[1]. Concil. t. 1. p. 1072.
The Honour of presiding belonged of Right to Alexander Bishop of Alexandria; but he, it seems, declined it, perhaps to obviate the Complaints of the Arians, who looked upon him as a Party concerned, and one highly prejudiced against them. I know that the haranguing of Constantine is ascribed to Eusebius the Historian, in the Title of the Chapter in which he mentions it[[581]], that Sozomen positively affirms it, and that the learned Valesius thinks there is no room to doubt of it, since Eusebius was the most eloquent Bishop of those Times; and besides, he himself tells us, that he pronounced a Speech in Praise of Constantine, on occasion of his entering into the Twentieth Year of his Reign, while he was sitting in the midst of the Ministers of God[[582]]; meaning thereby, no doubt, the Bishops assembled at Nice. |Eusebius of Cæsarea
did not harangue the
Emperor at the Opening of the
Council,| That Eusebius harangued the Emperor before that venerable Assembly, is not at all to be questioned; but that the Bishops, who composed it, should have pitched upon one who was suspected, or rather convicted, of Arianism, to address the Emperor in their Name, at the Opening of the Council, seems to me highly improbable. The Orator, whoever he was, sat in the first Place, or at least in the second (that I may not quarrel with Baronius, who will have the Place on the Left-hand to have been the most honourable[[583]]): And what Right had the Bishop of Cæsarea to that Honour? |but on another
Occasion.| I may add, that a short Compliment, such as is that which the Presbyter Gregory ascribes to Eustathius of Antioch[[584]], had been far more proper on that Occasion than Eusebius’s long and tedious Panegyric, which therefore some suppose to have been pronounced on Occasion of the magnificent Entertainment which Constantine gave the Bishops, as they were preparing to return to their respective Sees; for he then entered into the Twentieth Year of his Reign, which began on the 25th of July 325. and it was on that Occasion that Eusebius writ, and delivered his Panegyric before the Emperor, and the Fathers of the Council, as he himself declares[[585]]. To conclude, had Eusebius been appointed by that great Assembly to address the Emperor in their Name, his Modesty had not prevented him from describing the Spokesman so as to leave no room to doubt on whom that Honour had been conferred.
The Council of Nice
not convened by the
Pope.
Before I dismiss this Subject, it may not be improper, nor foreign to my Purpose, to observe, that the Council of Nice, the first General or Oecumenical Council held in the Church, was convened by the Emperor, and not by the Bishop of Rome; that the Bishop of Rome did not preside in it either in Person, or by his Legates, as they are pleased to style them; and consequently that the Privilege which they assumed in After-ages of assembling General Councils, and presiding in them, ought to be deemed a most insolent and unwarrantable Usurpation. |The Council commands all Causes
to be finally de-
termined by Prov-
incial Synods.| The Second Thing worthy of notice with respect to this Council is its Fifth Canon, commanding all Ecclesiastical Causes to be finally decided in each Province by a Provincial Synod. The Words of the Canon are clear in themselves, and besides have been understood in this Sense by all the Councils that were held, by all the Authors that writ, for several Ages after[[586]]; nay, it was understood in this Sense by some of the Popes themselves, namely, by Innocent I. who, in one of his Letters to Victricius Bishop of Roan, writes thus; If any Controversy should arise among the Clerks, whether they be of an inferior or superior Rank, let it be decided, agreeably to the Council of Nice, in an Assembly of the Bishops of the same Province[[587]]. 'Tis true, he adds, without prejudicing the Rights of the Roman See. But that Restriction is his own, and not the Council’s. Hence this Canon, directing all Causes to be thus tried, all Disputes to be thus ended, was often quoted on occasion of Appeals made to Rome, and employed as a Bulwark to restrain the incroaching Power of the Popes within due Bounds; but in Process of Time their Ambition, supported by the Favour of Princes, and the great Temporalities they acquired, bore all down before them.
The Ecclesiastical
Hierarchy first
formed.
