13. If, therefore, the power of the Laver, and of the Anointing, gifts far greater, descended thence to Bishops, then the right of binding and of loosing was with them. Which although for our sins it be presumptuous in us to claim, yet God, Who hath granted unto Bishops the name even of His only Beloved, will not deny it unto them, as if holy and sitting in the chair of the Apostles.
14. I would write more, brother, were I not pressed by the hasty return of the servant, and were I not reserving a fuller account for thee when either present, or making confession of thy whole purport. Let no one despise the Bishop on consideration of the man. Let us remember that the Apostle Peter hath named our Lord, Bishop. But are now, he saith, returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. What shall be denied to the Bishop, in whom operateth the Name of God? He shall indeed give an account, if he have done any thing wrong, or if he shall have judged corrupt and unrighteous judgment. Nor is God's Judgment forestalled, but that He may undo the work of a wicked builder. In the mean while, if that his ministration be holy, he abideth as an helper in the work of God. See the Apostle writeth to Laity: To whom, ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. But if what the Laity forgive, the Apostle saith that he hath forgiven, what a Bishop hath done, in what character can it be rejected? Therefore neither the Anointing, nor Baptism, nor remission of sins, nor the renewing of the Body, were granted to his sacred authority, because nothing was entrusted to him as assumed by himself, but the whole has descended in a stream from the Apostolic privilege.
15. Know , brother, that not indiscriminately to all is this very pardon through penance granted; nor until there shall have been either some indication of the Divine will, or perchance some visitation, may men be loosed; that with |327 careful pondering and much balancing, after many groans and much shedding of tears, after the prayers of the whole Church, pardon is in such wise not refused to true penitence, as that no one thereby prejudgeth the future Judgment of Christ. If, brother, thou wouldest write thy sentiments more openly, thou shalt be more fully instructed.
[Marginal numbered notes, references, and footnotes all moved to the end and renumbered]
1. Domine
2. He was one of the "false Christs" shortly after our Lord's Coming. See Orig. c. Cels. i. 57. in Matt. Comm. Lat. §. 33. ed. de la Rue al. Tr. 27. in Joan. tom. 13. §. 27.
3. He separated from the Church as a Quarto-deciman, whence S. Irenaeus wrote to him as a schismatic, (Eus. H. E. v. 20.) he, however, seems to have so done as judaizing, (Tert. adv. omn. haer. c. 8.) S. Epiphanius mentions Quarto-decimans as an off-shoot of Montanists. Haer. 50. c. 1. see Tillemont, t. 2. Art. Montanistes c. 15.
4. who first denied our Lord in persecution, then His Divinity. Tert. L. c. Some then of the Montanists became nakedly Humanitarians, as others (note d.) Sabellians.
5. One section of the Cataphrygians, named from one Aeschines, (kata Aeschinem,) said that Christ was both the Son and the Father. Tert. ib. c. 8.
6. The forger of Apocryphal books.
7. from whom one division of the Montanists was called kata Proclum, (Tert. 1. c.) and who held a disputation with Caius at Rome in the time of Zephyrinus. Eus. H. E. vi. 20.
8. hoc V.
9. quoquo modo adjurantibus V. R.
10. colloquimur. Conloquemur. R.
11. literas added V.
12. inventus sit V.
13. 2Tim.2, 13.
14. obnitenti Vat.R. obtinendo Edd. Galland. conjectures obnitendo.
15. see ab. St. Cypr. Ep. 59. fin, p. 171.
16. 1 Cor.11, 16. Titus 3, 10.
17. Vat. omits et, "if it be dear to thy soul."
18. debet V.
19. multa ed. Rom.
20. 1 Cor. 11, 14.
21. ubique unum V.