While Innocent continued at Ravenna, he writ to Marcianus Bishop of Naissus, a City in Mœsia, concerning the Ecclesiastics of his Diocese, who had been ordained by Bonosus, of whom we have spoken above[[1438]]. In that Letter, Innocent declares, that Marcianus ought to admit to his Communion, and even restore to their Churches, those Ecclesiastics, who, having adhered to Bonosus after his Condemnation, were willing to return, provided they had been ordained by him before his Condemnation. One of these, by Name Rusticus, to remove all Doubt concerning the Validity of his Ordination, had caused himself to be reordained by a Catholic Bishop; and this Reordination Innocent condemns, in the same Letter, as highly criminal[[1439]].
His Letter to Aurelius
of Carthage.
In the Year 412. Innocent writ to Aurelius Bishop of Carthage, whom he seems to have greatly honoured and esteemed, concerning the Day on which Easter was to be kept in the Year 414. He acquaints Aurelius, that the 16th Day of the Moon of March would fall that Year on the 22d of the Month, and the 23d of the Moon on the 29th of the Month; and consequently that, in his Opinion, Easter ought to be kept on the 22d of March. However, he desires Aurelius to discuss that Point in the Council of the African Bishops, that was in a short time to be held at Carthage; and to let him know, whether they approved of such a Regulation, or what they objected against it, that he might solemnly notify by his Letters, according to Custom, the Day, on which Easter was to be celebrated[[1440]]. Their thus notifying to the other Bishops the Day on which Easter was to be kept, was no Argument of Power; but it gave them an Air of Pre-eminence, which they dextrously improved into Power.
The Letter of the
Bishops of Macedon
to Innocent.
In the Year 414. Vitalis, Archdeacon probably of Thessalonica, arrived at Rome, with Letters for Innocent, from the Bishops of Macedon, touching certain Points of Discipline which, it seems, they had referred to him, and he had decided before. In this Letter they represent to him, in the first Place, that, according to the Custom and Practice of their Churches, the marrying a Widow was no Bar or Impediment to Orders, or even to the Episcopal Dignity; and that to marry one Wife before, and a Second after, Baptism, was not, with them, deemed Bigamy. Then passing to those, who had been ordained by Bonosus, they declare it as their Opinion, that nothing more could be required than the Blessing of a lawful Bishop to re-admit them to the Functions of their Office. They conclude with begging Leave to raise to the Episcopal Dignity one Photinus, who had been condemned by the Predecessors of Innocent, and to depose a Deacon, by Name Eustatius[[1441]].
Innocent’s Answer.
This Letter Innocent answered, almost in the Style and Language of a modern Pope. He begins with expressing his Surprize at the Affront they offered to the Apostolic See, by calling in Doubt what he had already decided. He then answers, one by one, the Heads of their Letter, with all the Authority of an unerring Judge, though neither he, nor any of his Predecessors, had ever yet claimed, or thought of claiming, such a Prerogative. He absolutely condemns the Practice of admitting to Orders such as had married Widows, because that was forbidden, says he, by Moses to the High Priest of the Jews; which was tacitly declaring the Levitical Laws to be still, in some Degree, binding with respect to the Christian Clergy. He adds, that if any such had been ordained, it was the general Practice of all the Churches, both in the East and West, to depose them[[N53]]. |Innocent declares Or-
ders conferred by Heretics
to be null.| As for those who had married but one of their Two Wives after Baptism, Innocent declares them equally incapable of being ordained as if they had married both[[N54]]. As to the Ecclesiastics ordained by Bonosus, Innocent not only excludes them from the Ministry, but endeavours to prove in general, that Orders, when conferred by Heretics, are null, borrowing, for that Purpose, of St. Cyprian, all the Arguments which that Father had made use of to prove a no less erroneous Opinion; viz. the Nullity of Baptism, when conferred by Heretics[[N55]].
[N53]. Such a Practice, however general, could have no other Foundation but the same unwarrantable Notion: I say, unwarrantable; for what can be more so than to exclude, as[as] Innocent does, even from the lowest Degrees in the Church, a Man who had married a Widow, because the High-Priest of the Jews was not allowed to marry one, though all other Priests were, under that Law, free from such a Restraint?
[N54]. Jerom held the contrary Opinion, and maintained it in one of his Letters[[1]], with Reasons, that appeared to Baronius almost unanswerable[[2]], that is, no otherwise answerable than by the Ipse dixit of Innocent, which, with him, stood in the room of Reason.