fore those who received their Orders from Antipopes or from Bishops in Communion with Antipopes, upon their Return to the true Communion, became rightful Bishops and Priefts and their Miniftrations then became effectual, though they were not fo before. This Schifm therefore though it continued feventy Years; yet being at last healed, and both Parties joined in one Communion, the Orders on both Sides, and all other Minifterial Offices became effectual. And this fufficiently fecures the Orders of the English, and would do fo of the whole Western Church, if the other Parts of the Western Church had not fince made a New Schifm by refufing and rejecting the English Church, and thrufting her out of their Communion, because the judged it necessary to return to the Catholick Communion of the truly Apoftolick Primitive Church, and to reform thofe Errors and Corruptions which had fully'd and defaced her ancient Purity. And for this Reason, though we cannot communicate with a Popish Bishop or Pricft, and look upon his Miniftrations as effectual; yet if he fhall renounce his Errors and return to the true Catholick Communion of the Church of England, we receive him as a Bifhop or Priest without giving him any new Ordination nor have we then any Doubt of the Effect of his Minitrations. Thus Anthony Kitchin, the Schifmatical Popish Bishop of Llandaff, in Queen Mary's Reign, upon his coming over to the Catholick Communion of the Church of England in Queen Elizabeth's Reign, was received and acknowledged as a true Catholick Bifhop by all the Bishops of this Realm, and enjoyed his Bishoprick to his dying Day. So the Archbishop of Spalato, a Popish Bishoprics in Dalmatia, under te Government of the Venetians, coming hither and declaring himself to be of our Communion, was received as a Bishop, (x) being admitted to assist

(x) Hoylin's Life of Archbij op Laud. p. 1974

Arch

Archbishop Abbot at the Confecration of fome Eng lifh Bishops in the Chapel at Lambeth. This is agreeable to the Practice of the ancient Church with relation to the Novatians, Donatifts, Arians, and other Hereticks or Schifmaticks. Thus the Council of Nice (y) decreed as to the Novatians, who had then kept up a Schifm in the Church above fixty Years, and continued it 150 Years more, calling themselves by the Name of Puritans. I will give it according to the Learned Mr. Johnson's Tranflation in the VadeMecum. As to thofe who call themselves Puritans, if they come over to the Catholick and Apoftolick Church, the Holy Synod Decrees, that they who are ordain'd fhall continue in the Clergy; having first profeffed in Wri ting, that they will adhere to the Decrees of the Catholick Church; that is, that they will communicate with those that have married a fecond Time, and fuch as havé lapfed under Perfecution. When none but they are found to be ordain'd in any City or Village, they shall remain in the fame Order; but if any come over where there is a Bishop or Priest of the Catholick Church, 'tis clear, that the Bishop of the Church ought to retain his Dignity; and he that had been named Bishop by the Puritans, shall havė the Honour of a Prieft, unless the Bishop think fit to impart to him the Nominal Honour of a Bishop: Otherwife he fhall provide for him the Place of a Village Bishop or Prieft; that fo there may not be two Bishops in one City. The Novatians differed not at all from the Catholicks in their Form of Government or of Divine Worship, only in two Points of Difcipline here mentioned, they would allow none to continue in their Communion who had marry'd a fecond Time, or who had lapfed or renounced the Chriftian Faith in Time of Perfecution, fuch as these they would not receive even upon Repentance, which the Catholick Church did: And therefore the Church required no more of them than to promise, under their Hand-Writing,

(y) Concil. Nicæn. Can. 8.

that

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that they would conform in thefe Particulars. But. their Schifm was formed as has been before fhewed by their putting other Bishops into full Sees, and therefore the Council took particular Care of that Matter; and though it allowed their Orders to be good upon their Return to the Unity of the Church and relinquishing their Schifm, and gave them leave to keep Poffeffion of fuch Bishopricks as they had got where no Catholick Bishop could claim against them, yet they could not allow a Novatian Bishop to continue to be Bishop of fuch a See as had a Catholick Bishop before fuch a Novatian returned to the Comthunion of the Church. In that Cafe they allowed him to act only as a Presbyter under the Catholick Bishop, though he might retain the Nominal Honour of a Bishop, and fo precede all the other Presbyters : Or might be appointed Bishop of a Village, there to perform fuch Epifcopal Acts as the Bishop of the City fhould intruft him to perform, and for which he should be accountable to the Bishop of the City who was to be efteemed his Superior, and without whofe Commiffion he fhould perform no Epifcopal A&t, that so there might not be two Bishops, the one of which depended not upon or owed no Subjection to the other, in one City. The Council therefore plainly allowed the Orders given and received in the Novatian Schifm to be good and fuch as needed not to be repeated, though their Schifm or Breach of Charity made them ineffectual or unprofitable fo long as they continued in Schifm. But when that Breach was healed by their Return to the Unity of the Church, then their Orders alfo became effectual and profitable as if that Breach had not been. So it was alfo in the Cafe of the Donatifts who had made a Schifm just as the Novatians had done before them; by putting Bishops into full Sees. For thus the (z) A

