It is necessary here to observe, that this apostolical function of teaching is not to be exercised by mere instruction. It is teaching with authority as a superior having spiritual jurisdiction. It extends not merely to the imparting of knowledge and to persuasion, but also to censure and positive injunction. It is a means not only of instruction but of discipline. This ought to be kept in mind.

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One effect of the extension of the Church over great districts beyond the local sphere of the Bishop's constant and immediate care, was to render his visitations more and more important and necessary. In the life of St. Paul we find many instances of Episcopal visitations,* and they were continued from the Apostolic times. In the first age, when the people constituted one flock, subject to the Bishop and presbytery of the city as their immediate pastors, visitations were within a small compass, and from house to house; but as the Church extended, visitations extended also, and thus Bingham refers to the obligation of the Bishop to visit his diocese as a proof of the antiquity of parish churches. For this is a necessary consequent of having several churches at a distance under his jurisdiction, such as he could not personally attend himself, he was obliged to visit and see that they were provided with a proper incumbent, and that every thing was performed in due order. St. Austin and St. Basil, who had pretty large dioceses, speak often upon this account of their being employed in their visitations. And the rule in some places was to visit ordinarily once a year, as appears from the Council of Terraco in Spain, which lays this injunction on Bishops, because it was found by experience that many churches in their dioceses were left destitute and neglected, therefore they were obliged to visit them once a year. And if a diocese was so large that a Bishop could not perform this duty annually, that was thought a reasonable cause to divide the diocese and lay some part of the burthen on a new Bishop, which was the reason assigned in the Council of Lugo for dividing the large diocese of Gallicia."+

Visitations thus became a necessary means for the exercise of the Bishop's pastoral functions as the successor of the Apostles, having the cure of souls of the whole diocese, and the sole ordinary judge of all spiritual affairs arising therein. In his visitations especially, the Bishop exercised his pastoral function of teaching his people, and all his apostolical authority. It may indeed be called the chief point of his pastoral office. So the great Canonist Fleury says:

"Les fonctions de l'Evêque renferment tout l'exercice de la religion Chrétienne dont il n'y a aucune partie qui ne dépende de lui. C'est à lui

à faire des Chrétiens par la prédication et par le baptême; à leur apprendre à prier; à les nourrir de la parole de Dieu et des sacrements; à faire des prêtres et des Evêques qui puissent exercer les mêmes fonctions que lui, et perpetuer la religion jusqu'à la fin des siècles."‡

But all these things are comprehended in the character of the Bishop as the successor of the Apostles, and, therefore, CHRIST'S vicegerent and representative on earth. Such are the leading principles of the ecclesiastical public law respecting the office of the Bishop. It is by profound meditation on them,-by studying their real spirit drawn *Acts xiv. 23, 26, 28; xv. 36, 40.

+ Bingham, book ix. ch. vi. sec. 22.

Fleury, Hist. du Droit Eccles. tom. i. ch. xii. p. 122.

from Holy Writ,-that the ideal perfection of a Bishop can be realized and pourtrayed in the mind of a churchman. The contemplation of that ideal perfection is essential to maintain the Divine institution of Episcopacy in its full vigour and efficacy, and to protect it from the debilitating influences of the world and human frailty. Without some standard of absolute and transcendant perfection, the episcopal office will be brought down to an inferior standard, taken from the habits of society and the mediocrity of the world, and thereby suffer diminution, to the injury of the whole system of the Church. It may still be respectable, but it will cease to be truly apostolical; and its mediocrity will necessarily affect the moral and religious condition of the whole community.

Perhaps it may be said that heroic virtues are required to enable any man to act up to the perfection of the Bishop's office, that they belong to the Apostolic age, and that they are scarcely to be hoped for in modern times. But, however this may be, a very high degree of perfection in the functions of the office is attainable, though the person performing them has no heroic qualities. A good Christian, enlightened by the full knowledge and contemplation of his episcopal functions, and acting to the best of his power, looking up to the highest standard of the perfection of those functions cannot fail to become an Apostolic Bishop. It is the knowledge of the greatness and extent of those functions, it is the contemplation of them in their most absolute completeness and perfection, that forms such a Bishop, under Divine

assistance.

