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 history. Thus the Bohemian Waldensian episcopate became extinct after but a short duration. May we not assume that God had permitted it to be instituted as a necessary factor in the organization of the Church of the Brethren, and that this having been completed its mission was done?

We now continue our narrative. The three deputies of the Synod of Lhota arrived among the Waldenses, met with a cordial reception, and were consecrated Bishops by Stephen and his colleague. It was not, as Perceval asserts, “an imposition of hands” “in token of fellowship and agreement, and for the confirming of their minds,” there being of any idea of consecration not a whisper”—but it was a consecration of bishops in the fullest sense of this title and in the strictest meaning of this office. We establish this position by the evidence here following:

1. Blahoslav’s Summa &c., (Lissa Folio ) says:

2. Lasitius distinctly affirms (Lasitius II, 45, quoted by Plitt), that the priests sent by the Brethren to the Waldenses were consecrated Bishops by the Waldensian Bishop Stephen.