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succession THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG Succoth-Benoth
several sees, for the discussion and the definition of the fundamentals of the Christian faith, summarized in that creed of the Catholic church accepted by every separate branch which professes orthodoxy. Furthermore, among the decisions of the preparatory synod of Alexandria in 324 is one concerning the question of the ordination of presbyters by presbyters (Athanasius," Defence against the Arians," 12, ?6, Eng. transl. in NPNF, 2 ser., iv. 107, 140). This synodal action recognizing the exclusive right of the bishops to ordain presbyters (reaffirmed in a similar case by the Council of Sardica in 347, Canon 20) was evidently not contested by any opponent during the subsequent sessions of the Nicene Council, which not only declared the accepted faith, but also decided other less vital questions affecting the ritual and the clergy in general The authoritative canonical action of the assembled bishops in refusing to recognize the regularity of non-episcopally ordained presbyters can be rejected by any dissenting communions only by repudiating in toto the apostolic authority of this the first undisputedly ecumenical synod of the undivided Christian Church, in declaring definitely what is and what is not binding on all who accept the teachings of Christ and of his apostles and their successors.
This, then, should be the authority for the principle of the historic episcopate, the authority of the Catholic Church as it developed under divine direction from its formative state under the care of the apostles themselves, through various minor changes in its primitive polity necessitated by its varying needs, until, at the time of the Council of Nicxa, unity in polity and organization had been fully attained through the general acceptance of the doctrine that the bishops, as the recognized successors of the apostles, are the centers of Christian and Catholic communion. This doctrine of apostolic succession is not only Scriptural in asserting the authority of the apostles, and of their recognized successors, in exercising the plenary power of binding and of loosing (see KEYS, POWER of THE), committed to them by Christ himself, but is also consistent throughout with the historic development of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, which recently discovered writings of the primitive periods describe in detail.
The several departures, during the troubled times of the Reformation, from the established episcopal polity of the entire Catholic Church, both East and West, have scarcely justified their introduction, in view of the division and subdivision which have resulted in every Reformed church that has rejected the historic episcopate universally accepted (until the Reformation) since the ecumenical Council of Nicaea. While, on the contrary, those Reformed churches which retained the historic episcopate, the Anglican and Scandinavian communions, have been comparatively free from sectarianism, a positive proof in modern times of the truth of the traditional Catholic teaching, that the bishops are ever the centers of unity in the Christian Church (throughout the centuries). There is this further view of the historic episcopate, considered in connection with the question of reunion, not only of the divided churches resulting from the Western Reformation,
but also of their eventual intercommunion with the older Latin, Greek, and Eastern branches of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ. That the restoration of the primitive historic episcopate with its college of presbyters, assisted by the deacons and aubdeacons and lower orders of laymen, developed so practically for effective pastoral service by the successors of the apostles themselves, will work marvels in regaining the wavering allegiance of the unchurched people of our free secular states by solving the pressing problems of our intricate modern civilization, can neither be doubted nor denied.
Then, if this be generally recognized, the question must naturally arise: From what source can a historic episcopate be obtained, since both the Latin and the Greek churches view with suspicion the several churches developed from the reforming movements of the sixteenth century, and have repeatedly insisted that intercommunion with them can be secured only by the unreserved and unquestioning acceptance of their respective dogmatic decrees on the Catholic faith, the seven sacraments, and their ritual in its entirety? Heretofore there was no independent historic episcopate in the Western patriarchate which was not derived directly or indirectly from the Latin church of the pre- and postReformation periods. Therefore, all episcopal successions in the Western church are involved in the notorious apostasies, heresies, and simonies of those past centuries, filled as they were with mutual papal depositions, accusations, and counteraccusations of irregularity, invalidity, and schism, ending usually with mutual anathemas and excommunications.
But in the year 1891, the Syrian patriarch of Antioch, to whom can be ascribed as the historic successor of the first bishop of Antioch, the Apostle Peter himself, whatever preeminence and primacy of jurisdiction the leader of the apostolic college could impart to another, authorized the elevation to the episcopate of the Old Catholic priest Pere Vilatte (q.v.) of Wisconsin. The solemn patriarchal bull permitting this canonical archiepiscopal consecration by eastern prelates, of a western priest, and investing him with the plenary power and apostolic authority of the primatial dignity, is given verbatim as translated from the authentic Syrian original.
" In the name of the Essential, Eternal, Self Existing, Almighty God: His servant Ignatius Peter III., Patriarch of the Apostolic See of Antioch and the East.
" We, the humble servant of God, hereby allow the consecration by the Holy Ghost of the Priest Joseph Rend Vilatte, elected for archiepiscopal dignity, Archbishop-Metropolitan in the name of Mar Timotheus, for the church of the Mother of God in Dykesville, Wisconsin United States, and other churches in the archdiocese of. America, viz., the churches adhering to the orthodox faith, in the name of the Father, amen; and of the Son, amen; and of the living Holy Ghost, amen.
" We stand up before God's majesty, and raising up our hands towards his grace, pray that the Holy Ghost may descend upon him, as he did upon the
