290 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. without the assent of the ecclesiastical people and the emperor's suffrage.' Now, in all these proceedings it is most apparent that there was no regard had to the pope, or any thought of him out of his particular territory, [the government of] which he had as metro- politan, or afterwards as primate in some parts of the west. No- where else had he the least finger in the constitution of a bishop anywhere through the whole church; no, not of the least clergy- man.' When by St Cyprian, so largely and punctually, the manner of constitutingbishops is declared; when the Nicene canons, and those of other synods, so carefully prescribe about the ordination of them; when so many reports concerning the election of bishops occur in history,why is there not a tittle of mention concerning any special interest of the Roman bishops about them? So true is that of Alb. Crantzius: " There was no need, then, of apostolical confirmation; it was sufficient if the election were ap- proved by the archbishop. Now the church of Rome has assumed to herself the rights of all churches."' We may by theway observe,that in the first times they [the popes] had not so much as anabsolute power of ordaining a presbyter in the church of his [their] own city without leave of the clergy and people; as may be inferred from that passage in Eusebius, where PopeCorne- lius relates that the bishop who ordained Novatus, " being hindered from doing it by all the clergy and bymany of the laity, requested that it might be granted to him to ordain that one person;"4 and he that so hardly could ordain one priest in his own church, what au- thority could he have to constitute bishops in all other churches? To all these evidences of fact our adversaries' oppose some in- stances of popes meddling in the constitution of bishops; as Pope Leo I. says that Anatolius, " by the favour of his assent, obtained the bishopric of Constantinople: " The same pope is alleged as having confirmed Maximus of Antioch. The same writes to the bishop of Thessalonica, his vicar, that he should " confirm the elections of ' P. Nic. I. Ep. v. Quia consuetudinem vestram novimus in regia urbe, minimo apicem archieratics potestatis aliquem posse habere sine ecclesiastica plebis assensu atque imperiali suffragio, &c. P. Joh. VIII., Ep. lxx. ; Dist. lxii. 2 Vid. P. Leo, Ep. lxxxiv. ci. svii. Nihil turnopus erat apostolica confirmatione ; satis erat electionem ab archiepis- copo comprobari. Nunc ad se omnium ecclesiarum jura traxit Romana ecclesia. Crantz., Metrop. vii. 45. Awcwavópesvoi inrò 9rav74 70r xX4pev, leXXI xai aaï;owv 9Y9aa,,, i1VG108 ovyvepnAñvas amÿ moümov pcóvov zupoma6iexi. P. Cornet., apud Euseb. vi. 43. 6 Bell. ii. 18, 20. e Satis est quod vestrm pietatis auxilio, et mei favoris assensu episcopatum tants urbis obtinuit. P. Leo, Ep. liv. ; De Marc. iii. 14, § 1.
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