Hereby also it appears that the multiplying of Metropolitans was no such occasion of multiplying Bishops, but that their numbers increased, when there was not that occasion; And this in Cappadocia, which is our Author's eminent instance. bFor Bishops were multiplied by erecting Episcopal Sees in Villages, and little places, this was done in Isauria, a Province in Cappadocia, as appears by these passages in Basil, before the contest between him and Anthimus, upon the constituting of a new Metropolitan: and after that difference was Composed, Basil thought it advisable that it should be done still. And the like may be said of Africa, the instance he most insists on, and spends many Pages upon it, pretending the occasion why Bishops were so numerous there, was the Schism of the Donatists, ⟨p. 98⟩Whereas the rule by which the African Fathers proceeded in erecting Bishoprics in little places, and so increasing the number of Bishops, was as themselves declare, who best knew it, the increase of the number of Christians: cWhere these were multiplied, and desired a Bishop, they thought themselves obliged to let them have one; not excepting the meanness or smallness of the places, where he was to be constituted. And we must believe (if we have any reverence for those Fathers) that they would have done, what they judged themselves obliged to, though there had been no Donatists amongst them. And when there can be no such pretence of occasion from the Donatists, the practice was continued, as appears by St. Austin's procuring a Bishop for Fussala, which he calls a Castle, upon some increase of the Catholics there, diverse years after the noted conference at Carthage, where the heart of the Donatists was broken; Nay, many years after the invasion of the Vandals, and the death of St. Austin they proceeded in the same methods, or rather exceeded their Predecessors in multiplying Bishops, by erecting Episcopal seats in smaller, and more inconsiderable places, if Leo his Epistle may be credited.d
Hereby also it appears that the multiplying of Metropolitans was no such occasion of multiplying Bishops, but that their numbers increased, when there was not that occasion; And this in Cappadocia, which is our Author's eminent instance. bFor Bishops were multiplyed by erecting Episcopal Sees in Villages, and little places, this was done in Isauria, a Province in Cappadocia, as appears by these passages in Basil, before the contest between him and Anthimus, upon the constituting of a new Metropolitan: and after that difference was Composed, Basil thought it adviseable that it should be done still. And the like may be said of Africa, the instance he most insists on, and spends many Pages upon it, pretending the occasion why Bishops were so numerous there, was the Schism of the Donatists, ⟨p. 98⟩Whereas the rule by which the African Fathers proceeded in erecting Bishopricks in little places, and so increasing the number of Bishops, was as themselves declare, who best knew it, the increase of the number of Christians: cWhere these were multiplyed, and desired a Bishop, they thought themselves obliged to let them have one; not excepting the meanness or smalness of the places, where he was to be constituted. And we must believe (if we have any reverence for those Fathers) that they would have done, what they judged themselves obliged to, though there had been no Donatists amongst them. And when there can be no such pretence of occasion from the Donatists, the practice was continued, as appears by St. Austin's procuring a Bishop for Fussala, which he calls a Castle, upon some increase of the Catholicks there, diverse years after the noted conference at Carthage, where the heart of the Donatists was broken; Nay, many years after the invasion of the Vandals, and the death of St. Austin they proceeded in the same methods, or rather exceeded their Predecessors in multiplying Bishops, by erecting Episcopal seats in smaller, and more inconsiderable places, if Leo his Epistle may be credited.d
- bPag. 545.
- cConcil. Carth. 2 Can. 5.
- dEp. 85.
