The Judgment of Doctor Rainolds

THE IVDGEMENT OF DOCTOR RAINOLDES touching the Original of Episcopacy.

W HEN Elders were ordained by the Apostles in every Church, through every City, to feed the flock of Christ, whereof the Holy Ghost had made them over-seers: they to the intent they might the better do it by common counsel and consent, did use to assemble themselves and meet together. In the which meetings, for the more orderly handling and concluding of things pertaining to their charge; they chose one amongst them to be the President of their company and Moderator of their actions. As in the Church of Ephesus, though it had sundry Elders and Pastors to guide it: yet amongst those sundry was there one chief, whom our Savior calleth the Angel of the Church, and writeth that to him, which by him the rest should know.

And this is he whom afterward in the Primitive Church the Fathers called Bishop. For as the name of Ministers, common to all them who serve Christ in the stewardship of the mysteries of God, that is in preaching of the Gospel, is now by the custom of our English speech restrained to Elders who are under a Bishop : so the name of Bishop common to all Elders and Pastors of the Church, was then by the usual language of the Fathers appropriated to him who had the Presidentship over Elders.

Thus are certain Elders reproved by Cyprian; for receiving to the communion them who had fallen (in time of persecution) before the Bishop had advised of it with them and others. And Cornelius writeth that the Catholic Church committed to his charge had six and forty Elders, and ought to have but one Bishop. And both of them being Bishops, the one of Rome, the other of Carthage, do witness of themselves that they dealt in matters of their Churches government by the consent and counsel of the company of Elders, or the Eldership, as they both (after S. Paul ) do call it.

T Hus far, that Reverend Doctor: whose observation touching the Angel of the Church of Ephesus (in the second of the Revelation) that he was the same with him whom afterwards in the Primitive Church the Fathers called Bishop, is clearly confirmed, both by the succession of the first Bishops of that Church, and by the testimony of Ignatius, who (within no greater compass of time then twelve years afterwards) distinguisheth the singular and constant President thereof, from the rest of the number of the Presbyters, by appropriating the name of Bishop unto him.

As for the former: we find it openly declared in the general Council of Chalcedon, by Leontius Bishop of Magnesia; that from Timothy (and so from the days of the Apostles) there had been a continued succession of seven and twenty Bishops ; all of them ordained in Ephesus ▪ Of which number the Angel of the Church of Ephesus, mentioned in the Revelation, must needs be one whether it were Timothy himself, as some conceive; or one of his next Successors, as others rather do imagine.

For that Timothy had been sometime the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (which is the appellation which Justin Martyr giveth unto him, whom other of the Fathers do peculiarly term a Bishop ) or Antistes, or President of the Ephesine Presbytery, is confessed by Beza himself: and that he was ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Ephesians, we do not only read in the subscription of the second Epistle to Timothy, and the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, but also in two ancient Treatises concerning the Martyrdom of Timothy; the one nameless in the Library of Photios, the other bearing the name of Polycrates, even of that Polycrates, who was not only himself Bishop of this Church of Ephesus, but borne also within six or seven and thirty years after S. John wrote the forenamed Epistle unto the Angel of that Church: as it appeareth by the years he was of, when he wrote that Epistle unto Victor Bishop of Rome, wherein he maketh mention of seven kinsmen of his who had been Bishops; he himself being the eight.

I come now to the testimony of Ignatius: whom Theodoret and Felix Bishop of Rome, and John the Chronographer of Antioch report to have been ordained Bishop of Antioch by S. Peter ; and without all controversy did sit in that See, the very same time wherein that Epistle unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus was commanded to be written. In the Isle of Patmos had S. John his Revelation manifested unto him, toward the end of the Empire of Domitian, as Irenaeus testifieth; or the fourteenth year of his government, as Eusebius and Jerome specify it. From thence there are but twelve years reckoned unto the tenth of Trajan : wherein Ignatius, in that last journey which he made for the consummation of his glorious Martyrdom at Rome, wrote another Epistle unto the self-same Church of Ephesus. In which he maketh mention of their then Bishop Onesimus : as it appears both by Eusebius citing this out of it, and by the Epistle it self yet extant.

In this Epistle to the Ephesians, Ignatius having acknowledged that their numerous multitude was received by him in the person of their Bishop Onesimus, and blessed God for granting unto them such a Bishop as he was: doth afterwards put them in mind of their duty in concurring with him, as he showeth their worthy Presbytery did, being so conjoined (as he saith) with their Bishop, as the strings are with the Harp ; and toward the end exhorteth them to obey both the Bishop and the Presbytery, with an undevided mind.

