its ruins,— Arles was then rising to a greatness which culminated within a century after its first Council; and Honorius, when decreeing that it should be the seat of a representative assembly of "seven provinces", of Southern Gaul, recommended it as "enriched by its commerce with whatever was goodliest in the world," an expansion of Ausonius's phrase, "Romani commercia suscipis urbis." The time at which Christianity first came to Arles is not ascertainable: that the Trophimus of the apostolic age brought it thither was the assertion made by its very discreditable bishop Patroclus, in the early part of the fifth century, to Pope Zosimus, who heaped favours on Arles because the story or legend, ignoring St. Paul's language, and obeying the law of "Petrine development, represented Trophimus as deriving his mission from St. Peter. But it seems certain that, in Archbishop Benson's words, "there was no bishop of Arles before the death of St. Irenæus: and although a Trophimus is reckoned by Gregory of Tours as one of the seven missionary bishops whom, on the warrant of a record of martyrdom, he describes as sent from Rome into Gaul in A.D. 250 (a year in whch no such mission was possible), and is named by him as first bishop of Arles, the story cannot be reconciled with Cyprian's letter of 254; for Marcianus, who had recently become a Novatianist, had for some time occupied the see, and was evidently chief bishop of "the Province:" so that for once a legend post-dates a historical event. The present cathedral of "St. Trophimus," with its solemn Romanesque interior, is interesting as representing the basilica in which Hilary of Arles, and Cæsarius, officiated, and in which also Augustine of Canterbury was consecrated by its Archbishop Virgilius in 597. The church of Arles, whenever founded, was in Constantine's time conspicuous and dignified; and thus it was fittingly chosen to receive the "plenarium concilium" of the whole Church of the West, which assembled on the appointed day, August 1, 314,-the first of the thirteen Councils of Arles, and by far the most important and memorable. Among its members were Rheticius and Maternus, Agræcius, the newly appointed bishop of imperial "Treveri," Oresius of Marseilles, Avitianus of Rouen, Ambitausus of Reims, Vocius of Lyons, Verus of Vienne (the city associated with Lyons in the persecution of 177), Merocles or Myrocles of Milan, Theodore of Aquileia, Proterius of Capua, Chrestus of Syracuse, Cæcilian of Carthage (supported by seven African colleagues), Liberius of Emerita in Spain, and three British prelates, Eborius

of York, Restitutus of London ("de Civitate Londinensi), and Adelfius, most probably of Lindum Colonia or Lincoln (the text speaks of "Colonia Londinensium)." The whole number present is uncertain, only thirty-three names being given in the synodal letter: but the list in the Concilia called "Nomina Episcoporum includes the names of some other bishops, who probably had left Arles when the letter was drafted, and mentions eleven cases in which absent bishops were represented by clerics; among these one is surprised to find not only Ostia, but the not distant Tarragona and Saragossa, and even the neighbouring city of Orange. The list names four presbyters, who appear among the signatories of the letter, and ignores three of the signatories: of its fifteen presbyters, twenty-six deacons, two readers, and seven exorcists, the majority were evidently in attendance on their bishops, as Severus on Myrocles, a presbyter and four deacons on Marinus, Sperantius on Cæcilian, Florus on Chrestus, Sacerdos and Arminius on Adelphius, etc. Marinus of Arles presided. The deputies of the Roman bishop Silvester, who had succeeded Miltiades on the 31st of January this year, were two priests, Claudian and Vito, and two deacons, Eugenius and Cyriacus. The first business, of course, was the case of Cæcilian: it was examined, and he was again declared guiltless. He had again confronted his accusers: again their proofs had been found worthless; so that, in the language of the synodal letter, "by the judgment of God and of the Mother Church, who knows and approves her own, they were either condemned or repulsed." Some, indeed, of those who had opposed Cæcilian were induced by the proceedings at Arles to "return into unity with him;" and it appeared that the Council made or sanctioned some such proposal as that those bishops of the party who should abandon their schism should be allowed to share the episcopate of their several cities with the bishops of Cæcilian's communion-in a word, with the Catholic bishops-until one or the other should die: a remarkable divergence, in the interest of peace, from the received principle of diocesan episcopacy.

Two or three of the canons of this Council require special notice. One touched the Easter-question, which had first arisen in the second century, and will be best considered in connexion with the Nicene Council; but it used very general language, simply enacting that all should keep "the Lord's Paschal feast" on the same day, to be announced, as usual, by the Roman Church

for every year. Another definitively disallowed the African or Cyprianic rule of ignoring heretics' baptism as invalid, and rebaptizing accordingly converts who had received it: every one who had been baptized in the name of the Trinity was to be treated as a christened person, and brought to "imposition of hands," or, in our phrase, to confirmation; but if it appeared that he had been baptized in some other form, he must be baptized de novo. It is to this decision of a "plenary council" of the whole West that Augustine often refers in controversy with the Donatists. A third, while excluding from the clergy persons proved to have been Traditors, recognizes as valid the ordination which bishops of this class have conferred. There are also rules disapproving of usury, chariotraces, and theatrical performances, recognising the religious lawfulness, for Christians, of military service, of civic office, and provincial governorship, with the provision that they must fulfil their Christian obligations, and accept the counsel of the local bishop; allowing those who are converted during illness to receive imposition of hands (so as to be admitted to the catechumenate); excluding from communion for a time Christian girls who had married Pagans, and denying communion to penitent apostates during illness; restraining clerics from changing their sphere of ministry; strictly forbidding deacons to "offer" the Eucharist; repressing the self-assertion of deacons of cities; requiring a plurality of bishops for a new consecration; and tersely ordering "that no bishop shall trample on another," i.e. treat him with injurious contempt. A canon referring to adultery on a wife's part presents difficulties which need not be discussed here.

