them" them successions of bishops, unto whom the apostles committed the charge of the Church in every place." "For all the heretics," saith he, "are much later than those bishops, unto whom the apostles committed the churches." And: "we° are able to number those who by the apostles were ordained bishops in the churches, and their successors unto our days, who neither taught nor knew any such thing as these men dream of."

For proof whereof, he bringeth in the succession of the bishops of Rome, from LinusP (unto whom the blessed apostles committed that episcopacy) and Anacletus, (by others called Cletus) and Clement (who did both see the apostles, and conferred with them) unto Eleutherius; who when Irenæus wrote, " had the charge of that bishoprick in the twelfth place after the apostles." Concerning whom, and the integrity which then continued in each other succession from the apostles' days, Hegesippus, who at the same time published his history of the Church, saith thus: "Soter' succeeded Anicetus, and after him was Eleutherius. Now, in every succession, and in every city, all things so stand, as the law and the prophets and our Lord do preach.”

And more particularly concerning the church of Co

m Successiones episcoporum, quibus apostolicam quæ in unoquoque loco est ecclesiam tradiderunt. Iren. lib. 4. advers. hæres. cap. 63. op. pag. 272.

n Omnes enim ii valde posteriores sunt quam episcopi, quibus apostoli tradiderunt ecclesias. Id. lib. 5. cap. 20. pag. 317.

• Habemus annumerare eos qui ab apostolis instituti sunt episcopi in ecclesiis, et successores eorum usque ad nos; qui nihil tale docuerunt, neque cognoverunt quale ab his deliratur. Id. lib. 3. cap. 3. pag. 175.

• Θεμελιώσαντες οὖν καὶ οἰκοδομήσαντες οἱ μακάριοι ἀπόστολοι τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, Λίνῳ τὴν τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς λειτουργίαν ἐνεχείρισαν. (τούτου τοῦ Λίνου Παῦλος ἐν ταῖς πρὸς Τιμόθεον ἐπιστολαῖς μέμνηται.) διαδέχεται δ' αὐτὸν ̓Ανέγκλητος· μετὰ τοῦτον δὲ τρίτῳ τόπῳ ἀπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν κληροῦται Κλήμης, ὁ καὶ ἑωρακὼς τους μακαρίους ̓Αποστό λους, καὶ συμβεβληκὼς αὐτοὶς. Id. ibid. pag. 176.

4 Νῦν δωδεκάτῳ τόπω τὸν τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς ἀπὸ τῶν ̓Αποστόλων κατέχει κλῆρον ̓Ελεύθερος. Ibid.

* Παρὰ ̓Ανικήτου διαδέχεται Σωτήρ, μεθ ̓ ὃν Ελεύθερος. Εν ἑκάστη δὲ διαδοχῆ καὶ ἐν ἑκάστη πόλει οὕτως ἔχει ὡς ὁ νόμος κηρύττει καὶ οἱ πроρйται kai o Kúpios. Hegesip. apud Euseb. lib. 4. hist. sp. Kß.

rinth, after he had spoken of the epistle written unto them by Clement, for the repressing of some factions wherewith they were at that time much troubled, which gave him occasion to tell them that the apostles, of whom he himself was an hearer, "hadt perfect intelligence from our Lord Jesus Christ, of the contention that should arise about the name of episcopacy," he declareth, that after the appeasing of this tumult, "the" church of the Corinthians continued in the right way, until the days of Primus, whom he did visit in his sailing toward Rome." Which Primus had for his successor that famous Dionysius, whose epistle to the church of the Athenians hath been before nominated; wherein he put them in mind of “the first bishop" that had been placed over them, even Dionysius the Areopagite, St. Paul's" own convert, a thing whereof they could at that time have no more cause to doubt, than we should have, if any question were now made of the bishops that were here in king Edward the VI. or queen Mary's days: I might also say, in the middle of the reign of queen Elizabeth herself; if with Baronius I would produce the Areopagite's life unto the government of the emperor Hadrian.

This Hegesippus, living next after "the first succession of the apostles," as Eusebius" noteth, and being him

* Μετά (ita enim ex MS. legendum, non μεγάλα) τινὰ περὶ τῆς Κλήμεν τος πρὸς Κορινθίους ἐπιστολῆς αὐτῷ εἰρημένα. Euseb. lib. 4. histor. κεφ. κβ. cum lib. 3. κεφ. ιστ.

* Καὶ οἱ ̓Απόστολοι ἡμῶν ἔγνωσαν διὰ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστ τοῦ, ὅτι ἔρις ἔσται ἐπὶ τοῦ ὀνόματος τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς· διὰ ταύτην οὖν τὴν αἰτίαν, πρόγνωσιν εἰληφότες τελείαν, κατέστησαν τοὺς προειρημένους. Clem. epist. ad Corinth. apud Coteler. tom. 1. pag. 173.

