Distinction LXXX

GRATIAN. Part I. According to Popes Lucius, Clement, and Anacletus, the places in which primates, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and priests are to be ordained are these. For Pope Lucius says:

The cities and places in which primates ought to preside were established not in modern times but many times before Christ’s advent; even the gentiles appealed to their primates for greater affairs. § 1. In those very cities, however, after Christ’s advent, the apostles and their successors placed patriarchs and primates, to whom episcopal affairs and, after the apostolic see, the greater causes are to be referred, with apostolic authority preserved in all things.

Likewise Pope Clement, [to James, epistle I]. In those cities in which formerly among the gentiles there were their first flamens and first doctors of the law, Blessed Peter commanded that primates of bishops or patriarchs be placed, who would handle the causes of the remaining bishops and the greater affairs in the faith. § 1. But in those cities in which, among the aforesaid gentiles, there were of old their archflamens, whom nevertheless they held as lesser than the aforementioned primates, he commanded that archbishops be instituted. § 2. In all the other individual cities he commanded that one bishop, and not several, be constituted, who would possess only the title of bishop, since even among the apostles themselves the institution was not equal, but one presided over all.

Likewise Anacletus, [epistle III, c. 2]. Bishops ought not to be constituted in castles or small cities, but priests ought to be ordained and placed by bishops throughout castles, small cities, and estates, yet one in each of their individual titles. A bishop ought to be ordained not by one but by several bishops and, as was said, not to a small city, lest the name of bishop become cheap, but he is to be titled and named for an honorable one. A priest, however, is to be set over a church established in any place whatsoever.

Likewise Pope Leo, [to the Bishops of Africa, epistle LXXXV, c. 2]. Certainly, as to what pertains to priestly dignity, among all the statutes of the canons we wish this to be observed: that bishops are not to be consecrated in just any places, nor in just any castles, and where they have not been before, since, where the peoples and assemblies are smaller, the care of priests suffices, while it is fitting for episcopal governance to preside only over larger populations and more populous cities, lest the priestly summit be granted to villages and estates or to obscure and solitary towns, which the divinely inspired decrees of the holy Fathers forbade.

Likewise from the Council of Laodicea, [c. 57]. Bishops ought not to be ordained in villages and estates, but visitors—that is, those who travel around—are to be constituted. But we judge that those who were ordained before this are to do nothing without the knowledge of the bishop of the city. Priests likewise are to do nothing without the bishop’s precept and counsel. Part II. GRATIAN. The sees of bishops, however, ought not to be separated by a long interval, so that they can assemble without difficulty for the consecration of their comprovincial bishop. Hence Gregory to Augustine, Bishop of the English, [response 8]:

We wish your fraternity to ordain bishops in such a way that the bishops themselves are by no means separated from one another by a long interval, so that there may be no necessity by which they are unable to assemble at the ordination of a bishop. For the ordination of bishops ought in no way to be made without three or four bishops having been gathered.