The bishops, in their formal letter to Silvester, lamented his absence, but owned that he could not leave the place "where the Apostles daily sit, and where their blood unceasingly bears witness to the glory of God;" in other words, the Church of Rome was recognised as possessing the episcopate founded by Peter and Paul, and the spots where they suffered martyrdom. But more difficult and remarkable is the phrase that Silvester "holds the greater dioceses," and therefore can most readily publish the announcement of Easter. What is meant by "qui majores dioceses. tenes"? The empire had been divided by Diocletian, for administrative purposes, into twelve great regions called "dioceses," which, as Professor Bury has shown, became thirteen in the course of the fourth century; so that the term which we now apply to the ecclesiastical district in the charge of a single bishop-then known

as a "parish," by a mode of speech of which we find survivals even in Bede-was used for a group of so many civil provinces which was ruled by a "Vicarius," etc., and eventually placed with other such groups under the superior oversight of one of four "prefects," whose original relation to military affairs was nominally represented by the epithet "prætorian." Thus the Eastern prefecture contained the dioceses of "the East" (with Egypt), of "Asia," Pontus, and Thrace: the Illyrian contained the dioceses of Moesia-afterwards subdivided into Dacia and Macedonia-and of Pannonia, afterwards included in the Italic. The Gallic extended from the northern limit of Roman Britain to the Straits of Gibraltar; and at first the diocese of Gaul proper (equivalent to North France) was distinct from that of "Vienne,” which was afterwards united to it. The Italian prefecture had peculiarities of its own. It included the six provinces of "Africa" -ultimately the seven of Western Illyricum-and those of Italy, which may be distinguished as the North-Italian, ruled by the Vicarius (or Vice-prefect) of "Italy," and the Central and Southern, administered by the "Vicarius Urbis;" while the great "city" itself, and its neighbourhood, were under a special prefect, whose office dated from the reign of Augustus. In what sense, then, could the bishop of Rome be said "to hold the greater dioceses" ? He was not patriarch, to use a subsequent term, in any part of the East; his authority to reverse local decisions was long afterwards denied by the Church of Africa. Nor does the letter imply that he was owned as in any sense supreme over the Gallic Church; still less, if possible, was he so regarded by the Christians of Britain. The Churches of North Italy looked practically rather to Milan than to Rome; and Spain does not seem to have had any special ties to the "see of Peter." And, to come to the point, there appears good reason for connecting this expression with an older use of the term "diocese," as equivalent to a province, or a part of a province, or a district-a sense in which it was used by Cicero. Then the Council will mean to say that Silvester's ecclesiastical relation to the Churches of the ten Italian provinces under the government of the "Vicarius Urbis" (who, observe, was subordinate to the prætorian prefect of Italy, not to the prefect of Rome) might give him exceptional facilities for acting as an organ of communication with distant Churches. These provinces were, in more senses than one, “majores;" they contained the "eternal city, the centre of the Roman world, to which, as Dr. Liddon has

said, "all the streams of human effort converged," and from which radiated throughout the empire multitudinous lines of intercourse; they were wealthy, populous, and central: he who governed their Churches might be said to be the chief pastor of the most favoured and dignified portions of the empire; and his opportunities of dispersing information would be in proportion to the conspicuousness of his position in the Church. The bishops proceed to summarize the first, second, third, fourth, sixth, seventh, and eighth canons, and conclude with curious abruptness, which suggests that something has dropped out of the text. Then he (Constantine), being tired of it, ordered all to return to their own sees. Amen.”

To return for a short time to the history of what we may now call by its familiar name of Donatism. The great body of Cæcilian's adversaries were as obstinate as ever in their discontent. They were not the least overawed by the authority of the Council of Arles. "They appealed (provocârunt)," says Augustine, “in their extreme pertinacity and litigiousness, to the Emperor against the Council." Hereupon Constantine wrote to his "dearest brothers," the Catholic bishops at Arles, a letter more positively Christian in tone than those which had preceded it-acknowledged that God's mercies towards him were alike indescribable and undeserved; expressed his pleasure in the result of their just decision in bringing back some sectarians to Catholic unity, and his disgust at the renewed demands which the others had preferred for fresh inquiry, and inquiry to be conducted by the Emperor himself in person. "Incredible arrogance! They demand a judgment from me, whereas I myself await the judgment of Christ. For I say the very truth-the judgment of the bishops ought to be so regarded as if it were pronounced by the Lord in person. These malignants look out for what is secular, abandoning what is heavenly. They have copied the fashions of Gentile litigants by lodging an appeal!" After more in this strain, he turns the bent of his letter into a request that the bishops, "following in the path of the Saviour," will wait patiently a little longer at Arles, in order to offer favourable terms to any one who will even yet reconsider their position; if this meets with no response, they may return to their respective Churches "and remember me, that our Saviour may always have mercy on me." He adds that the obstinate "perverters of religion" are by his orders to be sent at once to his court. But this interesting letter was followed by no slight concession to the persons denounced