On the Primitive Mode of Making Bishops
Author: John Harrison
Publisher: Forgotten Books
Published: 2015-07-16
Total Pages: 86
ISBN-13: 9781331504979
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Excerpt from On the Primitive Mode of Making Bishops: Being an Enquiry as to Whether They Were Created, Chiefly by Those Over Whom They Were, to Preside, or by One or More of Their Own Order The holy Apostles founded churches wherever they could, and to each they constituted or ordained a plurality of elders, presbyters, or bishops. It is to be presumed that in every Church there was a presiding presbyter or bishop. In the year 250, in North Africa alone, there were about seven hun dred churches or congregations, each with its plurality of presbyters, and each having a president, to whom now was given the exclusive title of bishop. Cyprian was such an one, though more ordinarily called by a title of office (proepositus) common to the presbyters, and whom he was in the habit of addressing as fellows (wgfiséyteri). Cyprian claimed for himself, and others in the like office, to stand in the same relation to their fellow presbyters as St Peter was considered to stand in relation to his fellow Apostles. It is not at all necessary in the present inquiry to determine whether a bishop is the first among his equals, or is as much above a presbyter as a presbyter is above a deacon. Good Bishop Hall zealously and conscientiously held the latter View, as many of our clergy now do. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
