VII.4. From whence it hath grown that the Church is governed by Bishops.

IV. The first Bishops in the Church of Christ were his blessed Apostles; for the office whereunto Matthias was chosen the sacred history doth term ἐπισκοπὴν, an episcopal office. Which being spoken expressly of one, agreeth no less unto them all than unto him. For which cause St. Cyprian¹ speaking generally of them all doth call them Bishops. They which were termed Apostles, as being sent of Christ to publish his gospel throughout the world, and were named likewise Bishops, in that the care of government was also committed unto them, did no less perform the offices of their episcopal authority by governing, than of their apostolical by teaching. The word ἐπισκοπὴ, expressing that part of their office which did consist in regiment, proveth not (I grant) their chiefty in regiment over others, because as then that name was common unto the function of their inferiors, and not peculiar unto theirs. But the history of their actions sheweth plainly enough how the thing itself which that name appropriated importeth, that is to say, even such spiritual chiefty as we have already defined to be properly episcopal, was in the holy Apostles of Christ. Bishops therefore they were at large.

But was it lawful for any of them to be a bishop with restraint? True it is their charge was indefinite; yet so, that in case they did all whether severally or jointly discharge the office of proclaiming every where the gospel and of guiding the Church of Christ, none of them casting off his part in their burden² which was laid upon them, there doth appear no impediment but that they having received their common charge indefinitely might in the execution thereof notwithstanding restrain themselves, or at leastwise be restrained by the after commandment of the Spirit, without contradiction or repugnancy unto that charge more indefinite and general before given them: especially if it seemed at any time requisite, and for the greater good of the Church, that they should in such sort tie themselves unto some special part of the flock of Jesus Christ, guiding the same in several as bishops. For first, notwithstanding our Saviour’s commandment unto them all to go and preach unto all nations; yet some restraint we see there was made, when by agreement between Paul and Peter³, moved with those effects of their labours which the providence of God brought forth, the one betook himself unto the Gentiles, the other unto the Jews, for the exercise of that office of every where preaching. A further restraint of their apostolic labours as yet there was also made, when they divided themselves into several parts of the world; John⁴ for his charge taking Asia, and so the residue other quarters to labour in. If nevertheless it seem very hard that we should admit a restraint so particular, as after that general charge received to make any Apostle notwithstanding the bishop of some one church; what think we of the bishop of Jerusalem⁵, James, whose consecration unto that mother see of the world, because it was not meet that it should at any time be left void of some Apostle, doth seem to have been the very cause of St. Paul’s miraculous vocation, to make up the number of the twelve again, for the gathering of nations abroad, even as the martyrdom of the other James, the reason why Barnabas in his stead⁶ was called.

Finally, Apostles, whether they did settle in any one certain place, as James, or else did otherwise, as the Apostle Paul, episcopal authority either at large or with restraint they had and exercised. Their episcopal power they sometimes gave unto others to exercise as agents only in their stead, and as it were by commission from them. Thus Titus⁷, and thus Timothy, at the first, though afterwards endued with apostolical power of their own⁸.

For in process of time the Apostles gave episcopal authority, and that to continue always with them which had it. “We are able to number up them,” saith Irenæus⁹, “who by the Apostles were made bishops.” In Rome he affirmeth that the Apostles themselves made Linus the first bishop¹⁰. Again of Polycarp he saith likewise¹¹, that the Apostles made him bishop of the church of Smyrna. Of Antioch they made Evodius bishop, as Ignatius witnesseth¹², exhorting that church to tread in his holy steps, and to follow his virtuous example.

The Apostles therefore were the first which had such authority, and all others who have it after them in orderly sort are their lawful successors, whether they succeed in any particular church, where before them some Apostle hath been seated, as Simon succeeded James in Jerusalem; or else be otherwise endued with the same kind of bishoply power, although it be not where any Apostle before hath been. For to succeed them, is after them to have that episcopal kind of power which was first given to them. “All bishops are,” saith Jerome¹³, “the Apostles’ successors.” In like sort Cyprian¹⁴ doth term bishops, “Præpositos qui Apostolis vicaria ordinatione succedunt.” From hence it may haply seem to have grown, that they whom we now call Bishops¹⁵ were usually termed at the first Apostles, and so did carry their very names in whose rooms of spiritual authority they succeeded.

