiá orapaSaAaicav ,ríaTry úorayasfa7; Tmv yrdvaav isrraxó,rav xpa- rúvaa(lar. So2. iv. 11. LÚyaSas ysvia8s arapsaxaóayyys TG+, í AiyúxTau i,r,axósra,, xai irrrst,nfíoal Tors iv 2apSoî zai naxaaavívn vrspi aúvo; Salaypaivaç. Ibid, iv. 1. 6 'Ev,-uX,í aava, . . xvpâoar TSs To; ópcaouaiou 714071V.Socr. iv. 12. # Literally, of the homoousiou, referring to the famous dispute with the semi-Arians, which turned on the difference between homoousios and homoiousios, or whether the Son was of the same, or of the like, essencewith the Godhead. En. e quoniam nec firmum decretum potest esse, quod non plurimorum videbitur habere consensum.Cler. Rom., apud Cyp., Ep. axai.
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