The Two Churches
re-united at last.
Alexander maintained ever after a close Correspondence with Innocent, courting his Favour with the most servile Submissions, recurring to him in every momentous Affair relating to his Church, and suffering himself to be blindly guided by his Counsels. In one of his Letters he consulted him, it seems, concerning the Prerogatives of his See, and the Extent of his Jurisdiction; and nothing can be more subtle than Innocent’s Answer. |Innocent’s Letter to
Alexander of Ant-
ioch.| For after a long Preamble on the Dignity of the See of Antioch, he craftily insinuates all the Privileges and Prerogatives annexed to it to be owing not to the Dignity of the City, but to the Dignity of the See, as having been once the See of St. Peter. He adds, that on this Consideration it had been distinguished with an extensive Jurisdiction, and that it yielded to that of Rome itself only because St. Peter had accomplished there what he had begun at Antioch[[1448]]. |The Prerogatives of the See of Rome owing to the City, and not to St. Peter.| What Innocent proposed to himself by thus exalting the See of Antioch, by deriving the Privileges, Prerogatives, and Jurisdiction, of that See from St. Peter, is obvious. If they were owing not to the City, but to St. Peter, as Innocent affirms, those enjoyed by the See of Rome were, in like manner, owing to St. Peter, and not to the City. This Notion, now first started by Innocent, was not suffered to drop; but, being greedily embraced by his Successors, it was, in Process of Time, improved by them into a general Plea for all their exorbitant Claims. And thus Innocent may be justly said to have pointed out the Ground on which the unwieldy Fabric of the Papal Power was afterwards built. But if it be true, as Innocent pretends, that the See of Antioch owed its Dignity to St. Peter, and not to the City, how will he account for its being ranked under that of Alexandria, which was neither founded, nor had ever been honoured, by that Apostle? But not to waste Time in combating such a groundless Notion, nothing is more certain, than that the Disposition and Division of the Church was founded upon, and intirely agreeable to, the Disposition and Division of the Empire[[1449]]; and consequently that as no Regard was had to St. Peter, or any other Apostle, in the Civil, none could be had in the Ecclesiastical, Polity. And hence it naturally follows, that as Rome was the first City of the Empire, Alexandria the Second, and Antioch the Third, the Sees should be ranked in the same Order; and in the same Order they were ranked accordingly, though the See of Alexandria was founded only by a Disciple of St. Peter, and that of Antioch was supposed to have been founded by St. Peter himself.
The Division of the
Church founded on the
Division of the Empire.
This Division of the Church took place soon after the Division of the Empire made by Constantine the Great, on which it was founded. It was first introduced by Custom, but afterwards confirmed by several Councils; and in none of them is there a Word of St. Peter. As therefore the Bishop of Alexandria preceded in Rank the Bishop of Antioch, for no other Reason but because the City of Alexandria preceded in Dignity the City of Antioch, according to the secular Constitutions of the Empire; so the Bishop of Rome preceded in Rank all other Bishops, for no other Reason but because the City of Rome, as the Seat of the Empire, preceded in Dignity all other Cities.
Innocent encour-
ages the Bishop
of Antioch to
invade the Rights
of the Metropol-
itans.
But to return to Innocent: In the same Letter to Alexander he observes, that the Bishop of Antioch did not preside over a single Province, but a whole Diocese; and therefore advises him not only to maintain the Right he had of ordaining the Metropolitans, but not to suffer other Bishops in the Provinces under his Jurisdiction, however distant, to be ordained without his Consent and Approbation. He adds, that, with respect to the Bishops of the less remote Provinces, he might reserve to himself the Right of ordaining them[[1450]]. This was encouraging the Bishop of Antioch to invade and usurp the undoubted Rights of the Metropolitans, in open Defiance of the Fourth and Sixth Canons of the Council of Nice, which were afterwards confirmed by almost innumerable other Councils, all granting to the Metropolitans the Power of ordaining the Bishops of their respective Provinces jointly with the Bishops of the same Province, without ever once mentioning the Patriarch or Head of the Diocese[[1451]]. But of this Right the Bishops of Rome had deprived the Metropolitans under their Jurisdiction as early at least as the Time of Syricius; for that Pope, in the Letter which he writ to Anysius Bishop of Thessalonica, appointing him his Vicar for East-Illyricum, charges him not to suffer any Bishops to be ordained in those Provinces without his Consent and Approbation. Innocent maintained what his Predecessors had usurped; and, to countenance their Usurpation and his own, he encourages, by this Letter, the Bishop of Antioch to pursue the same Conduct with respect to the Metropolitans of his Diocese. The Example of the Bishops of Rome was, in Process of Time, followed by those of Constantinople, who, rivaling them in Pride and Ambition, not only usurped the Power of ordaining all the Bishops of their Diocese, but, by the Interest they had at Court, obtained an Imperial Rescript, confirming to them the Power which they had usurped. But they were soon obliged to part with it, though thus guaranteed, by the Fathers of the Council of Chalcedon impowering, by their Twenty-eighth Canon, the Bishops of Constantinople to ordain the Metropolitans in the Dioceses of Pontus, Asia, and Thrace; but at the same time ascertaining to the Metropolitans the Right of ordaining the Bishops of their respective Provinces. But the Bishops of Rome, ever determined to part with no Power, however acquired, found means not only to elude the Decrees of this and several other Councils, ascertaining the Rights of the Metropolitans in the plainest Terms, but to improve, by daily Incroachments, their usurped Jurisdiction, as I shall have frequent Occasion to observe in the Sequel of this History.
