CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS.

91

viz. Absolution and the Ministration of the Sacraments, using the solemn words uttered by our Lord (John xx. 23,) when he communicated to his Apostles the Holy Ghost for the ministry. Then the Bible is presented with authority to preach the word of God. The Office terminates like the form for making Deacons. A Rubric at the end explains the course to be taken when both Deacons and Priests are to be made on the same day. In the Romish Church, a Paten and Chalice, with wafers and wine and blessed vestments are delivered to the candidates, and their hands are anointed; but these things are not to be found in any Ordinals more than 900 years old. The kiss given to the newly ordained by the Clergy present, in the Greek Church, is another innovation properly rejected by the English Church.

4.-Consecration of Bishops.

Ministers of the first order were originally named Apostles.* but before the close of the Apostical age, they began to be called Bishops, because it was thought right to confine the honourable name of Apostles to the men who first exercised the Episcopal Office. Their sees however, were for a long time called sedes apostolorum, as appears from August. Ep. 42, ad Fra. Madauron. "Christiana societas per sedes apostolorum et successiones Episcoporum certa per orbem propagatione diffunditur."

Evidence for the Order.-The apostate Judas was

*Other titles were sometimes given to them as angels of the church (Rev. i. 20.) Præpositus, president: papa, father, as Tertullian, de pudicitia, c. xiii., calls every bishop benedictus papa.

an

Apostle, and his office is called a Bishopric in Acts i. 20, καὶ τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν αυτον λάβοι ἕτερος. James, the Lord's Brother, was not reckoned among the Twelve 1 Cor. xv. 7,) yet he is called an Apostle, Gal. i. 19, and his charge was the Bishopric of Jerusalem, as the ancient writers, Hegesippus, Eusebius, and others testify. Whether the word eiσкоTоs, in the Epistles to Timothy, refer to the first or second Order, for the name at first belonged to both offices, need not be inquired, for the office exercised by Timothy at Ephesus was clearly Episcopal: similarly Titus evidently was Bishop in Crete. This name applied to the first Order, in reference to offices distinct from those of the second and third Order, is to be found in all Ecclesiastical writers from Clemens, mentioned by St. Paul, Philip. iv. 3, to the present day.

The form and manner of Consecration.-On some Sunday or Holyday, that the consecration may be public, the Archbishop (or some other Bishop appointed) begins the Communion Service, for which an especial Collect, Epistle and Gospel are set forth: the Epistle is to be read by a second Bishop, and the Gospel by a third, and twot Bishops after the Creed and Sermon are to present the elected Bishop, vested with his rochet, *This name does not occur till the fourth century, but the office, (that of Metropolitan) is more antient, and probably arose from the jurisdiction which St. Paul evidently exercised over the Sees of Timothy and Titus.

+ These provisions are intended to ensure the presence of three bishops at least, that the ordination may be canonical(fourth NiceneCanon). This is a prudent precaution against the possibility of an invalid consecration by reason of any defect in the orders of one of the consecrators.

In early times the bishops were elected, generally by the clergy of the diocese, afterwards by the capitular body, as representing the clergy: for this reason a congé d'élire, or leave to elect is sent to the chapter of

CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS.

93

to the Provincial (or his deputy) seated in his chair, near the holy table. The King's mandate for consecration is then read,* and after the oath of supremacy is administered, the elected Bishop takes an oath to give due reverence and obedience to his Metropolitan ; of course if the See to which the Candidate is elected be an Archbishopric, this oath is not administered. The people are then called upon to pray, and the Litany is read, in which a proper suffrage is inserted instead of the words which follow "illuminate all Bishops." The Archbishop then asks questions similar to those put in making Priests; but in one he mentions the peculiar office of the Bishop "will you be faithful in ordaining?" After prayer, the investment of the Episcopal robes, and the 'Veni Creator,' all the Bishops present, according to antient usage, lay their hand upon the kneeling Candidate, while the Archbishop pronounces the words of admission, and delivers a Bible with an appropriate address: the whole of which portion nearly corresponds with the directions of the fourth Council of Carthage.+ The service concludes with the remainder of the Communion Service, proper prayer and the Benediction.

the vacant See from the Sovereign, but as some individual is always recommended, and the chapter must elect the individual named or incur heavy penalties, the election is only formative.

* In the Romish Church it is necessary to have the Pope's Bull for consecration. In England a Royal Mandate has been long required, probably from the connection of the See with a temporal Barony. The French Kings of the sixth and seventh century exercised the same power.

+ Episcopus cum ordinatur, duo Episcopi ponant et teneant Evangelorum codicem super caput et cervicem ejus, et uno super eum fundente benedictionem, reliqui omnes Episcopi qui adsunt manibus suis caput ejus tangant." c. ii.

CHAPTER XIII.

A VIEW OF THE ANTIENT LITURGIES.

1.

third century, after which

As the antient Liturgies have been frequently mentioned in the course of this work, it may be expected that some account of them, suited to its brief character, should be added. Like our own they generally consisted of two portions, the latter of which, the Communion office, was antiently called the Liturgy. They were handed down memoriter, till the end of the they were committed to writing. The first portion consisted of Psalms, Lessons and Prayers; which being concluded, all but the baptised, who were in full Communion, were dismissed, and then the true Liturgy, sometimes called the Divine, or Mystical Litany, and in the Western Churches the Missa, (because it began when the non-communicants were dismissed) commenced. This generally comprised the following matters, varied as to arrangement, in the various parts of the Church. The Benediction-the Salutation-the preparation for publicly breaking of bread-the Sursum Corda -The Eucharistia the Consecration-Prayers for all men -and the Doxology. After the fourth century the Trisagium was added. The principal Liturgies are the Eastern, the Alexandrian, the Roman and the Gallican.

ANTIENT LITURGIES.

2.-The Eastern Liturgies.

95

1. The Liturgy of Antioch.-This is also called the Liturgy of St. James, and must be of considerable antiquity since the Monophysites, and the Orthodox, who finally separated in 451, both agree in ascribing the Liturgy, used before their separation, to St. James; and though the Heretics used a Syriac and the Orthodox a Greek version, both harmonize, (not in arrangement but in substance,) in the Blessing, the Sursum Corda, the Tersanctus, the Consecration and the Invocation of the Holy Ghost. They have differences arising from subsequent additions, especially such as the Orthodox received from the Liturgies of Constantinople. Passages from Ephrem the Syrian, Cyril of Jerusalem and Justin Martyr, who flourished respectively about the years 370, 350, 140, and who lived within the Patriarchate of Antioch, furnish evidence of its great antiquity. It was most probably ascribed to St. James, because it was used in the Church of Jerusalem, as the Alexandrian is called St. Mark's, because he planted the Church in that place.

2. The Liturgy of Caesarea.-Called also St. Basil's Liturgy, and most undoubtedly compiled by him, as many writers, and among them his friend Nazianzen, attest; this, like

3. The Constantinopolitan-Which is properly assigned to St. Chrysostom, does not differ materially from the Liturgy of Antioch.