* Καὶ ἐπέμενεν ἡ ἐκκλησία τῶν Κορινθίων ἐν τῷ ὀρθῷ λόγῳ, μέχρι Πρί μου ἐπισκοπεύοντος ἐν Κορίνθῳ, ᾧ (ita MS. non oἷς) συνέμιξα πλέων εἰς 'Pounv. Hegesip. apud Euseb. lib. 4. Kε. ß.

Dionys. Corinth. apud eund. Euseb. lib. 3. Kεp. d. et lib. 4. KEP. KY.

w Acts, chap. 17. ver. 34.

x Baron. annal. tom. 2. ann. 120.

* Euseb. lib. 2. κεφ. κγ. Ο Ηγήσιππος (non, ut vulgo legitur, Ιώσηπος) ἐπὶ τῆς πρώτης τῶν ̓Αποστόλων γενόμενος διαδοχῆς. Egesippus qui post ipsas statim primas apostolorum successiones fuit: ut Rufinus locum expressit.

self a Christian" of the race of the Hebrews; was careful to record unto posterity the state of the church of Jerusalem in the days of the apostles, and the alteration that followed after their departure out of this life. Where first he sheweth, that James the brother of our Lord, surnamed the Just, did govern that church together with the apostles: yet so, as Clementa of Alexandria, who wrote some twenty years after him, further addeth, that he had this preferment even before the three prime apostles, Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, to be chosen the peculiar bishop of Jerusalem, the then mother church of the world.

After the death of James the Just, Hegesippus declareth that Symeon, the son of Clopas or Cleophas was constituted bishop, and so continued until the days of the emperor Trajan: under whom he suffered a glorious martyrdom, about the same time that Ignatius did, being then an hundred and twenty years of age; and by that account born before the incarnation of our blessed Saviour. Where, the observation of this prime historian is not to be passed over, that until these times the Church was called a virgin, as being not yet corrupted with the overspreading of heretical doctrine. For howsoever he

z Euseb. lib. 4. κεφ. κβ. fin.

* Διαδέχεται τὴν ἐκκλησίαν μετὰ τῶν ̓Αποστόλων ὁ ἀδελφὸς τοῦ Κυ ρίου Ιάκωβος, ὁ ὀνομασθεὶς ὑπὸ πάντων Δίκαιος. Hegesipp. commentarior. lib. 5. apud eund. Euseb. lib. 2. κεφ. κγ.

* Clem. in libro 6. Hypotyposewn : ubi narrat: Πέτρον καὶ Ἰάκωβον καὶ Ἰωάννην μετὰ τὴν ἀνάληψιν τοῦ Σωτῆρος, ὡς ἂν καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ Κυρίου προτετιμημένους μὴ ἐπιδικάζεσθαι δόξης, ἀλλ ̓ Ιάκωβον τὸν Δίκαιον ἐπίσκοπον Ἱεροσολύμων ἑλέσθαι, apud eund. lib. 2. κεφ. α.

b Apud Euseb. lib. 4. κεφ. κβ. Vid. eund. lib. 3. κεφ. ια. et λβ.

• Ὡς ἄρα μέχρι τῶν τότε χρόνων παρθένος καθαρὰ καὶ ἀδιάφθορος ἔμει· νεν ἡ ἐκκλησία· ἐν ἀδήλῳ που σκότει φωλευόντων εἰσέτι τότε τῶν, εἰ καί τινες ὑπῆρχον, παραφθείρειν ἐπιχειρούντων τὸν ὑγιῆ κανόνα τοῦ σωτηρίου κηρύγματος· ὡς δ ̓ ὁ ἱερὸς τῶν ἀποστόλων χορὸς διαφορὸν εἰλήφει τοῦ βίου τέλος, παρεληλύθει τὲ ἡ γενεὰ ἐκείνη τῶν αὐταῖς ἀκοαῖς τῆς ἐνθέου σοφίας ἐπακοῦσαι κατηξιωμένων, τηνικαῦτα τῆς ἀθέου πλάνης τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐλάμβανεν ἡ σύστασις, διὰ τῆς τῶν ἑτεροδιδασκάλων ἀπάτης, οἳ καὶ ἅτε μηδενὸς ἔτι τῶν ἀποστόλων λειπομένου, γυμνῇ λοιπὸν ἤδη τῇ κεφαλῇ, τῷ τῆς ἀληθείας κηρύγματι τὴν ψευδώνυμον γνῶσιν ἀντικηρύτα τειν ἐπεχείρουν. Hegesipp. apud eund. lib. 3. κεφ. λβ.

