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| The Author's Opinion of the Validity of Translations from One See to Another.
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Chapter XXXVI.—The
Author’s Opinion of the Validity of Translations from One See to
Another.
But since some parties by
appealing to a prohibition in the ecclesiastical canon, prevented the
election of Proclus, because of his previous appointment to the see of
Cyzicus, I wish to make a few remarks on this subject. Those who then
presumed to interpose such a cause of exclusion do not appear to me to
have stated the truth; but they were either influenced by prejudice
against Proclus, or at least have been themselves completely ignorant
both of the canons, and of the frequent and often advantageous
precedents that had been established in the churches. Eusebius
Pamphilus relates in the sixth book of his Ecclesiastical
History,1018
| 1018Cf. Euseb. H. E. VI. 11.
|
that Alexander bishop of a certain city in Cappadocia, coming to
Jerusalem for devotional purposes, was detained by the inhabitants of
that city, and constituted bishop, as the successor of Narcissus; and
that he continued to preside over the churches there during the
remainder of his life. So indifferent a thing was it amongst our
ancestors, to transfer a bishop from one city to another as often as it
was deemed expedient. But if it is necessary to place beyond a doubt
the falsehood of the statement of those who prevented the ordination of
Proclus, I shall annex to this treatise the canon bearing on the
subject. It runs thus:1019
| 1019The canon here quoted is the eighteenth of the
Council of Antioch (see Hefele, Hist. of the Ch. Councils, Vol.
II. p. 71); whereas the canon of that council bearing on that subject
is the twenty-first, as noted in chap. 35, note 1.
|
‘If any one after having been ordained a bishop
should not proceed to the church unto which he has been appointed, from
no fault on his part, but either because the people are unwilling to
receive him, or for some other reason arising from necessity, let him
be partaker of the honor and functions of the rank with which he has
been invested, provided he intermeddles not with the affairs of the
church wherein he may minister. It is his duty however to submit to
whatever the Synod of the province may see fit to determine, after it
shall have taken cognizance of the matter.’
Such is the language of the canon. That many bishops
have been transferred from one city to another to meet the exigencies
of peculiar cases, I shall now prove by giving the names of those
bishops who have been so translated.1020
| 1020In what way these canons against the translation of
bishops were understood and observed by the early church is discussed
by Bingham, Christ. Antiq. VI. 4. 6.
|
Perigenes was ordained bishop of Patræ: but inasmuch as the
inhabitants of that city refused to admit him, the bishop of Rome
directed that he should be assigned to the metropolitan see of Corinth,
which had become vacant by the decease of its former bishop; here he
presided during the rest of his days. Gregory was first made bishop of
Sasima, one of the cities of Cappadocia, but was afterwards transferred
to Nazianzus. Melitius after having presided over the church at
Sebastia, subsequently governed that of Antioch. Alexander bishop of
Antioch transferred Dositheus bishop of Seleucia, to Tarsus in Cilicia.
Reverentius was removed from Arca in Phœnicia, and afterwards to
Tyre. John was transferred from Gordum a city of Lydia, to Proconnesus,
and presided over the church there. Palladius was transferred from
Helenopolis to Aspuna; and Alexander from the same city to Adriani.
Theophilus was removed from Apamea in Asia, to Eudoxiopolis anciently
called Salambria. Polycarp was transferred from Sexantaprista a city of
Mysia, to Nicopolis in Thrace. Hierophilus from Trapezopolis in Phrygia
to Plotinopolis in Thrace. Optimus from Agdamia in Phrygia to Antioch
in Pisidia; and Silvanus from Philippopolis in Thrace to Troas. This
enumeration of bishops who have passed from one see to another is
sufficient for the present; concerning Silvanus who was removed from
Philippopolis in Thrace to Troas I deem it desirable here to give a
concise account.
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