apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

390 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
marrying must obtain his consent to their union, that 'their marriage
may be according to the Lord and not according to concupiscence'
{Polyc. 5).
In giving such commands he is not speaking from human
suggestion, but 'the Spirit preached saying, Do nothing without the
bishop ' {Philad. 7).
The prominence and authority of the office are sufficiently clear
be inferred from others. He
from these passages. Its extension may
plainly regards himself as bishop of Antioch, for he describes himself as
'
the bishop belonging to Syria ' (tov Itt'kjko-kov '^vpU'^ Rom. 2)
and he
;
speaks of the Antiochene Church, when deprived of his presence, as
having no other pastor but God, no other bishop but Jesus Christ {Rom.
9).
He mentions by name the bishops of Ephesus {Ephes. i), of
Magnesia {Magn. 2), and of Tralles {Trail, i) ;
and he refers anonymously
to the bishop of Philadelphia {Philad. inscr., i).
Not only in
the letters addressed to the Smyrnteans (§§ 8, 12) and to himself, but
elsewhere also {Magn. 15), Polycarp is spoken of as bishop. Writing to
the Philadelphians likewise, he says that the churches nearest to Antioch
have sent thither bishops to congratulate the Antiochenes on the restoration
of peace. It is plain therefore that in those parts of Syria and Asia
Minor at all events, with which Ignatius
is
brought in contact, the
episcopate, properly so called, is an established and recognised institution.
In one passage moreover he seems to claim for it a much
'
wider diffusion : The bishops established in the farthest parts (ot eVta-KOTTOL
ol Kara m Tripaja opiaOevres)
are in the counsels of Jesus Christ '
{Ephes. 3).
In all such language however there is no real difficulty. The strange
audacity of writers like Daille', who placed the establishment of episcopacy
as late as the beginning of the third century, need not detain us ;
for no critic of the Ignatian Epistles, however adverse, would venture
now to take up this extreme position. The whole subject has been
investigated by me in an Essay on 'The Christian Ministry'^; and
1
^Qe Philif'pians Y>-
181 sq. The Old on other occasions, that I do not hold
Catholic Langen, Gcschichte der Roini- myself responsible for the interpretations
schen Kirche 1881, p. 95 sq, gives an ac- which others (whether friends or oppocount
of the origin of episcopacy precisely nents) have put upon my language or
similar to my own, as set forth in this for the inferences which they have drawn
I Essay. do not know how far Card. from my views.
Newman would agree with me in my After this portion relating to the mihistorical
investigation ;
but he uses Ian- nistry was printed off for my first edition,
guage {Essays i. p. 251 sq) which has the remarkable document entitled Atmany
points of contact with mine. I '5ax') tQiv BuioeKa airo