In the same journey wrote Ignatius also an Epistle unto the Church of Smyrna ; another of those seven unto whom those letters are directed in S. John's Revelation▪ wherein he also saluteth their Bishop and Presbytery : exhorting all the people to follow their Bishop, as Christ Jesus did his Father, and the Presbytery, as the Apostles; and telling them that no man ought either to administer the Sacraments, or do anything appertaining to the Church, without the consent of the Bishop. And that Polycarpus was then Bishop, when S. John wrote unto the Angel of the Church in Smyrna ; who can better inform us then Irenaeus? who did not only know those worthy men, who succeeded Polycarpus in his See; but also was present, when he himself did discourse of his conversation with S. John, and of those things which he heard from those who had seen our Lord Jesus.

Polycarpus saith he, was not only taught by the Apostles and conversed with many of those that had seen Christ, but also was by the Apostles constituted in Asia Bishop of the Church which is in Smyrna: whom we ourselves also did see in our younger age for he continued long, and being very aged, he most gloriously and nobly suffering Martyrdom departed this life.

Now being ordained Bishop of Symrna by the Apostles; who had finished their cours • and departed out of this life before S. John (the last surviver of them) did write his Revelation : who but he could there be meant by the Angel of the Church in Smyrna? in which that he still held his Episcopal office unto the time of his Martyrdom (which fell out LXXIIII years afterward) may sufficiently appear by this testimony, which the brethren of the Church of Smyrna, who were present at his suffering, gave unto him. He was the most admirable man in our times, an Apostolical and Prophetical Doctor, and Bishop of the Catholic Church which is in Smyrna. Whereunto we may add the like of Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus, who lived also in his time and in his neighbourhood, affirming Polycarpus to have been both Bishop and Martyr in Smyrna. So saith he in his Synodical Epistle, directed unto Victor Bishop of Rome, about 27 years after the Martyrdom of Polycarpus ; he himself being at that time 65 years of age.

About the very same time wherein Polycrates wrote this Epistle unto Victor, did Tertullian publish his book of Prescriptions against Heretics: wherein he avoucheth against them, that as the Church of Smyrna had Polycarpus placed there by John, and the Church of Rome Clement ordained by Peter; so the rest of the Churches also did show, what Bishops they had received by the appointment of the Apostles, to traduce the Apostolical seed unto them. And so before him did Irenaeus urge against them the 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 then 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 Linus (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 he wrote had the charge of that Bishopric 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▪

When this Eleutherius (as our Bede relateth) was Bishop of the Church of Rome, Lucius King of the Britain's sent an Epistle to him; desiring that by his means he might be made Christian▪ who presently obtained the effect of his pious request: and the Britain's 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, called there Colonia Londinensium▪ the first root of whose succession we must fetch beyond Eleutherius, and as high as S. Peter himself: if it be true, that he constituted Churches here, and ordained Bishops, Presbyters and Deacons in them; as Simeon Metaphrastes relateth out of some part of Eusebius (as it seemeth) that is not come unto our hands.

But, to return unto the Angels of the seven Churches, mentioned in the Revelation of S. 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, if any credit may be given herein unto those that saw him and were well acquainted with him.

And as Tertullian in express terms affirmeth him to have been placed there by S. John himself (in the testimony before alleged out of his Prescriptions :) so doth he else-where, from the order of the succeeding Bishops, not obscurely intimate, that the rest of that number were to be referred unto the same descent. We have, saith he, the Churches that were bred by John. For although Marcion do reject his Revelation; yet the order of the Bishops reckoned up unto their original, will stand for John to be their Founder. Neither doth the ancient Writer of the Martyrdom of Timothy (mentioned by Photios ) mean any other by those seven Bishops, whose assistance he saith S. John did use, after his return from Patmos, in the government of the Metropolis of the Ephesians, that is, of the Churches of Asia most properly so called, which in his time acknowledged the Bishop of Ephesus for their Primate. Being revoked from his exile by the sentence of Nerva, he betook himself to the Metropolis of Ephesus; and being assisted with the presence of the SEVEN Bishops, he took upon him the government of the Metropolis of the Ephesians: and continued, preaching the word of piety, until the Empire of Trajan.

That he remained with the Ephesians and the rest of the brethren of Asia, until the days of Trajan ; and that during the time of his abode with them, he published his Gospel; is sufficiently witnessed by Irenaeus. That upon his return from the Island, after the death of Domitian, he applied himself to the government of the Churches of Asia, si confirmed likewise both by Eusebius, and by Jerome : who further addeth, that at the earnest entreaty of the Bishops of Asia he wrote there his Gospel. And that he himself also, being free from his banishment, did ordain Bishops in divers Churches, is clearly testified by Clement of Alexandria ; who lived in the next age after, and delivereth it as a certain truth, which he had received from those who went before him and could not be far from the time wherein the thing it self was acted. When S. John (saith he) Domitian the tyrant being dead, removed from the Island of Patmos unto Ephesus, by the entreaty of some he went also unto the neighbouring nations; in some places constituting Bishops, in others founding whole Churches ▪

And thus much may suffice for the deduction of Episcopacy from the Apostolical times.