bishop shall not be ordained without a synod, and the presence of the metropolitan; that the metropolitan by his letters shall call unto him all the bishops in the province, if conveniently they may come together; if not, that at the least the greater part be present, or give their consent by writing. And that if at any time there grow any difference among the bishops of the province about the person that is to be ordained, the greater part of voices shall sway all. In the second Council of Carthage1 all the bishops with one consent said: "It seemeth good to us all, that without consulting the primate of each province, no man easily presume, though with many bishops, to ordain a bishop in what place soever without his command; but if necessity shall require, that three bishops, in what place soever they be, with the command of the primate, shall have power to ordain a bishop." And because the concurrence of the metropolitan was to be sought, and his presence or direction had in every ordination, therefore, lest by his fault there might be too long and dangerous delays, it was ordered that, unless it were in case of necessity, all ordinations should be within three months after the voidance of any place: and that if by the fault of the metropolitan there were any longer delay, he should be subject to ecclesiastical censure and punishment. In latter times, under the papacy, they 2 permitted, by special dispensation, one bishop, assisted with two mitred abbots, to ordain a bishop, contrary to the old canons requiring three bishops at the least. The form and manner of ordination we find in the fourth Council of Carthage3, which prescribeth that when a

οἰκείαν φιλονεικίαν, κρατεῖν τὴν τῶν πλείονων ψῆφον.—Concil. Antioch. Can. 19. [Labbe, Tom. II. col. 593.]

1 "Ab universis episcopis dictum est: Placet omnibus ut inconsulto primate cujuslibet provinciæ, tam facile nemo præsumat, licet cum multis episcopis, in quocunque loco, sine ejus ut dictum est præcepto, episcopum ordinare. Si autem necessitas fuerit, tres episcopi, in quocunque loco sint, cum primatis præcepto ordinare debebunt episcopum."-Concil. Carthag. II. Can. 12. [Labbe, Tom. II. col. 1248.]

2 "Dubium esse non potest, quin requirantur ordinarie tres, ut minimum, episcopi, ad novi episcopi ordinationem, nisi forte ex dispensatione cum uno episcopo ordinante adsint abbates insulati, qui vicem episcoporum gerant, ut aliquando fieri solet ob episcoporum raritatem."-Bellarm. De notis Eccles. Lib. IV. cap. 8. [Tom. II. p. 89.]

3 "Episcopus cum ordinetur, duo episcopi ponant et teneant evan

bishop is to be ordained, two bishops must hold the book of the Gospels over his head; and that one pouring forth the blessing upon him, all the other bishops that are present must touch his head with their hands. This is the form of episcopal ordination.

But touching presbyters and deacons, the Council of Hispalis saith': That the bishop alone may confer ecclesiastical honour upon them, but that alone he cannot take it from them; which yet is not so to be understood, as if the bishop alone, without his presbyters, might ordain presbyters; but that he may, without the concurrence of other bishops, give that honour of presbyterial order, which, without them, he cannot take away again. For otherwise the Council of Carthage provideth2, that in the ordination of a presbyter, the bishop holding his hand on his head and blessing him, all the presbyters that are present shall hold their hands by the hands of the bishop. Whereas in the ordination of a deacon3, it sufficeth that the bishop alone put his hands upon the head of him that is ordained, because he is not sanctified to priestly dignity, but to the service of the Church. So that other ministers are to concur in the ordination of the ministers of the word and sacraments as well as the bishop, being equal to him in the power of order and ministry, and his assistants in the work of it; yet hath the bishop a great pre-eminence above them in the imposition of hands: for regularly no number of presbyters imposing hands can make a minister without the bishop. The reason whereof is, because no ordinations are to be made sine titulo, that is, without title,' or

geliorum codicem super caput et cervicem ejus, et uno super eum fundente benedictionem reliqui omnes episcopi qui adsunt, manibus suis caput ejus tangant."-Concil. Carthag. Iv. Can. 2. [Labbe, Tom. II. col. 1437.]

1 "Episcopus sacerdotibus et ministris solus honorem dare potest, auferre solus non potest."-Concil. Hispal. I. Can. 6. [Labbe, Tom. vi. col. 1405.]

2 "Presbyter cum ordinatur, episcopo eum benedicente et manum super caput ejus tenente, etiam omnes presbyteri qui præsentes sunt, manus suas juxta manum episcopi super caput illius teneant."-Concil. Cathag. IV. Can. 3.

8 "Diaconus cum ordinatur, solus episcopus qui eum benedicit manum super caput illius ponat: quia non ad sacerdotium sed ad ministerium consecratur."-Ibid. Can. 4. [Labbe, Tom. II. col. 1437.]

place of employment: and none but bishops have churches. wherein to employ men, seeing they only are pastors of churches, and all other are but their assistants and coadjutors: not because the power of order which is given in ordination is less in them than in bishops. So that bishops alone have the power of ordination, and no man may regularly do it without them. Whereupon ordinarily, and according to the strictness of the old canons, all ordinations made otherwise are pronounced void as we read of one Coluthus', whose ordinations were therefore voided, because he took on him to ordain, being no bishop, but a presbyter only.

