24:0 TIIIKD TERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
most prominently in tlie election of bishops. The Koraan bishop Leo, in spite of his papal absolutism, asserted thci thoroughly democratic principle, long since abandoned by his successors : " He who is to preside over all, sliould be elected l)y all." ' Oftentimes the popular will decided before the provincial bishops and tlie clergy assembled and the regular election could be held. Ambrose of Milan and Nectarias of Constantinople were appointed to the bishopric even before they were baptized ; the former by the people, the latter by the emperor Theodosius ; though in palpable violation of the eightieth apostolic canon and the second Nicene.* Martin of Tours owed his elevation likewise to the popular voice, while some bishops objected to it on account of his small and wasted form.' Chrysostom was called from Antioch to Constantinople by the emperor Arcadius, in consequence of a unanimous vote of the clergy and people." Sometimes the people acted under outside considerations and the management of demagogues, and demanded unworthy or ignorant men for the highest offices. Thus there were frequent disturbances and collisions, and even bloody conflicts, as in the election of Damasus in Rome. In short, all the selfish passions and corrupting infiuences, which had spoiled the freedom of the popular political elections in the Grecian and Roman republics, and which appear also in the republics of modern times, intruded upon the elections of the church. And the clergy likewise often suffered themselves to be guided by impure motives. Chrysostom laments that presbyters, in tlie choice of a bishop, instead of looking only at spiritual fitness, were led by regard for noble birth, or great wealth, or consanguinity and friendship." The
' Epist. X. c. 4 (Opera, cd. Bailer, i. 637): " Expectarentur ccrte vota civium, testimonia populorum, qiisereretur honoratorum arbitriura, electio clcricorum . . . In the same epistle, cap. 6 : Qui prwfuiurus est omnibus, ah omnibus eliriahir.'^
^ Paulinurt, Vita Anibioa. ; Sozoiuon, H. E. 1. iv. c. 24, and vii. 8. This historian excuses the irregularity by a special interposition of Providence.
' Sulpitius Severus, Vita Mart. c. 7 : " Iiicredil/dis multitudo non solum ex eo oppido [Tours], sed ctiam ex vicinis urbibns ad suffragia fcrenda convcncrat," etc.
* Socrates, 11. E. vi. 2 : 'Vr)(pi<yp.<ni koiv^ dinoi) ■ko.vtwv K\r]pov re (prj/A Kal \aov.
' De sacerdotio, lib. iii. c. 15. Further on in the same chapter he says even, that many are elected on account of their badness, to prevent the mischief they would
§ 49, CLEKGY AND LAITY. ELECTIONS. 241
bishops themselves sometimes did no better. Nectarius, who was suddenly transferred, in 381, by the emperor Tiieodosius, from the praetorship to the bishopric of Constantinople, even before he was baptized,' wished to ordain his physician Mar tyrius deacon, and when the latter refused, on the ground of incapacity, he replied : " Did not I, who am now a priest, formerly live much more immorally than thou, as thou thyself well knowest, since thou wast often an accomplice of my many iniquities ? " Martyrius, however, persisted in his refusal, bocause he had continued to live in sin long after his baptism, while Nectarius had become a new man since his.''
The emperor also, after the middle of the fourtli century, exercised a decisive influence in the election of metropolitans and patriarchs, and often abused it in a despotic and arbitrary way.
Thus every mode of appointment was evidently exposed to abuse, and could furnish no security against unworthy candidates, if the electors, whoever they might be, were destitute of moral earnestness and the gift of spiritual discernment.
Toward the end of the period before us the republican clement in the election of bishops entirely disappeared. The Greek church after the eighth century vested the franchise exclusively in the bishops.' The Latin church, after the eleventh century, vested it in the clergy of the cathedral church, without allowing any participation to the people. But in the West, especially in Spain and France, instead of the people, the
otherwise do: Of 5€, Sia Trovripiau {eh r^v rod K\r]pov KaraXiyovrai Ta|ii'), koI Iva fi-Tj, Trapocpbsfres, fxeyd\a ipjaaoivrai KaKo.. Quite parallel is the testimony of Gregory Nazianzen in his Carmen, fls eaurhv koI ire/jl i-jna-Ko-rraiv, or De se ipso et do episcopis, ver. 330 sqq. (Opera, ed. Bened. Par. torn. ii. p. 796), and elsewhere.
' Sozomenus, Hist. Eccl. vii. c. 8. Sozomen sees in this election a special interposition of God.
' Sozomenus, vii. c. 10. Otherwise he, as well as Socrates, H. E. v. c. 8, and Theodoret, H. E. v. c. 8, speaks very favorably of the character of Nectarius.
' The seventh ecumenical council, at Nice, 787, in its third canon, on the basis of a wrong interpretation of the fourth canon of the first council of Nice, expressly prohibited the people and the secular power from any share in the election of bishops. Also the eighth general council prescribes that the bishop should b« chosen only by the college of bishops-