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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.] ↩

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