Such as deny Apostles to have any successors¹⁶ at all in the office of their apostleship, may hold that opinion without contradiction to this of ours, if they well explain themselves in declaring what truly and properly apostleship is. In some things every presbyter, in some things only bishops, in some things neither the one nor the other are the Apostles’ successors. The Apostles were sent¹⁷ as special chosen eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ, from whom immediately they received their whole embassage, and their commission to be the principal first founders of an house of God, consisting as well of Gentiles as of Jews. In this there are not after them any other like unto them; and yet the Apostles have now their successors upon earth, their true successors¹⁸, if not in the largeness, surely in the kind of that episcopal function, whereby they had power to sit as spiritual ordinary judges, both over laity and over clergy, where churches Christian were established.

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Footnotes

1. “Meminisse diaconi debent, quoniam apostolos, id est, episcopos et præpositos, Dominus elegit.” Cypr. l. iii. ep. 9. [al. ep. 65. p. 113, ed. Baluz.] ↩

2. Rom. ii. 14, 15; 1 Cor. ix. 16; John xxi. 15, 16. ↩

3. Gal. ii. 8. ↩

4. Him Eusebius doth name the governor of the churches in Asia, lib. iii. Hist. Eccles. c. 16. [i. Θω̑μας μὲν, ὡς ἡ παράδοσις περιέχει, τὴν Παρθίαν εἴληχεν, Ἀνδρέας δὲ τὴν Σκυθἰαν, Ἰωαννὴς τὴν Ἀσίαι· πρὸς οὕς καὶ διατρίψας, ἐν Ἐϕέσῳ τελευτᾳ̑.] Tertullian calleth the same churches St. John’s foster-daughters, advers. Marcion. [lib. iv. c. 5. “Si constat, id verius quod prius, id prius quod et ab initio, id ab initio quod ab apostolis; pariter utique constabit, id esse ab apostolis traditum quod apud ecclesias apostolorum fuerit sacrosanctum. Videamus quod lac a Paulo Corinthii hauserint; ad quam regulam Galatæ sint recorrecti; quid legant Philippenses, Thessalonicenses, Ephesii; quid etiam Romani de proximo sonent, quibus evangelium et Petrus et Paulus sanguine quoque suo signatum reliquerunt. Habemus et Joannis alumnas ecclesias. Nam etsi Apocalypsin ejus Marcion respuit, ordo tamen episcoporum ad originem recensus in Joannem stabit auctorem. Sic et cæterarum generositas recognoscitur.”] ↩

5. “Jacobus, qui appellatur frater Domini, cognomento Justus, post passionem Domini statim abapostolis Hierosolymorum episcopus ordinatus est.” Hieron. Scrip. Eccles. Catal. ii. [al. De Viris Illustr. c. 2. t. ii. 815, ed. Vallars.] “Eodem tempore Jacobum primum sedem episcopalem Ecclesiæ, quæ est Hierosolymis, obtinuisse memoriæ traditur.” [τότε δη̑τα καὶ Ἰάκωβον, τὸν του̑ Κυρίου λεγόμενον ἀδελϕὸν… πρω̑τον ἱστορου̑σι τη̑ς ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις ἐκκλησίας τὸν τη̑ς ἐπισκοπη̑ς ἐγχειρισθη̑ναι θρόνον.] Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. lib. ii. cap. 1. The same seemeth to be intimated, Acts xv. 13; xxi. 18. ↩

6. Acts xii. 2; xiii. 2. ↩

7. Titus i. 5. ↩

8. This appeareth by those subscriptions which are set after the epistle to Titus, and the second to Timothy, and by Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. iii. cap. 4. [§ 2. Τιμόθεός γε μὴν τη̑ς ἐν Ἐϕέσῳ παροικίας ἱστορει̑ται πρω̑τος τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν εἰληχέναι· ὡς καὶ Τίτος τω̑ν ἐπὶ Κρήτης ἐκκλησιω̑ν.] ↩

9. Iren. lib. iii. cap. 3. [“Habemus annumerare eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis.”] ↩

10. [Ibid. § 3. οἰκοδομήσαντες οἱ μακάριοι ἀπόστολοι τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, Λίνῳ τη̑ς ἐπισκοπη̑ς λειτουργίαν ἐνεχείρισαν.] ↩

