A33359:308
Diocesan churches not yet discovered in the primitive times
Diocesan churches not yet discovered in the primitive times, or, A defence of the answer to Dr. Stillingfleets allegations out of antiquity for such churches against the exceptions offered in the preface to a late treatise called A vindication of the primitive church, where what is further produced out of Scripture and ancient authors for diocesan churches is also discussed.Diocesan churches not yet discovered in the primitive times, or, A defence of the answer to Dr. Stillingfleets allegations out of antiquity for such churches against the exceptions offered in the preface to a late treatise called A vindication of the primitive church, where what is further produced out of Scripture and antient authors for diocesan churches is also discussed.
London: printed for Thomas Parkhurst, 1682
Diocesan Churches not yet discovered in the Primitive times.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Age, and the first Council of Toledo had no more in the beginning of the age after. But the following Synods, at Saragossa, Gerunda, Ilerda, Valentia, Aragon, had not so manye. In France the Council at Valence had 21 Bishops in the fourth Age, ⟨p. 105⟩but those following them, in that and the after ages had still fewer, viz. That of Riez, Orange, the third of Arles, that at Angers, that at Tours, and Vennes and another at Arles. For General Councils, the first at Nice had 318 Bishops in the beginning of the fourth Age, that at Ephesus above an hundred years after, had but two hundred, that at C. P. in the latter end of the fourth Age had but one hundred and fifty Bishops.
Age, and the first Council of Toledo had no more in the beginning of the age after. But the following Synods, at Saragossa, Gerunda, Ilerda, Valentia, Arragon, had not so manye. In France the Council at Valence had 21 Bishops in the fourth Age, ⟨p. 105⟩but those following them, in that and the after ages had still fewer, viz. That of Riez, Orange, the third of Arles, that at Angers, that at Tours, and Vennes and another at Arles. For General Councils, the first at Nice had 318 Bishops in the beginning of the fourth Age, that at Ephesus above an hundred yearsafter, had but two hundred, that at C. P. in the latter end of the fourth Age had but one hundred and fifty Bishops.
- epag. 557. 558
So that if we take account how many Bishops there were of old, as he would have us, by their numbers in Councils, there will be more before the middle of the third Age, than in the beginning of the fourth; more in the beginning of the fourth than in some part of the fifth; and more in the beginning of the fifth, than in some part of the sixth; quite contrary to the Hypothesis on which he proceeds. Whether by his argument he would lead us to think Dioceses did wax and wane so oddly, as it makes Bishops to be more or fewer, I cannot tell. However since he grants that in the fourth and fifth Ages Dioceses were very small