[920]. “Si qua civitas potestate imperiali novata est aut innovatur, civiles dispositiones et publicas aecclesiasticarum quoque parochiarum ordines subsequantur.” Conc. Chalc. an. 451. This was an attempt to bring the state generally into that condition which would have existed had the church and the empire not been on terms of hostility when the church first was founded. Had the heathen creed not stood in the way, from the very first it is probable that the praefect of the city and the mayor of the village would have been universally also the Episcopus and Chorepiscopus of the community: but the χάρισμα κυβερνησέως and χάρισμα διδασκαλίας would not then have united in the same hands. The church assumed form and shape under pressure, and passed from a molluscous into a vertebrated organization through its struggles to resist persecution on the one hand and heresy on the other. When it entered into its alliance with the state its outward constitution was already completed. That alliance is not a metaphysical entity, but an historical fact.
[921]. Let us arrange these offices tabularly:—
| Secular. | Ecclesiastical. | ||
| 1. | Comes. | 1. | Episcopus. |
| α. Missus. | α. Chorepiscopus. (The Archdeacon or the Rural Dean.) | ||
| 2. | Centenarius. Centurio, or Vicarius: qui per pagos constitutus est. | 2. | Presbyter Plebei qui baptismalem aecclesiam habet, |
| 3. | Decurio et Decanus. | 3. | Minor Presbyter tituli. |
| 4. | Collectarius. Quaternio. Duumvir. |
The count (in England Ealdorman) and bishop are on one line, and, if we may anticipate a little for the sake of illustration, we may add the Eorl of Cnut’s constitution on the one side, and the Metropolitan on the other. The Missus of the count and the chorepiscopus (in Strabo’s time yet existing, though less important than his city brother) are on the second line; nevertheless the Missus partakes of the comitial dignity, and the episcopal, though grudgingly, is still vouchsafed to the chorepiscopus. Next in rank is the Centenarius or president of the Hundred, the officer of the pagus: his equivalent is the priest in a church where baptism is performed, the peculiar distinctive of a parish-church. The Decurio or Decanus is on the same footing as the German Capellanus or Kaplan, who is indeed ordained to a title, but not with power to administer the sacraments. The Kaplan is in truth generally attached to the parish-church—a sort of curate,—and often succeeds to it. But how is it that the parallel can be carried no further? Is it that the Deacon’s ordination was not conclusive enough? Or were Collectarii and Duumviri, beadles, tax-gatherers and bailiffs not dignified enough to compare with even acolytes and vergers?
[922]. “De poentitentibus, ut a presbyteris non reconcilientur, nisi praecipiente episcopo.—Ex concilio Africano.—Ut poenitentibus, secundum differentiam peccatorum, episcopi arbitrio poenitentiae tempora decernantur, et ut presbyter, inconsulto episcopo, non reconciliet poenitentem, nisi absentia episcopi, necessitate cogente.... Item, Ex concilio Cartaginensi de eadem re. Aurelius episcopus dixit: ‘Si quisquam in periculo fuerit constitutus, et se reconciliari divinis altaribus petierit, si episcopus absens fuerit, debet utique presbyter consulere episcopum, et sic periclitantem eius praecepto reconciliare: quam rem debemus salubri concilio roborare.’ Ab universis episcopis dictum est: ‘Placet quod sanctitas vestra necessaria nos instruere dignata est.’ Romani reconciliant hominem intra absidem: Graeci nolunt. Reconciliatio penitentium in coena Domini tantum est ab episcopo, et consummata penitentia: si vero episcopo dificile sit, presbytero potest, necessitatis causa, praebere potestatem, ut impleat.” Poen. Theodori. Thorpe, ii. 6. Aurelius of Carthage died in 430.
[923]. “Et ideo quia Carpentoracte convenientes huiusmodi ad nos querela pervenit, quod ea quae a quibuscumque fidelibus parochiis conferuntur, ita ab aliquibus episcopis praesumantur, ut aut parum, aut prope nihil, aecclesiis quibus collata fuerint relinquatur; ut si aecclesia civitatis eius cui episcopus praeest, ita est idonea, ut Christo propitio nihil indigeat, quidquid parochiis fuerit derelictum, clericis qui ipsis parochiis deserviunt, vel reparationibus aecclesiarum rationabiliter dispensetur,” etc. Concil. Carpentor. an. 527.
[924]. The extraordinary helplessness of early surgery is little appreciated by us, nor are we duly grateful for the advance in that most noble study which now secures to the lowest and poorest sufferer, alleviations once inaccessible to the wealthiest and most powerful. An example in point occurs to me in the case of Leopold, duke of Austria, the captor of Coeur de Lion, in 1195. A fall from his horse produced a compound fracture of the leg, which from the treatment it received soon mortified. Amputation was necessary, and it was performed by the duke himself, holding an axe to the limb, which his chamberlain struck with a beetle. “Acciti mox medici apposuerunt quae expedire credebant; in crastino vero pes ita denigratus apparuit, ut a medicis incidendus decerneretur; et cum non inveniretur qui hoc faceret, accitus tandem cubicularius eius, et ad hoc coactus, dum ipse dux dolabrum manu propria tibiae apponeret, malleo vibrato, vix trina percussione pedem eius abscidit.” Walt. Heming. i. 210. Wendov. iii. 88. We feel no surprise that death followed such treatment, even without the excommunication under which the savage duke laboured.
[925]. We do not sufficiently prize our own advantages, and the blessings which the mercy of God has vouchsafed to us in this respect. But let one fact be mentioned, which ought to arrest the attention of even the least reflecting man. In the ninth century there was not a single copy of the Old and New Testaments to be found in the whole diocese of Lisieux. We learn this startling fact from a letter sent by Freculf, its bishop, to Hrabanus Maurus. “Ad haec vestrae charitatis vigilantia intendat, quoniam nulla nobis librorum copia suppeditat, etiamsi parvitas obtusi sensus nostri vigeret: dum in episcopio, nostrae parvitati commisso, nec ipsos Novi Veterisque Testamenti repperi libros, multo minus horum expositiones.” Opera Hrabani. Ed. Colvener. ii. 1.
[926]. Vol. i. 302.
[927]. Eichhorn, § 114. vol. i. 506.