Let

But there have been examples of a perfection of the Episcopal character in modern times worthy of the first ages of the Church. us briefly consider one of these examples, produced by our own Church, in the person of Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man. Much valuable information may be obtained by the contemplation of the life of that admirable man.

We will say nothing of his learning, which was profound and varied, but proceed to the chief features of his Episcopal life. And everywhere we shall see his personal, immediate pastoral care of the people.

"He had studied physic with success. For some time after he had settled there, he was the only physician of the island, keeping a shop of drugs for general use, which he distributed, as well as his advice, gratis; but when some gentlemen of the faculty came to settle on the island, he gave up to them that part of the practice which alone could conduce to their emolument-attending on the rich, but the poor he kept always to himself."*

Here we find the Bishop giving up his time and bestowing his personal attendance on the performance of works of charity, in a manner by no means expected of a person in his position, according to the usual habits of society. He was moreover very bountiful, even to those who are considered by political economists almost as criminals.

"He was so charitable that it was not inaptly observed by a gentleman of the island, that he kept beggars from every body's door but his own. By a judicious and successful cultivation, from the Ecclesiastical

* Life of Bp. Wilson. Works, Vol. i. p. 199.

demesnes (which before his coming to the island produced little or nothing) he in a few years fed and clothed the poor of his diocese. The whole was a sheep-walk, but by tillage and manure it bore excellent corn."

The Bishop, no doubt, considered the merciful task of relieving and clothing the poor a part of his pastoral duty, and one exceedingly well calculated to increase his Episcopal influence, and his knowledge of the condition and habits of the humble classes in his diocese. But he did not neglect those of a higher grade, nor shut himself up to enjoy the privacy and freedom of his own family and domestic life.

"He always kept an open hospitable table, covered with the produce of his own demesnes, in a plentiful, not extravagant manner. As the friendly host, or master of that table, he was the most entertaining and agreeable, as well as instructive of men. His manners, though always consistently adorned with Christian gravity, were ever gentle and polite; and from his natural sagacity and distinguished erudition, he seemed to have the world in his possession. He was the divine, the scholar, and the gentleman."

He was hospitable, as S. Paul requires that a Bishop should be, but his hospitality was that of a prelate and a person of high station and breeding. It had all the amenity of the best society, and at the same time the strict correctness and gravity of an irreproachable Ecclesiastic. So the Canon Law requires a Bishop to be humilis, affabilis, misericors;* and again, we find in the Decree of Gratian,† that Gregory the Great held the Archdeacon Florentinus unfit to become a Bishop, because "accepimus ita eum tenacem existere ut in domo ejus amicus ad charitatem nunquam introcat." He was a mean, shabby man, whose house was never open to a friend.

Let us see how Bishop Wilson acted towards candidates: "He instructed young candidates for orders and maintained them in his own house, under his own immediate care; nor did he ordain them until he found, on a strict and careful examination, that they were perfectly qualified." Here, again, we find that, not contented with direction and superintendence, he gave his personal care to this important part of his duty. The same principle governed him as to visitations.

"He often on Sundays visited the different parishes of his diocese without giving them any notice. . . . . This was a constant obligation on the clergy and the people to be mindful of their duty. And four times in every year, he made a general visitation, inquiring into the behaviour and conduct of all the parishioners, and exhorting them to the practice of religion and virtue; and at his annual convocations, he delivered his charge with the divine pathos, grace, and dignity of an inspired Apostle.'

He understood the real spirit of an Episcopal visitation,-he' felt that it is the process by which the immediate pastoral care of the Bishop is extended to the whole diocese, and the means of Episcopal government after the example of the Apostolic ages. He therefore performed this function with all possible assiduity and studious diligence. And in his visitations, he did not confine himself to the superintendence of his *Decree of Gratian. Dist. xxiii. cap. ii. + Distinc. 85.

clergy, indeed, at all times he showed an active and personal solicitude in everything that concerned the people. Thus, when a criminal was condemned and executed in his diocese for a very cruel murder, the Bishop addressed a pastoral letter to his clergy, the very first paragraph of which shows how strongly he felt that his office involved the supreme pastoral care of the laity. It is as follows:

"We have at this time a mournful instance before us of an unhappy man, under the righteous sentence of condemnation for the dreadful sin of murder, attended with uncommon circumstances of most barbarous cruelty; let us consider, I beseech you, what God will expect especially of us His ministers upon this occasion; what good we may probably do, and what future evils we may hope, through the grace of God, to prevent, by plainly and affectionately laying before our people the true causes which lead to such dreadful sins."