It was in the Pontificate of Sylvester, and under the benign Auspices of Constantine, that the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy was first formed and settled in the Manner it continues to this Day; the new Form of Government, introduced by that Prince into the State, serving as a Model for the Government of the Church. In the Three first Centuries no other Hierarchy was known, no other Degrees thought of, but those of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons. Of these alone was composed the whole Body of the Clergy; but with this Difference, that the Bishop or Supervisor was the general Disposer and Manager of all Things within the Bounds of his Jurisdiction, nothing being done there without his Consent and Approbation, and the Presbyters and Deacons his Assistants, or his Counsellors and Senate, as St. Jerom[[588]], and before him St. Ignatius[[589]], styled them. This Order was probably introduced, according to Grotius[[590]], in Imitation of the Jewish Synagogues; for each Synagogue had its Ruler, who presided over the rest, its Pastors, and its Eleemosynaries; to the Ruler succeeded the Bishop, to the Pastors the Presbyters, and to the Eleemosynaries the Deacons. |The Office and
Duty of Bishops.| It was the Bishop’s Office and Duty to preach the Word[[591]], to pray with his People[[592]] to administer the Sacraments[[593]], to ordain Ministers[[594]], to excommunicate Offenders[[595]], to absolve Penitents[[596]], and to regulate and settle every thing relating to his particular Church[[597]], with the Consent and Concurrence of the Presbytery; for the Presbyters were his Counsellors or Senate, and, together with him, presided in the Consistories of those Times, as we learn from Tertullian telling us, that in those Courts approved Elders presided[[598]]. Hence Petrus de Marca concludes the original Government of the Church to have been mixt of Monarchy and Aristocracy; or, to use his own Words, the Monarchical Government of the Church to have been tempered with the Aristocratical. As the Bishop could not discharge, as he ought, the above-mentioned Functions, without residing among those who were committed to his Care, his Residence was deemed absolutely necessary, and Non-residence a most heinous Transgression; insomuch that St. Cyprian, enumerating the Sins that brought the Wrath of God upon the Church in the bloody Persecution of Decius, mentions Non-residence in the Bishops as one[[599]]. |How chosen,
and ordained.| Upon the Vacancy of a See a new Bishop was chosen in the room of the deceased in some Places by the Clergy and People of that Church alone, in others by the neighbouring Bishops, the People and the Clergy only expressing their Desire, and giving Testimony of the Life and Manners of the Person proposed, and in some by the joint Suffrages of the Clergy, of the People, and of the neighbouring Bishops. These three different Methods of electing we find practised at different Times with respect to the same Church; but on no Occasion was the Choice of the neighbouring Bishops sufficient without the Consent of the Clergy and People, nor the Election of the Clergy and People without the Approbation of the neighbouring Bishops. The Bishop being thus elected and confirmed, he was in the next Place ordained; and this Ceremony was performed by the neighbouring Bishops, in his own Church, and in the Presence of his Flock, by the Imposition of Hands. The new Bishop, agreeably to a Custom which obtained then, immediately gave Notice of his Promotion to other Bishops, especially to those of the greater Sees, who, by receiving and answering his Letters, were said to communicate with him, and to acknowlege him lawfully chosen.
The Office and Duty
of Presbyters.
In the Second Degree were the Presbyters or Priests, whose Office or Province it was to assist the Bishop in the Discharge of his Pastoral Commission, whence they are often styled the Bishop’s Assistants: with his Consent and Approbation they preached the Word, they prayed with the People, they administred the Sacraments, they absolved Penitents, and, in short, discharged every Office which the Bishop did, except those of ordaining, confirming, and excommunicating; I say, with the Bishop’s Consent and Approbation; for no spiritual Function could they perform without his Leave, as is manifest from Tertullian[[600]], Origen[[601]], St. Cyprian[[602]], and above all from St. Ignatius, in his famous Letter to the Church of Smyrna[[603]]. The Church, in those happy Days, admitted none to the sacred Functions, but such as were known by a long Trial to be well qualified for so great a Charge. |Qualifications re-
quisite in a Presbyter.| The Qualifications requisite in a Presbyter, so far as I can learn from the Antients, may be reduced to these Four Heads, his Condition in the World, his Conversation, his Learning, and his Age. He was not to be intangled with any worldly Affairs, with any secular Employments, but at perfect Liberty to apply himself wholly to the Functions of his Office[[604]]. He was to be of an unspotted and exemplary Life[[605]]; and therefore, before Ordination, he was proposed to the Presbytery and People for their Testimony and Approbation. He was to be well versed in the Scripture, and capable of teaching others, and instructing them in the Mysteries of the Christian Religion. As for human Learning, it was not required in a Presbyter; nay, by some it was condemned, particularly Logic and Philosophy, as in a manner inconsistent with Christianity[[606]], but at the same time highly commended and applauded by others as conducive to the right understanding of the Scripture, and necessary for confuting the Sophisms of Heretics[[607]]; whence Logic especially is recommended by Clemens Alexandrinus to all Ecclesiastics, as a Hedge to defend the Truth from being trod down by Sophists[[608]]. As for the Age of a Presbyter, he was to be stricken in Years, as the very Name of a Presbyter or Elder sufficiently declares. However, if a young Man was endowed with extraordinary Gifts and Talents, his Age was dispensed with in respect both to the Sacerdotal and Episcopal Dignity. Thus was Aurelius, though young in Years, raised, in regard of his great Merit, to the Rank of a Presbyter, as we read in St. Cyprian[[609]]; and the Bishop of Magnesia, in St. Ignatius’s Time, was, it seems, but a young Man, since Ignatius, in his Letter to the Magnesians, exhorts them not to despise their Bishop’s Age, but to yield him all due Respect and Reverence[[610]]. These were the Qualifications requisite in a Candidate for the Ministry: if he was recommended by them (for no other Recommendation could avail him), he was admitted to holy Orders; if not, he was rejected as unfit for the sacred Function. The Person ordained was at Liberty to serve the Church where he had received his Orders, or any other where his Assistance might be wanted; for he was not ordained Minister of any particular Church, but of the Church universal.
The Institution and
Office of Deacons.