The Unreasonableness of Separation, Part 3 · Section 9
Sect. 9. Obs. 2. In Cities and Dioceses which were under the care of one Bishop, there were several Congregations and Altars, and distant places. Carthage was a very large City, Aug. Ep. 43.and had great numbers of Christians even in S. Cyprians time, as I have already shewed.Victor Vitens. l. 1. And there besides the Cathedral called Basilica Major & Restituta aAug. Serm. 4. 14. 102. de diversis., in which the Bishops always sate, as Victor Vitensis saith; there were several other considerable Churches, in which S. Augustine often preached when he went to Carthage; bSerm. 12. 122. de diversis.as the Basilica Fausti; thecDe divers. 11. Basilica Leontiana; thed96. de Temp. Basilica Celerinae mentioned by*Vict. l. 1. Victor likewise, who saith it was otherwise called Scillitanorum. Thef110. de Temp. Basilica Novarum. Theg251. de Temp. Basilica Petri. Theh24. de divers. Basilica Pauli. And I do not question there were many others, which I have not observed; for Victor saith, that when Geisericus enter'd Carthage he found there Quodvultdeus the Bishop, & maximam turbam Clericorum, a very great multitude of Clergy, all which he immediately banished. And without the City there were two great Churches, saith Victor; one where S. Cyprian suffered Martyrdom, and the other where his body was buried, at a place called Mappalia. In all he reckons about 500 of the Clergy belonging to the Church of Carthage, Victor Vit. l. 5.taking in those who were trained up to it; And doth Mr. B. imagine all these were intended to serve one Congregation? or that all the Christians then in Carthage could have local and presential Communion, as he calls it, in one Church; and at one Altar? Sometimes an Altar is taken with a particular respect to a Bishop; and so setting up one Altar against another, was setting up one Bishop against another, as that Phrase is commonly used in Saint Cyprian and Saint Augustin; sometimes for the place at which the Christians did communicate, and so there were as many Altars as Churches. So Fortunatus a Catholick Bishop objected to Petilian the Donatist, that in the City where he was Bishop, Collat. 1. Carthage n. 139.the Hereticks had broken down all the Altars: which is the thing Optatus objects so much against them.Optat. l. 6. And that there were Altars in all their Churches appears from hence, that not onelyonly the Oblations were made there, and the Communion received, but all the Prayers of the Church were made at them: as not onelyonly appears from the African Code and Saint Augustin (which I have mentioned elsewhere) but from Optatus, who upbraiding the Donatists for breaking down the Altars of Churches, he tells them that hereby they did what they could to hinder the Churches Prayers, for, saith he, illàc ad aures Dei ascendere solebat populi oratio. The Peoples Prayers went up to Heaven that way. And that distant places from the City were in the Bishops Diocese and under his care I thus prove. In the African Code, Cod. Eccl. Afric. c. 71.there is a Canon that no Bishop should leave his Cathedral Church, and go to any other Church in his Diocese there to reside; which evidently proves, that there were not onelyonly more places, but more Churches in a Bishops Diocese. And where the Donatists had erected new Bishopricks, as they often did, the African Council decrees, that after the decease of such a Bishop, c. 98, 99.if the People had no mind to have another in his room, they might be in the Diocese of another Bishop. Which shews, that they thought the Dioceses might be so large, as to hold the People that were under two Bishops. And there were many Canons made about the People of the Donatist Bishops. In one it was determined, that they should belong to the Bishop that converted them, without limitation of distance; c. 117.after that, that they should belong to the same Diocese they were in before: c. 118.but if the Donatist Bishop were converted, then the Diocese was to be divided between them. If any Bishop neglected the converting the People of the places belonging to his Diocese, he that did take the pains in it, was to have those places laid to his Diocese; c. 121.unless sufficient cause were shewed by the Bishop, that he was not to blame. Let Mr. Baxter now judge, whether their Bishopricks were like our Parishes; Church History, p. 73.as he confidently affirms. Saint Augustin mentions the Municipium Tullense not far from Hippo, De Curd pro Mortuis c. 12.where there was Presbyter and Clerks under his care and government: and he tells this particular story of it; that a certain poor man who lived there fell into a trance, in which he fancied he saw the Clergy thereabout, and among the rest the Presbyter of that place who bade him go to Hippo to be baptized of Augustin who was Bishop there; the man did accordingly, and the next Easter put in his name among the Competentes and was baptized, and after told Saint Augustin the foregoing passages. It seems the Donatists were very troublesome in some of the remoter parts of the Diocese of Hippo, whereupon Saint Augustin sent one of his Presbyters to Caecilian the Roman President, Aug. Ep. 60.to complain of their insolence, and to crave his assistance, which he saith, he did, lest he should be blamed for his negligence, who was the Bishop of that Diocese. And can we think all these persons had praesential and local Communion with Saint Augustin in his Church at Hippo? While he was yet but a Presbyter at Hippo, in the absence of the Bishop he writes to Maximinus a Donatist Bishop a sharp Letter,Aug. Ep. 203. for offering to rebaptize a Deacon of their Church who was placed at Mutagena, and he saith, he went from Hippo to the place himself to be satisfied of the truth of it. Ep. 204.At the same place lived one Donatus a Presbyter of the Donatists whom Saint Augustin would have had brought to him against his Will, to be better instructed, as being under his care, but the obstinate man rather endeavour'd to make away himself,Ep. 262. upon which he writes a long Epistle to him. In another Epistle he gives an account, that there was a place called Fussala, which with the Country about it, belonged to the Diocese of Hippo; where there was abundance of People, but almost all Donatists; but by his great care in sending Presbyters among them, those places were all reduced; but because Fussala was 40 miles distant from Hippo, he took care to have a Bishop placed among them; but as appears by the event he had better have kept it under his own Care. For upon the complaints made against their new Bishop, he was fain to resume it; as appears by a Presbyter of Fussala, Ep. ad Quodvultdeum ante lib. de haeres.which he mentions afterwards. However it appears, that a place 40 miles distance was then under the care of so great a Saint, and so excellent a Bishop as Saint Augustin was. And could Mr. B. have found it in his heart to have told him that he did not understand the right constitution of Churches? How many Quaere's would Mr. B. have made about the numbers of Souls at Fussala, and how he could take upon him the care of a place so far distant from him? And it is no hard matter to guess what answer Saint Augustin would have given him.
But besides this plain evidence of the extent of Dioceses, we have as clear proof of Metropolitan Provinces in the African Churches. Quidam de Episcopis in Provinciâ nostrâ, S. Cyprian. Ep. 52. n. 13.saith Saint Cyprian; and yet he speaks of his Predecessours times, which shews the very ancient extent of that Province, Ep. 23. n. 2.In provinciâ nostrâ per aliquot Civitates, saith he again; which shews that more Cities than Carthage were under his care. Quoniam latius fusa est provincia nostra, in his Epistle to Cornelius. Ep. 45. n. 2.In the African Code it appears the Bishop of Carthage had the Primacy by his place; in the other Provinces by Seniority of Consecration. Victor mentions one Crescens, Victor Vit. l. 1.who had 120 Bishops under him as Metropolitan. And I hope at least for the sake of the African Bishops, Mr. B. will entertain the better opinion of the English Episcopacy.