POPE'S INTERIIIEDDLING WITH ORDINATIONS. 291 bishops byhis authority."' He also confirmed Donatus, an African bishop: " We will that Donatus preside over the Lord's flock, upon condition that he remember to send us an account of his faith."' Also, Gregory I. complains of it, as of an inordinate act, that a bishop of Salon was " ordained without his knowledge."' Pope Damasus confirmed the ordination of Peter Alexandrinus; " The Alexan- drians," says Sozomen, " rendered the churches to Peter, having re- turned from Rome with the letters of Damasus, which confirmed both the Nicene decrees and his ordination."' But what, I pray, does confirmation here signifybut approbation? for did he otherwise confirm the Nicene decrees? did they need other confirmation? To the former instances we answer, that, being well considered, they do much strengthen our argument, in that they are so few, so late, so lame, so impertinent: for if the pope had enjoyed a power of constituting bishops, more instances of its exercise would have been producible; indeed, it could not be but that history would have been full of them, the constitution of bishops being a matter of continual use, and very remarkable. At least, they might have found one in- stance or other to allege before the times of that busy Pope Leo, in whose time, and by whose means, papal authority began to overflow its banks. And those which they produce do no wise reach home to the point. Anatolius obtained the bishopric of Constantinople " by the help of the emperor, and by the assent of the pope's favour."' What then ? Anatolius beingput into that see in the room of Flavia- nus by the influence of Dioscorus, whose responsal he had been [for whom he had been responsible], and having favoured the Eutychian faction, Pope Leo might thence have had a fair colour to disavow him as incapable of that function and dignity, he being soobnoxious, both having such a flaw in his ordination and having been guilty of great faults, adherence to the party of Dioscorus, and irregu- larly ordaining the bishop of Antioch; 6 but he, " out of regard to the emperor's intervention," acknowledged Anatolius for bishop. This i Ut ordinationem rite celebrandam tua quoque firmet authoritas. P, Leo, Ep. ixxxiv. adAnastas. z Donatum ita Dominico volumis gregi preesidere, ut libellum fidei sun ad nos meminerit dirigendum, &c..P. Leo, Ep. lxxxvii. 3 Salonitanee civitatis episcopus ne ea responsali meo nesciente ordinatus est, et facta res est, qua; sub nullis anterioribus principibus evenit. Greg., Ep. iv. 34. 4 'Axc4avlpe7e. i,rav,XAáv,r, $i rórL rarpgr áa'ó r;is `Piave, 14[Tá VP1'1"`"'9 ráre iv N,xaix lí aura, xai 'rbv abrotï xalporoviav xupoivrav, orapiówxav rág izxxnPías. -80z. vi. 39. 5 Nos enim vestrse fidei et interventions habentis intuitum, cum secundum sure con- secrations authores ejus initia titubarent, benigniores erge ipsum quam justiores esse voluimus, &c. P. Leo, Ep. lv.'adMare. e Decessore enim tuo B. memoriae Flaviano propter defensionem catholicn veritatis ejecto, non immerito credebatur quod ordinatores tui contra sanctorum canonum con- stitute viderentur sui similem consecrasse.... Post illa itaque ordinationis tun non inculpate principia, &c. P. Leo, Ep. liii. ad Anatol.; Liber. cap. 12.
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