(z) Can.68..aliter 71.

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frican

frican Council decreed, whofe Canons were after received into the Code of the Universal Church, which I will alfo give according to the Reverend and Learned Mr. Johnson's Tranflation and Abridgment: That Letters be fent to our Fellow-Bishops, and specially to the Apoftolical See, in which our venerable Brother and Collegue Anaftafius prefides, to let them know that we receive thofe who were Clergy-men among the Donatifts, upon their Converfion, with the fame Honour that they enjoyed among the Donatifts, if the Bishop of the Place think fit, accoring to the Cuftom of the Church of Africk, although by a Tranfmarine Council, which we do not pretend to an null, the contrary has been ordered. Whether Heretical or Schifmatical Clergy-men fhould be admitted as Bishops, Priests or Deacons, according to the Station they were in amongst their own Party, or whether they should only be admitted to Lay-Communion upon their Return to the Church, was a Matter of Difcipline; wherein the Church acted as fhe judged moft expedient and prudential. For though Hereticks and Schifmaticks had true Orders, yet the Church might receive fuch as had thofe Orders to Lay-Communion only, even as he might reduce a Catholick Bishop or Priest to Lay-Communion, for fuch Crimes as fhe fhould judge to deferve that Punifhment. And fo they dealt with the Donatifts: they left the Bishop of the Place to judge whether he would receive them as Laicks or as Clerks. though Tranfmarine Council had not left that Liberty to the Bithops of the Province where that Council was held, that is no Argument that even that Council did not think them to have true Orders, only they did not think it proper that Men who had long and obftinately persisted in such a gricVous Sin, and been fuch implacable Enemies to the Catholick Church, fhould immediately be allowed to poffefs the higheft Honours in the Church: But Thould at least continue fome time in Lay Commu

And

hion, to give the fuller Teftimony of the Sincerity of their Converfion. For we never find that any Con verts from Donatifm, who had been ordained in that Schifm were ever after required to be re-ordained! When or wherefoever they were admitted into the Number of the Catholick Clergy, they were always admitted without a new Ordination. Sc S. Augu2 ftine (a) tells Parmenian the Donatift Bishop, faying, For whenfoever Bishops and Presbyters coming over from that Party are received for Peace-fake upon renouncing their Error, and it feem proper that they should execute the fame Functions they performed before, they are not again or= dained; but as their Baptifm; fo their Ordination remains entire: Because the Fault was in the Schifm, which is corrected by a Return to Peace and Unity ; nor in the Sacra ments, which wherefoever they be are the fame. And we learn from S. Jerome's Dialogue with the Luciferiang that the only Reafon why Lucifer and his Party fe parated from the Catholick Church was, because the Catholick Church received Arian Bilhops, Priests and Deacons, as Bishops, Priefts and Deacons of the Catholick Church upon their Converfion without any Re-Ordination, although the Arians were Hereticks as well as Schifmaticks. And yet thefe Ancients who thus allowed the Validity of Schifmatical or Heretical Ordinations and Baptifms, held them to be ineffectual and unprofitable to Salvation. S. Aua guftine, who was prefent in that Council of Carthage above cited; where it was decreed, that the Donatift Clergy might be received as Clergy-men upon their

(a) Nam fi quando ex ipfa parte venientes etiam præpofiti pro bono pacis correcto Schifmatis errore fufcepti funt, & ft vifum eft opus effe ut eadem Officia gererent quæ gerebant, non funt rurfum ordinati; fed ficut Baptifinus in eis, ita ordi natio manfit integra: quia in Præcifione fuerat vitium, quod in Unitatis pace correctum eft; non in Sacramentis, quæ ubi cunque funt, ipfa funt. Auguft. contr. Epist. Parmen, L. 2. c. 138 · §. 28.