XI. When the Vicar shall require a meeting of bishops, two from each province will be sufficient.
In summoning bishops to your presence, we wish you to show great forbearance: lest under a show of much diligence you seem to exult in your brethren's injuries. Wherefore if any greater case arise for which it is reasonable and necessary to convene a meeting of brethren, it may suffice, brother, that two bishops should attend from each province, whom the metropolitans shall think proper to be sent, on the understanding that those who answer the summons be not detained longer than fifteen days from the time fixed.
XII. In case of difference of opinion between the Vicar and the bishops, the bishop of Rome must be consulted. The subordination of authorities in the Church expounded.
But if in that which you believed necessary to be discussed and settled with the brethren, their opinion differs from your own wishes, let all be referred to us, with the minutes of your proceedings attested, that all ambiguities may be removed, and what is pleasing to God decided. For to this end we direct all our desires and pains, that what conduces to our harmonious unity and to the protection of discipline may be marred by no dissension and neglected by no slothfulness. Therefore, dearly beloved brother, you and those our brethren who are offended at your extravagant conduct (though the matter of complaint is not the same with all), we exhort and warn not to disturb by any wrangling what has been rightfully ordained and wisely settled. Let none "seek what is his own, but what is another's," as the Apostle says: "Let each one of you please his neighbour for his good unto edifying [131] ." For the cementing of our unity cannot be firm unless we be bound by the bond of love into an inseparable solidity: because "as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office; so we being many are one body in Christ, and all of us members one of another [132] ." The connexion of the whole body makes all alike healthy, all alike beautiful: and this connexion requires the unanimity indeed of the whole body, but it especially demands harmony among the priests. And though they have a common dignity, yet they have not uniform rank; inasmuch as even among the blessed Apostles, notwithstanding the similarity of their honourable estate, there was a certain distinction of power, and while the election of them all was equal, yet it was given to one [133] to take the lead of the rest. From which model has arisen a distinction between bishops also, and by an important ordinance it has been provided [134] that every one should not claim everything for himself: but that there should be in each province one whose opinion should have the priority among the brethren: and again that certain whose appointment is in the greater cities should undertake a fuller responsibility, through whom the care of the universal Church should converge towards Peter's one seat, and nothing anywhere should be separated from its Head. Let not him then who knows he has been set over certain others take it ill that some one has been set over him, but let him himself render the obedience which he demands of them: and as he does not wish to bear a heavy load of baggage, so let him not dare to place on another's shoulders a weight that is insupportable. For we are disciples of the humble and gentle Master who says: "Learn of Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and ye shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden light [135] ." And how shall we experience this, unless this too comes to our remembrance which the same Lord says: "He that is greater among you, shall be your servant. But he that exalteth himself, shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted [136] ."
[117] De iniunctæ tibi sollicitudinis devotione (an obscure expression).
[118] See Letter IV., where it will be remembered the appointment of Anastasius, as Vicar of Illyricum, was made.
[119] 1 Tim. v. 1, 2.
[120] Phil. ii. 21.
[121] Some for metropolitanus here read Nicopolitanus, Bishop of Nicopolis, the metropolitan see of old Epirus. Quesnel.
[122] The language is, I think, intentionally exaggerated and high-flown: parturiunt montes nascetur ridiculus mus.
[123] Anastasius seems to have arraigned Atticus before the civil court of the Prefect of Illyricum: he sent his apparitors, who violently dragged him out of the church, and brought him in midwinter across country to be tried.
[124] The word is civilia, in which Brissonius thinks he sees an allusion either to the opposition between civil law and prætor's law (to which Anastasius had appealed), or else to the technical meaning of the word in jurisprudence as equivalent to Legitimate' or fair'. The latter is more likely.
[125] Quesnel here accepts Nicopolitanum instead of metropolitanum (see n. 7 above), but with little reason.
[126] Rectores.
[127] 1 Cor. vii. 29. A reference to this passage will show that S. Paul does not limit himself to the clergy in what he says: for an interesting note on the text (written, of course, from the Roman standpoint), the reader is referred to Hurter's edition in loc., who adduces some valuable illustrations from Epiphanius, Jerome, &c.
[128] Quartus a Capite, i.e. from Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, or perhaps from the Bishop of Rome, His soi-disant representative on earth (cf. chap. xii, below).
[129] This method of electing the metropolitan will at once strike the reader: the electors apparently are (1) the bishops of the province (who are not eligible for the office); (2) the clergy of the diocese (who alone are eligible); and (3) the laity of the diocese. Only if one remembers how limited each diocese was in extent, can one realise the working of the method.
[130] The Council of Nicæa (325) fixed two councils a year, one ante quadragesimam Paschæ (i.e. before Eastertide), the other circa tempus autumni.
[131] Phil. ii. 4, and Rom. xv. 2.
[132] 1 Cor. xii. 12, &c.: the quotation is loose, cf. Rom. xii. 5.
[133] Viz., S. Peter.
[134] Magna ordinatione provisum est.
[135] S. Matt. xi. 29, 30.
[136] Ibid. xxiii. 11, 12.