Innocent’s Letter
occasions great
Disputes between the
Bishops ofAntioch
and those of Cyprus.
Innocent complains, in the next Article of his Letter, of a Custom that obtained in the Island of Cyprus. It was one of the chief Privileges of the Patriarch, or Bishop, who presided over a whole Diocese, to ordain the Metropolitans of the Provinces comprised under his Diocese. But the Metropolitan of Cyprus was ordained by the Bishops of that Island without the Consent, or even the Privity, of the Bishop of Antioch, though Cyprus belonged to his Province, according to the Civil Division of the Empire. This Custom Innocent condemns, as repugnant to the Canons of the Council of Nice; adding, that it was first introduced in the unhappy Times when Arianism prevailed all over Syria, the Bishops of Cyprus refusing then to acknowlege those of Antioch, who were infected with that Heresy. This Article proved the Source of endless Disputes between the Bishops of Antioch and those of Cyprus; the former pretending, that the Power of ordaining the Metropolitan of Cyprus was lodged in them, and the latter opposing with great Warmth such a Pretension. |Which are in the End
decided in favour of
the latter.| The Controversy was at length referred to the Council of Ephesus; and the Fathers of that numerous Assembly, having heard and examined with great Attention the Pleas of both Parties, condemned in the strongest Terms the Pretension of the Bishops of Antioch, as repugnant to the antient Canons, that is, to those very Canons, on which, at the Suggestion of Innocent, they had founded it. And here I cannot help observing, by the way, that the Bishops of Antioch never thought of alleging, in support of their Claim, the Authority of Innocent, which they would certainly have done, had they not been well apprised, that no Regard would have been paid to it by the Fathers of the Council. As for what Innocent adds concerning the Time and Manner in which the Custom he complains of was introduced, he must certainly have been no less mistaken in those Particulars, than he was in the Sense and Meaning of the Canons of Nice. For who can imagine, that the Arian Bishops, at the Time Arianism prevailed, that is, when they had the greatest Interest at Court, and the Orthodox had none, would have suffered the Bishops of Cyprus to withdraw themselves, contrary to the established Laws of the Church, from their Jurisdiction, for no other Reason, but because the Bishops of Antioch professed the Doctrine of Arius?
Alexander, in his Letter to Innocent, had asked him, Whether Two Metropolitan Sees should be erected in one Province, which had been divided by the Emperors into Two? Innocent replies, That the Concerns of the Church being different from those of the State, the Church ought to adhere to the antient Rule. |Alterations in the
State generally at-
tended with the like
Alterations in the
Church.| However, it is plain from History, that such Alterations in the State were, generally speaking, attended with the like Alterations in the Church; insomuch that when the Bishop of any considerable City wanted to be raised to the Dignity of a Metropolitan, the most expeditious Way of gratifying his Ambition was, to apply to the Emperor for a Division of the Province; that his City being advanced, by such a Division, to the Rank of a Metropolis, he might, by the same Means, be preferred to that of a Metropolitan. Of mere Bishops, thus raised to the Dignity of Metropolitans, without any Regard to Innocent’s Letter, or, as it is styled, Decretal, several Instances occur in History.
Innocent, in the End of his Letter, declares it as his Opinion, that such Ecclesiastics as had renounced Arianism, or any other Heresy, with a Desire of being received into the Church, ought not to be admitted as Ecclesiastics, but only as Laymen. |Ecclesiastics ordained
by Heretics to be ad-
mitted into the Church
only as Laymen.| This Doctrine is intirely agreeable to the erroneous Doctrine concerning the Invalidity of Ordination by the Hands of an Heretic, which we have heard him labour to establish in his Letter to the Bishops of Macedon[[1452]]. He concludes this Letter with intreating the Bishop of Antioch to cause it to be read in a Council, or to see that Copies of it be transmitted to all the Bishops of his Diocese, that all may agree in observing the Instructions which it contains[[1453]].