Annotation CCCXXIV
”That thou mayest constitute presbyters throughout the cities.” — Titus 1:5
Whether a bishop is greater than a presbyter.
Jerome, in the commentary on the epistle to Titus, elucidating this period, is believed to be of the opinion of those who teach that a bishop is not superior to a simple priest [sacerdote], but that both are the same. Which opinion Augustine, in the book On Heresies, chapter 53, numbers among the condemned errors of Aerius. The words of Jerome are these: “LET US diligently attend to the words of the Apostle, saying, ‘That thou mayest constitute presbyters throughout the cities.’ For the same is a presbyter who [is] a bishop; and before, by the devil’s instinct, partisanships in religion came to be, and it was said among the peoples,1 ‘I am of Paul, I of Apollo, but I of Cephas,’ the churches were governed by the common counsel of presbyters. But after each one thought those whom he had baptized to be his own, not Christ’s, it was decreed in the whole world that one chosen from the presbyters should be set over the rest, to whom the whole care of the church should pertain, and the seeds of schisms be taken away. Does anyone think this to be not the scriptures’, but our own opinion — [namely] that a bishop and a presbyter are one, and that the one [word] is of seniority, the other a name of office? Let the words of the Apostle to the Philippians be re-read, saying:2 ‘Paul and Timothy, to the saints who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons, grace and peace.’ Philippi is one city of Macedonia; and certainly in one city there could not be more bishops, as they are [now] named. But because at that time they called the same [men] bishops and presbyters, therefore he spoke indifferently of bishops, as of presbyters. Still, [lest] this seem ambiguous to anyone, unless it be proved by another testimony: in the Acts of the Apostles it is written, that when the Apostle came to Miletus, he sent to Ephesus, and called the presbyters of that same church, to whom afterward, among other [things], he thus spoke:3 ‘Take heed to yourselves, and to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has placed you bishops.’ And here diligently observe, in what manner he called the presbyters of one city, Ephesus, afterward the same [men] bishops. These [things] we said for this reason, that we might show that among the ancients the same were presbyters whom [they called] also bishops; but by little and little, that the seed-plots of dissensions might be plucked up, all the solicitude was deferred [transferred] to one. As, therefore, the presbyters know that they, by the custom of the church, are subject to him who shall have been set over them: so let the bishops know that they are greater than the presbyters more by custom than by the truth of the Lord’s disposition, and that they ought to rule the church in common.” These [things] Jerome.
Ambrose [Ambrosiaster] is thought to favor the opinion of Jerome in the commentaries on the fourth chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians, thus saying: “NOT in all [things] do the writings of the Apostle agree with the ordination which now is in the church, because these were written in the very beginnings. For he also calls Timothy — created a presbyter by himself — a bishop, because the first presbyters were called bishops; so that, he departing, the next might succeed to him. Finally, in Egypt the presbyters consecrate [seal], if a bishop be not present. But because the following presbyters began to be found unworthy to hold the primacies, the method was changed — the council [taking] foresight, that not order [seniority], but merit, should create a bishop, constituted by the judgment of many priests; lest an unworthy [man] should rashly usurp [it], and be a scandal to many.”
Chrysostom seems not to differ much from both [parties], [in] the fifteenth homily on the former [epistle] to Timothy, thus writing: “AFTER he had spoken of bishops, the order of presbyters being omitted, he passes to the diaconate. Why that, I ask? Because, namely, between a bishop and a presbyter there is almost no difference. For to the presbyters also the care of the church has been committed; and [the things] which he said of bishops agree also to presbyters. For by ordination alone are they superior to those; and in this only do they seem to have more than presbyters.”
The Author of the commentaries on Paul, which are inscribed to Jerome, in the explanation of the third
—[the third chap]ter of the former [epistle] to Timothy, handing down almost the same [things], thus speaks: “IT IS ASKED, why he made no mention of presbyters, but comprehended them under the name of bishops? Because [the presbyterate] is the second, nay almost one [and the same] grade; as [he shows when] he writes to the Philippians [addressing] bishops and deacons,4 since one city cannot have several bishops. And in the Acts of the Apostles, gathering the presbyters of the church [as he was] about to go to Jerusalem, he says among other [things]:5 ‘See to the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has ordained you bishops.’”
Sedulius Scotus, in the Collectanea on the epistle to Titus, gathered this same opinion, excerpted from the commentaries of Jerome on Titus, [and] repeated in [the same] words.
Anselm, bishop of Canterbury, in the commentaries on Titus, expounds the present clause of the Apostle in almost the same manner.
Thomas, bishop [i.e. Thomas Waldensis], writing against Wycliffe the heresiarch — who from the authority of Jerome equated a priest with a bishop — says that it is indeed had from Jerome that bishops are presbyters; but that between bishops and presbyters there is no distinction of grade, that cannot be deduced from his words. But because the sayings of Jerome plainly convict him of making priests equal to bishops, therefore Alfonso de Castro, in the sixth book Against Heresies, does not fear to confess that Jerome in this part erred; and, responding to those [things] which are brought by him from the epistle to the Philippians and from the Acts of the Apostles, says that it is true that at that time presbyters were also called bishops, because the distinction of the words had not yet been made; but that from this it is not gathered that presbyters and bishops were altogether the same. There are [some] who think that Jerome equated a presbyter with a bishop, and pronounced both the same — not indeed in the power of jurisdiction, in which certainly a bishop is far greater than a presbyter, but in the sacrament of order, in which indeed a presbyter differs nothing from a bishop, nor has a priest anything more than a bishop. For the sacrament is the same to both, and the same force of the sacrament — the character, and the grace — is in both. To this sense likewise they judge the sayings of Ambrose, Chrysostom, Anselm, and the Anonymous author are to be interpreted — especially since Ambrose [Ambrosiaster], on the former [epistle] to Timothy, chapter 4, opening his mind, expresses this same understanding in these words: “A BISHOP and presbyters are one ordination (for each is a priest); but the bishop is first, so that every bishop is a presbyter, yet not every presbyter a bishop. For he is a bishop, who is first among the presbyters.” Thus Alfonso: to whose opinion it pleases [us] to subjoin the canon which is had concerning this matter [in] session 23 of the Council of Trent, in these words:
“IF ANYONE shall say, that bishops are not superior to presbyters; or that they have not the power of confirming and ordaining; or that [the power] which they have is common to them with the presbyters; or that orders conferred by them are invalid without the consent or calling of the people, or of the secular power; or that those who have neither been rightly ordained by ecclesiastical and canonical power, nor sent, but come from elsewhere, are lawful ministers of the word and of the sacraments: let him be anathema.”