( 48i little Towns that were diflind from Country, Farms and fettering Villages : fo that all orar Corporations and Market Towns are Oppida and fuch Cities as aróMisfignified. Therefore even by this Rule we thouldd have a Bithop toevery fuch Town. z Crete was called Hecatompolu, as having an hundred Cities, as Homer faith it had. And what kindof Cities were thofe? Which were to have an hundred Churches and Bifhops(in a fmall Ifland ?) , 2. Tbeocritus Idyl. 13. delaudibus Ptolem. verf. 82. faith, that he had under hisGovernment thirty three thoufand three hundred and thirty zróAets; Cities: And if fo, they mull be as(mall as our Boroughs, if not fome Villages : cer- tainly he had not above twice the number ofCities eminently fo called that Stephan(+: Byzantinas could find in the whole World, in his Book, wee) w6Neevv. 5. 3. He that will"perufe and compare theTexts in the New Teftament that Ordain ufe the word vrAts (above fixfcore times) and fee Grotius onLuk 7. rt. &c. Elders in (}tall foon fee that the word is there ofed for fuch Towns as I ammentioning, every C#y. if not lefs. IV. Sozomen, lib. 5. cap. 3. tells us, that Majuma which was Navale Gaze, being as part of its Suburbs, or the adjoyning part but twenty Stadiadiftant, was, becaufe it had many Chriftians, honoured by ConJiantine with the name ofa-City, and had a Bifhopof their own. And Julian in malice took from them the honour of being a City, but they kept their Bishop for all that. It had the fame Magifirate with Gaza, and the fame Military Governors, and the fame Republick ; but was diverfified only by their Church-State. For, faith he, eachhad their own Bifhop, and their own Clergy, and the Altars belonging to each Bifhoprick were diftinft : And therefore afterward the Bifhop ofGaza laboured to fubje& the Clergy of Majuma to himfelf, Paying, that it was unmeet that one City fhould have two Bithops : But a Council called for that purpofe, did confirm the Church-Right of Majuma. V. Gregory Neocefarienfis called Thaumaturgus, was by force made Bilhop of thatCity, whereall theGhrillians were but feventeenathis Ordination : fuch was the Bithop's Church. And when he had preached and done Miracles there till his Perfecution, there is no mention of any Presbyter he had with him ; but of his Deacon Mufoniucthat fled with him. (Though when he died A?dllage, he left but feventeen unconverted.) faithEu- And when hehad converted fome at Comana, a fmall Town near him, feb.l.y,e. he did not Pet a Presbyter over it, and make it part of his own Diocefs, but 16. Vid. appointed, Alexander (the Collier) to be their Bifhop ; and that over. a Church Earon..an. who were no more thanmet and debated the Cafe ofhis Eleélion and Rece- 233.Leo. ion. See Greg. N en. in Orat. in Gre rhaumat. el Bafil de Spirit. Sanllo, pt g .Ylf g. .Î cap. 1,9. &Breviar.1'oman. die Is Novemb. &Menolog. Grec. VI. Concil.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=