And then the Bishop goes on to point out and enforce various matters most opposite and valuable, and ends with a prayer for the prisoner under sentence, which he desires may be read in every church in the diocese. Thus, he adopted means to direct what is called public opinion into the right channel, exerting, at the same time, his paternal solicitude for the unhappy criminal, by calling for the prayers of the Church on his behalf. He did not stand aloof, as though this were a matter only concerning the civil government, because he felt that everything which related to the moral condition and discipline of the people was properly within the sphere of the Bishop's duty. On another similar occasion, the Bishop not only wrote to his clergy and ordered prayers in all the churches for the condemned prisoners, but he himself, from the pulpit, called on the people to join him in prayer for those miserable men, concluding with a most impressive exhortation. He felt that all the people were his children, and required his immediate, direct, and personal care. He was the Bishop, not of the clergy only, but of all the people, their supreme pastor, their friend, and their father.

The contemplation of Bishop Wilson suggests to the mind of the English Churchman matters of profound importance, bearing on the present condition of discipline in this country, so far as it regards the great body of the laity. We have already referred to the difficulties which stand in the way of the revival of that discipline. How far it may be possible gradually to carry it, we cannot determine; but it is evident where this great work of restoration must begin. It must begin from the exercise of the direct influence of the pastoral office of the Bishop over the laity. It must begin by the Bishop, as the successor of the Apostles, exercising that kind of immediate personal influence and authority over the laity of all classes, which is so beautifully shown in the life of Bishop Wilson, and in that of another prelate who resembled him in another Church, namely, S. Francis de Sales. The Bishop must assume, by virtue of his office, to be the centre of the whole moral and religious government and discipline of the people; not merely by superintendence and direction of the clergy, but in his own person, directly, immediately, by constant intercourse with the people as their spiritual judge and adviser, by his presence in each parish, by teaching, by the frequent administration of Divine Service in all parts

of his diocese, and by preaching, not only in towns, but in obscure villages, not only to the rich and educated, but to the poor and ignorant. His visitation must be the great tribunal of morals for those purposes which no laws and no magistrates can accomplish. The whole population must look forward to the Bishop's visitation as a great festivity, as a joyful event, as the coming of their spiritual father to instruct them, to bless them, to heal their dissensions, and to exercise over them a paternal censorship and solicitude. The people will be easily accustomed to feel and realize the Episcopal office. They will soon learn to appreciate the benefits which they will derive therefrom. There is now a strong feeling in the minds of thoughtful men who stand away from the turmoil of party and the struggles of commercial speculation, that some new element of government is needed to stem the torrent of mean ambition and covetousness which threatens to overwhelm all

honour and justice in this nation. If, indeed, wealth and industry constitute happiness and greatness, then is this country happy and great; but of all servitudes, that is the most miserable which renders man a mere instrument for the accumulation of treasure. Such is the condition, not of the working population alone, who can barely support life by incessant toil, which, without the instinct of self-preservation, would render life a burthen, but of thousands who think themselves powerful and fortunate, whose souls are bowed down to the abject worship of riches, until they even sacrifice their lives after destroying their consciences, to obtain the means of gratifying unbounded luxury, and insatiable love of ostentatious power. In the midst of this general demoralization, which daily shows itself in folly, excess, baseness, and crime, and more or less affects every class in the community; the moral discipline of the Church is the great remedy to which honest men look with anxiety and hope. They look to the Divine institution of the Episcopal office and polity as the means of reviving justice, honour, and religion, which no laws, no magistrate, and no systems of national education can do. In that office there is a latent force which only requires to be called forth, fully sufficient for this magnificent task of reformation. It is the great talisman of the Church's power, the great secret of spiritual government, without which Ecclesiastical polity becomes a mere form of administration and outward discipline. But the glorious institution of Apostolical authority cannot shine forth in all its splendour until it is fully understood and appreciated. Its true spirit and extent must first be realized by profound and enlarged study of principles drawn from the public law of the Church. Then nothing more will be required than to substitute those principles for the routine of modern practice and the prejudices of modern society.