that is, the faithful from all parts, most agree with (or 'go to')[1] this Church on account of her mightier rule, and in her the tradition of the Apostles has always been kept by those who are from all sides." He then draws up the list of Popes from St. Peter to Eleutherius (177–189) his contemporary.[2] But this authority of the Pope belongs to general Church History: and we shall come later to the evidence of the great Greek Fathers for it. Now we are chiefly concerned with the other cases of superior jurisdiction, especially among Eastern bishops.
From the beginning we find the bishops of the more important sees, of the chief towns of provinces for instance, exercising jurisdiction over the neighbouring Churches. There is no reason to suppose that this right had been formally handed over to them, still less was the arrangement an imitation of the Roman civil jurisdiction, at any rate in this first period. The reason of their authority was a very simple and a very natural one. It was to the great central cities that the Gospel had first been brought, it was from them that the faith had spread through the country around. The bishops of the chief towns ruled then over the oldest sees, in many cases they traced their line back to one of the Apostles, they had sent out missionaries to the neighbouring villages, and, when the time came to set up other sees near them, they naturally ordained the new bishops. Now the right or the custom of ordaining another bishop was for many centuries looked upon as involving a sort of vague jurisdiction over him. It produced the relationship of a "Fatherhood in Christ"; the new bishop looked up to his consecrator with gratitude and with filial piety.[3] So before there was any formal legislation on the subject, the bishops and faithful of each province naturally looked upon the bishop of the oldest Church in the neighbourhood, from whom
- ↑ "Convenire" = συμβαίνειν (but the Greek is lost.) It seems impossible to settle which meaning is right: the word means either. Stieren (Op. omnia Irenæi, Leipzig, 1849), who has certainly no prejudice in favour of Rome, declares for "to agree with."
- ↑ There is a careful examination of this famous passage (adv. Hær. III, 3) in Wilmer's De Christi Ecclesia (Regensburg, 1897), pp. 218, seq.
- ↑ We shall see throughout our history how important the right to consecrate the bishops of any country was considered.
