286 PRIMITIVE MODE OIt ORDINATION. the catholic church by the judgment of God, and by the suffrages of the clergy and people."' Again, [once more,] "A bishop once made, and approved by the testimony and the judgment of his colleagues and of the common people," &c.2 The author of the Apostolical Constitutions thus, in the person of St Peter, very fully and clearly describes the manner of ordination of bishops in his times: "Postquam h ec Brit precatus," &c.;"After one of thechief bishops present has thus prayed, the rest of thepriests with all the people shall say, Amen;' and after the prayer, one of the bishops shall deliver the eucharist into the hands of the person ordained, and that morning he shall be placed by the rest of the bishops in his throne, all of them saluting him with a kiss in the Lord. After the reading of the Law and Prophets, of our Epistles, the Acts and Gospel, he who is ordained shall salute the church with these words, `The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you all, Amen.' And let all answer, `And with thy spirit.' After which words let him exhort the people."3 Thus it was then, in a practice so obvious and observable that a pagan emperor took good notice of it, and chose to imitate it in constituting the governors of provinces, and other officers: "When," says Lampridius of Alexander Severus, "he would either give rulers to provinces, or make presidents, or ordain procurators, he set up their names, exhorting the people, if they had any thing against them, to prove it by manifest evidence; if they could not make their accusation good, they were to die for it. And he said it would be hard not to do, in the choice of governors of provinces, to whom the lives and fortunes of men were intrusted, what the Christians and Jews did in setting up those who were to be ordained priests."' Afterward, in process of time, when (the gaps of distance being filled up, and Christendom becoming one continued body) ecclesias- tical discipline was improved into a more complete shape, for consti- tution ofa bishop, all the bishops of a province convened, or such as could with convenience, the others signifying their mind by writing; 1 Cornelio in catholica ecclesia de Dei judicio, et cleri ac plebissuffragio ordinato, &c.Cypr., Ep. lxvii. 5 Episcopo semel facto, et collegarum ac plebis testimonio et judicio comprobato, &c. Ep. xli., ad Cornel. 3 Const. Apost. viii. 4 Ubi aliquos voluisset vel rectores provinciis dare, vel prsepositos Were, vel procu- ratores id est rationales ordinare, nomina eorum proponebat, hortans populum, ut si- quid haberet criminis, probaret manifestis rebus; si non probasset, subiret peenam capitis. Dicebatque grave esse, quum id Christiani et Judi facerent in prxdicandis sacerdotibus qui ordinandi sunt, non fieri in provinciarum rectoribus, quibus et for- tunas hominum committerentur et capita. Lamprid. in Alex. Sev. cap. 45.
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