11. [Ibid. § 4. Πολύκαρπος … οὐ μόνον ὑπὸ ἀποστόλων μαθητευθεὶς, καὶ συναναστραϕεὶς πολλοι̑ς τοι̑ς τὸν Χριστὸν ἑωρακόσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὑπὸ ἀποστόλων κατασταθεὶς εἰς τὴν Ἀσίαν ἐν τῃ̑ ἐν Σμύρνῃ ἐκκλησία ἐπίσκοπος.] ↩

12. In Ep. [adscript.] ad Antioch. [c. 7. μνημονεύσατε Εὐοδίου του̑ ἀξιομακαρίστου ποιμένος ὑμω̑ν, ὁς πσω̑τος ἐνεχειρίσθη παρὰ τω̑ν ἀποστόλων τὴν ὑμετέραν προστασίαν· μὴ καταισχύνωμεν τὸν πατέρα· γενώμεθα γνήσιο παι̑δες, ἀλλὰ μὴ νόθοι.] ↩

13. Hieron. ep. 85. [al. 101, § 1. “Omnes Apostolorum successores sunt.”] ↩

14. Cypr. Ep. ad Flor. [ep. 66. c. 3. ed. Fell.] ↩

15. Theod. in 1 Tim. iii. [1. τοὺς αὐτοὺς ἐκάλουν τοτὲ πρεσβυτέρους καὶ ἐπισκόπους· τοὺς δὲ νυ̑ν καλουμένους ἐπισκόπους, ἀποστόλους ὠνόμαζον.] ↩

16. “Ipsius apostolatus nulla successio. Finitur enim legatio cum legato, nec ad successores ipsius transit.” Stapl. [Thomas Stapleton, 1535-1598, a famous Roman Catholic controversialist.] Doct. Prin. lib. vi. cap. 7. [Opp. i. 213.] ↩

17. Acts i. 21, 22; 1 John i. 3; Gal. i. 1; Apoc. xxi. 14: Matt. xxviii. 19. ↩

18. [“Omnia Dei dona quæ fuerunt in Apostolis et Evangelistis propius erunt inspicienda, ut sciamus, quid Apostolis eorumque temporibus fuerit peculiare, quid commune futurum sit cæteris omnibus Ecclesiæ ministris, usque ad consummationem sæculi. Primum quod in Apostolis nobis est considerandum, est vocatio illa extraordinaria, quæ proxime a Deo est facta: deinde, legatio nullis circumscripta finibus: tertium, quod in iis omnibus quæ ad ipsorum spectabant officium, infallibilem habuerunt directorem, Sp. Sanctum, qui suggessit ipsis quæcunque prius a Domino audiverant, et omnia quæ ad hominum salutem et ecclesiæ ædificationem erant necessaria, adeo ut in ipsorum potestate non fuerit a veritate deflectere. Postremum est ipsius apostolatus potestas.“Priora illa tria fuerunt necessaria ponendis fundamentis ecclesiarum super quæ alii superstruerent, quæ nisi certam conjunctam Sp. Sancti haberent firmitatem, labasceret quicquid ab aliis postea superstructum fuit. Edendi miracula gratiam prætereo, quod illa data sit non Apostolis tantum aliisque Ecclesiæ pastoribus, sed quibusvis ut Deo visum fuit fidelibus, ut de fide in Filium Dei certam et indubitatam fidem facerent. Ex omnibus his donis nihil successoribus communicare potuerunt præter evangelii ministerium: quod cum Apostolicæ potestati conjunctum sit, eam simul ad posteros transmiserunt: utpote quæ non tantum propagandis, verum etiam conservandis ecclesiis sit necessaria. Sine verbi Dei prædicatione, et sacramentorum usu, ac ecclesiastico regimine, nulla ecclesia recte potest subsistere. Quemadmodum prædicatio verbi Dei, baptismus, et cœna Domini non sunt data Ecclesiæ, ut tantum servirent temporibus Apostolorum, sed etiam futuris sæculis usque ad Domini adventum; sic etiam regiminis forma quæ ab ipso Domino fuit instituta, et ab Apostolis tradita, et usu patrum confirmata, permanere debet. Illa autem habuit inferiores et superiores pastores: ergo id in Ecclesia Christi retinendum est.” Saravia de Div. Ministr. Grad. c. 14. p. 33.] ↩