The defense of the aunsvvere to the Admonition against the replie of T.C. By Iohn VVhitgift Doctor of Diuinitie. In the beginning are added these. 4. tables. 1 Of dangerous doctrines in the replie. 2 Of falsifications and vntruthes. 3 Of matters handled at large. 4 A table generall.

Ansvver to the Admonition. Pag. 117. Sect. 2. 3. 4.

You barely affirme without any proofe, that these Seniors then* 1.1 did execute their offices in their owne persons without substitutes: but your bare word is not of sufficient credite, although I think you will make a greate difference betwixte Seniors and Byshops: for they whome you call Seniors had no authoritie to preach, or to mi∣nister the Sacraments as Byshops haue.

That Byshops might haue substitutes and had so, it is manifest in the. 13. Canon. Ancyrani Concilij, whiche was about the yeare of our

Lord three hundred and eight, and before Nicene councel, where we reade on this sort: Vicarijs Episcoporum (quos Graeci Chorepiscopos vocant) non licet vel pre∣sbyteros* 1.2 vel diaconos ordinare, sed nec presbyteris Ciuitatis, sine Episcopi praecepto, amplius aliquid ordinare, nec sine authoritate literarū eius in vnaquaque parochia aliquid agere. It is not law∣ful for Byshops substitutes, (whom the Greciās do cal fellow Bishops or co∣adiutors) to order either priests or Deacons, neyther is it lawful to the priests of the citie, without the Byshops authoritie to commaund any thing else, or without the authoritie of his letters to do any thing in any parish.

It is manifest hereby that Byshops then had Deputies, whether you will call them Chauncellours, Commissaries &c. the matter is not great. To contend for the name, when the thing is certayne, is a note of a contentious person.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Of substi∣tutes or vi∣cares.
• * 1.2

  Concil. Ancy∣ran.