55

resies did spring up before, yet they were so kept down by the authority of the apostles and the disciples who had heard our Lord himself preach; that the authors and fautors thereof were not able to get any great head, being forced, by the authority of such opposites, to lurk in obscurity.

But as soon as all that generation was gathered unto their fathers, and none of those were left who had the happiness to hear the gracious words that proceeded from the Lord's own mouth, the heretics, taking the advantage, began to enter into a kind of combination, and with open face publicly to maintain the "oppositions" of their science falsely so called," from whence they assumed unto themselves the name of Gnostics, or men of knowledge, against the preaching of that truth, which by those who were eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word had been "ONCE delivered unto the saints." The first beginner of which conspiracy was one Thebuthis, who had at the first been bred in one of the seven sects, into which the people of the Jews were in those days divided; but afterwards, because he missed a bishoprick unto which he had aspired, (this of Jerusalem, as it may seem, whereunto Justus, after the death of Symeon, was preferred before him) could think of no readier a way throughly to revenge himself of this disgrace, than by raising up the like distractions among the Christians. Which as, in the effect, it sheweth the malignity of that ambitious sectary; so doth it, in the occasion, discover withal the great esteem that in those early days was had of episcopacy.

When Hegesippus wrote this ecclesiastical history, the ancientest of any since the Acts of the apostles, Eleutherius as we heard before, was bishop of the Church of Rome unto whom "Luciush king of the Britons," as

« ̓Αντιθέσεις τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως. 1 Tim. cap. 6. ver. 20.

e Luke, chap. 1. ver. 2.

f Jude, verse 3.

8 Διὰ τοῦτο ἐκάλουν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν παρθένον· οὔπω γὰρ ἔφθαρτο ἀκοαῖς ματαίαις. "Αρχεται δ ̓ ὁ θέβουθις, διὰ τὸ μὴ γενέσθαι αὐτὸν ἐπίσκοπον, ὑποφθείρειν. ̓Απὸ τῶν ἑπτὰ αἱρέσεων εἷς καὶ αὐτὸς ἦν ἐν τῷ λαῷ. Hegesipp. apud Euseb. lib. 4. кɛp. Kß.

h Misit ad eum Lucius Britannorum rex epistolam: obsecrans ut per ejus

our Bede relateth, "sent an epistle, desiring that by his means he might be made Christian. Who presently obtained the effect of his pious request: and the Britons kept the faith then received sound and undefiled in quiet peace, until the times of Dioclesian the emperor." By whose bloody persecution the faith and discipline of our British churches was not yet so quite extinguished, but that within ten years after, and eleven before the first general council of Nice, three of our bishops were present and subscribed unto the council of Arles: Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and Adelfius of Colchester; if that be it, which is called there Colonia Londinensium. The first root of whose succession we must fetch beyond Eleutherius, and as high as St. Peter himself: if it be true, that he "constituted churches here, and ordained bishops, presbyters, and deacons in them; as Symeon Metaphrastes relateth out of some part of Eusebius', as it seemeth, that is not come unto our hands.

17

But, to return unto the "angels of the seven churches,' mentioned in the Revelation of St. John: by what hath been said, it is apparent, that seven singular bishops, who were the constant presidents over those churches, are pointed at under that name. For other sure they could not be, if all of them were cast into one mould, and were of the same quality with Polycarpus, the then angel of the church in Smyrna: who without all question was such,

mandatum Christianus efficeretur. Et mox effectum piæ postulationis consecutus est: susceptamque fidem Britanni usque in tempora Diocletiani principis inviolatam integramque quieta pace servabant. Bed. hist. ecclesiast. Anglor. lib. 1. cap. 4.

i Tom. 1. concilior. Galliæ, a Sirmondo edit. pag. 9.

* Επιμείνας τε ἐν Βρετανίᾳ ἡμέρας τινάς, καὶ πολλοὺς τῷ λόγῳ φωτίσας τῆς χάριτος, ἐκκλησίας τε συστησάμενος, ἐπισκόπους τε καὶ πρεσβυτέρους καὶ διακόνους χειροτονήσας, δωδεκάτῳ ἔτει τοῦ Καίσαρος Νέρωνος avis eis Púμyv Tapaɣiveraι. Metaphrast. commentar. de Petro et Paulo; ad diem 29. Junii.

· Εὐσέβιος ὁ Παμφίλου δώδεκα μὲν ἔτη διατρίψαι Πέτρον λέγει ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῆ, εἴκοσι δὲ καὶ τρία πεποιηκέναι εἴς τε Ρώμην καὶ τὴν Βρετανίαν καὶ τὰς περὶ τὴν δύσιν πόλεις. Ibid.