Page:Delineation of Roman Catholicism.djvu/465

 CP. X�.] oaazas. 459 - 2. TAr Pomer of erst. Roman Catholics believe that bishops, by divine right, are superior to presbyters, as it regards the power of order, which principally consists in confirming neophytes, and in ordaininc all degrees of ministers. With these powers are connected the pre- rogatives of making chrisre, consecrating temples and altars, admitting and excommunicating members of the church, and receiving ministers, without the consent or control of the presbyters or the people. Thus bishops alone admit members into the church, and ministers among the clergy; and perform, respecting them, all that the laity and ecclesiasti- cal bodies do among the greater number of Protestant churches. The superiority of bishops above presbyters is thus expressed by the Council of Trent: "If any one shall say that bishops are not superior to presbyters, or that they have not the power of confirming and or- daining, or that what they have is common to them with presbyters, let him be accursed."* 3. The power of jurisdiction or government. The Council of Trent expresses itself very evasively on this topic, as the pope's party were determined to have nothing decided by the council which would inter- fere with the supremacy of the pope; and because they knew this could not be carried through the council without manifest danger o the supremacy, they therefore, by their intrigues, prevented any decision respecting the power of bishops. The sixth canon, (sess. .3,) however, embraces bishops as a part of the great hierarchy; and in the fourth chapter of the same session it is said that bishops govern the church of (od, regers ecelesiarn Del. Benedict XI�., in his thirteenth book on Diocesan Synods, asserts the superiority of.bishops above presbyters in matters of jurisdiction, and he considers this doctrine as a dogma of faith. His words are, "It is a most firm dogma of the Catholic Church, that bishops are su- perior to presbyters, not only in the power of order, but also of juris- diction."' Though the pope affirms that it is a most finn dogma, or article of faith, that, in matters of jurisdiction, bishops are superior to presbyters, there are many theologians who are of a different �reed. The discussion on t divine rig of bishops was carried on with great violence and asperity at the Council of Trent. Those who held the institution of bishops to be of divine right, treated their opponents as slaves, who had ignobly sold themselves to do the will of the pope, while they themselves were regarded as rebels for opposing the just rights of Chrint's vicar on earth. While the French and Spanish Pre- lates laboured to establish the divine tight of episcopacy, meaning thereby that bishops derived both their office and their Power imme- diately from Jesus Christ, the pope strove to enact a distinction be- tween their order and jurisdiction, affirming that the former was de- rived from Jesus Christ, but the latter from the Roman pontiff. �arious formulas were prepared, in the hope of uniting the two parties without compromise of principle on either side, but the attempt was wholly un- t Ecclesim Catholicm 6rmisimum da es  no py- m, non lum t oni , tom. iii, p. t  illy, min. v,  #5. 1 ,,t,  Goodie
 * Can. 7t, seas. 3.

