296 SYNODS AND BISHOPS CONFIRMED ORDINATIONS. in every province should receive investiture from him, and that if a bishop were not commended and invested by the king, he shouldbe consecrated by none; and whoever should act against this decree, him he did noose in the band of anathema.' The like privilege Pope Leo VIII. attributed to the emperor Otho L "We give him," says he, "for ever power to ordain a suc- cessor and bishop of the chief apostolic see, and change archbishops," &c.' And Platina, in his Life, says, "That being weary of the in- constancy of the Romans, he transferred all authority to choose a pope from the clergy and people of Rome to the emperor."3 Now, I pray, if this power of confirming bishops by divine insti- tution belong to the pope, how could he part with it or transfer it on others? Is not this a plain renunciation in popes of their divine pretence? 6. General synods, by an authority paramount, have assumed to themselves the constitution and confirmation of bishops.' So the second general synod confirmed the ordination of Nectarius, bishop of Constantinople, and of Flavianus, bishop of Antioch (" This ordi- nation," say they, "the synod generally have admitted,"s) although the Roman church did not approve the ordination of Nectarius, and for a long time after opposed that of Flavianus. So the fifth synod, it seems, confirmed the ordination of Theophanius, bishop of An- tioch. So the synod of Pisa constituted Pope Alexander V.; that of Constance, Pope Martin V.; that of Basil, Pope Felix V. 7. All catholic bishops in old times might, and commonly did, confirm the elections and ordinations of bishops, to the same effect as popes may be pretended to have done, that is, by signifying their approbation or satisfaction concerning the orthodoxy of their faith, the attestation to their manners, the legality of their ordination, no canonical impediment, and, consequently, by admitting them to com- munion of peace, and charity, and correspondence in all good offices; which they express by returning xo,vovntai ir.46zoaal in answer to their synodical-communicatory letters. Thus St Cyprian and all the bishops of that age confirmed the ordination of Pope Cornelius, being contested by Novatian, as St ' Hadrianus autem papa cumuniversa synodo tradiderunt jus et potestatem eligendi pontificem, et ordinandi apostolicam sedem ... insuper archiepiscopos et episcopos per singulas provincias ab eo investituram accipere definivit; et nisi a rege laudetur et investiatur episcopus, a nemine consecretur; et quicunque contra hoc decretum ageret, anathematis vinculo eum innodavit.Dist. lxiii. cap. 22. 2 Largemur in perpetuum facultatem successorum, atque summm sedis apostolicio pontificem ordinandi, ac per hoc archiepiscopos sea episcopos, &c. Ibid, cap. xxiii. 3 Qui statim Romanorum inconstantise pertsesus authoritatem omnem eligendi pon- tificis a clero populoque Romano ad imperatorem transtulit, &c. Plat. in Leo VIII., p. 291. 4 Conc. Const., secs. xl. ; Conc. Bas., sess. xxxvii. p. 98. °Elver., ávAevaov zuporoviav ÉSéäaro vó ree Davao, w ,",, &e.Theod. y. 9.
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