But seeing bishops and presbyters are in the power of order the same; as when the bishops of a whole Church or country fall from the faith, or consent to them that so do, the care of the Church is devolved to the presbyters remaining catholic; and as in the case of necessity they may do all other things regularly reserved to bishops only (as Ambrose2 sheweth that the presbyters of Egypt were permitted in some cases to confirm the baptized, which thing also Gregory3 after him durst not condemn); so in case of general defect of the bishops of a whole country refusing to ordain any but such as shall consent to their heresies, when there appeareth no hope of remedy or help from other parts of the Church, the presbyters may choose out one among themselves to be chief, and so add other to their numbers by the imposition of his and their hands. This I have proved in my third book out of the authorities of Armachanus, and sundry other, of whom Alexander of Hales speaketh. To which we may add that

1 Οτι Κόλλουθος πρεσβύτερος ὢν ἐτελεύτησε, καὶ πᾶσα χεὶρ αὐτοῦ γέγονεν ἄκυρος, καὶ πάντες οἱ παρ ̓ αὐτοῦ κατασταθέντες ἐν τῷ σχίσματι λαϊκοὶ γεγόνασι, καὶ οὕτως συνάγονται, δῆλον, καὶ οὐδενὶ καθέστηκεν ἀμφίBoλov.-Athanas. Apol. ii. [§ 11. Tom. I. p. 134.]

2 "Apud Ægyptum presbyteri consignant, si præsens non sit episcopus." [Pseud. Ambros. in Ephes. iv. Tom. II. Append. col. 241.]

3 "Pervenit quoque ad nos quosdam scandalizatos fuisse, quod presbyteros chrismate tangere eos qui baptizandi sunt prohibuimus. Et nos quidem secundum usum veterem ecclesiæ nostræ fecimus; sed si omnino hac de re aliqui contristantur, ubi episcopi desunt ut presbyteri etiam in frontibus baptizandos chrismate tangere debeant, concedimus."-Greg. Lib. II. Epist. 26. [Al. Lib. IV. Tom. II. col.

705.]

4 [Chap. XXXIX. Vol. I. p. 323.]

which Durandus hath, where he saith': That Hierome seemeth to have been of opinion that the highest power of consecration or order is the power of a priest or elder. So that every priest in respect of his priestly power may minister all sacraments, confirm the baptized, and give all orders; howsoever for the avoiding of the peril of schism it was ordained that one should be chosen to have a pre-eminence above the rest, who was named a bishop, and to whom it was peculiarly reserved to give orders, and to do some such other things. And afterwards he saith that Hierome is clearly of this opinion. Neither can the Romanists deny this, and justify their own practice. For their chorepiscopi, or titular bishops, are no bishops (as I have proved at large out of Damasus, not disputing or giving his private opinion, but resolving the point, and prescribing to other what they must believe and practise); and yet do they of the Church of Rome permit these to ordain, not only subdeacons, and other inferior clergymen, but priests and deacons also; and hold their ordinations to be good and of force. If any man haply say, that a bishop when he is old, and weak, or otherwise employed, may have a coadjutor, and consequently that it is no such absurdity to admit these suffragan and titular bishops; and that therefore they may have power to ordain, as being truly bishops, and yet presbyters in no case be permitted so to do for answer hereunto let him read what I have written in the 29th chapter of this book, concerning this matter.

1 "Hieronymus videtur consensisse quod summa potestas consecrationis sive ordinis erat potestas sacerdotalis, ita quod omnis sacerdos quantum est de potestate sacerdotali potest omnia sacramenta ministrare, confirmationem, omnes ordines, omnes benedictiones et omnes consecrationes facere: sed propter periculum schismatis fuit ordinatum ut sacerdotes unum ex seipsis eligerent, qui diceretur episcopus, cui reservatum est ordines facere et hujusmodi quæ non faciunt nisi soli episcopi."-Durand. a Sancto Porciano, in 4 Sent. Dist. xxiv. Quæst. 5. [fol. 313. Par. 1550.]

2 Chap. XXIX. [Vol. III. p. 227.]

CHAPTER LVII.

OF THE THINGS REQUIRED IN SUCH AS ARE TO BE ORDAINED MINISTERS: AND OF THE LAWFULNESS OF THEIR MARRIAGE.

FROM

ROM the election and ordination of ministers, we are to proceed to the things required in them that are to be chosen and ordained. "If any man," saith the apostle', "desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a worthy work. A bishop therefore must be unreproveable, the husband of one wife, watching, sober, modest, harberous, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; but gentle, no fighter, not covetous, no young scholar, but well reported of, even of those that are without." The canons of the Church require the same things, and add some other; as that no man may be chosen and ordained a minister of the word and sacraments till he be thirty years of age; nor none that was baptized in his bed, and the like. The papists proceed further, and not contenting themselves with the moderation of the apostle, and the primitive fathers, admit none into the holy ministry but those that are unmarried, or being married, promise to live from their wives; and yet not so neither, if either they have been twice married, or if they married with a widow. Wherefore letting pass the things the apostle prescribeth, and those other which the canons add, of which there is no question, let us come to the marriage of them that are to be admitted into the holy ministry of the Church.

It is clearly confessed by the best learned in the Roman Church, that bishops, presbyters and other clergymen, are not forbidden to marry, or being married, before they enter into the ministry, to continue in matrimonial society with their wives, by any law of God: and therefore there is little fear of offending against God, either by admitting such into the ministry as will not live single, or by entering into it, with purpose of marriage. Non est essentialiter annexum debitum continentiæ ordini sacro, saith Aquinas, sed ex

1 1 Tim. iii. [1-7.]

2 Secunda secundæ, Quæst. 88. Art. 11. [Tom. v. p. 844. Rom.