Annotatio CXVIII

”Moses, all the multitude being gathered together before the door of the tabernacle, said,” etc. — Leviticus 8:4

Origen, in homily 6 on Leviticus, seems to deduce from this passage that Bishops are to be elected by the authority of the people.¹ For thus he writes: “Although, therefore, the Lord had given command about constituting a high priest, and the Lord had chosen [him], nevertheless the multitude is convoked. For in ordaining a priest the presence of the people too is required, that all may know and be certain — because he who is more excellent out of all the people, who [is] holier, who more learned, who more eminent in every virtue, that one is chosen for the priesthood; and this with the people standing by, lest afterward any retraction remain to anyone, lest any scruple remain.” Hermann Bodius, in his Collectanea, uses this testimony against us; to which he subjoins the words from the fifth epistle of Cyprian to the people and clergy, saying: “In ordaining clerics, dearest brothers, we are accustomed to consult you beforehand, and to weigh the character and merits of individuals by common counsel.” He confirms Cyprian’s authority also by the example of Matthias, who was chosen not by the Apostles alone, but by the whole assembly of Christians; and as is said to have been done in the times of Pope Leo.

But if the words of each Doctor are rightly weighed, neither of them attributes to the people the right of electing a Bishop;² rather they indicate only that this was granted to the people by the rulers of the Church — namely, that [the candidates], in the presence of the people, might be chosen under the eyes of all, so that, as worthy and fit, they might be approved by public judgment, lest any [scruple] after the ordination lest, after the ordination, any occasion of retracting [it] should remain. Whence also Lampridius, a writer foreign to our religion, in the Life of Alexander [Severus] Augustus relates that it was the custom for the names of those who were to be set over the Church to be first proposed publicly, so that, if the people had anything against him, they might bring it forward.³ And this same custom is preserved in our times — not entirely, yet in some part. For first, [the candidate] to be elected is wont to be examined concerning [his] faith and morals by the most approved men; then, when excellent testimonies have been received about him, before he is placed in the government of the Church the people are wont to be called, and in their presence [the election] is declared — so that the election may be approved by the people’s favor, and the multitude may much more willingly obey him whom it knows to have been raised to that dignity by its own consent also. But the election of a Bishop itself is forbidden to the people by the decrees of the ancient Councils,⁴ as appears from the Council of Laodicea, in whose twelfth canon it is forbidden that the election of a Bishop take place except by the metropolitan Bishop, together with the comprovincial bishops, or the college of priests. To no one, therefore, is it lawful to elect Bishops, except to those who hold the helm of the Church — and especially to the supreme vicar of Christ — and only to those princes and peoples to whom, by a certain peculiar prerogative, it has been granted by the Supreme Pontiff himself to nominate the Bishops whom they have judged fit for governing (as now some peoples do by his authority, and did once in the time of Pope Leo, and in the times of the Apostles in the election of Matthias⁵). For then this was easily [granted] to the multitude of the faithful, [when] the people was moderate, grave, and most zealous for the public utility; but now, since the common people is a beast of many heads, always intent on factions and seditions, this very thing could not be granted except with the greatest disturbance of the Church. St. Cyprian too, in the same epistle cited by the heretics, openly asserts that it is not necessary that [the one] to be elected be inquired of the people concerning [his] merits, where the divine suffrages, brought forth through the bishops, go before.