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Whence it is, that the same Jerome, writing to Demetriades, calleth excommunication Episcoporum et Presbyterorum censura. And elsewhere, Alligat vel solvit Episcopus et Presbyter. Whence we see, that presbyters also were wont to excommunicate, and that this power was common to them with the bishops.
And to the same purpose it is said by Jerome, that before schemes and divisions were, by the devil’s instigation, made in religion, communi presbyterorum consilio ecclesiæ gubernabantur.
Ecclesiæ nomine, saith he, videtur Christus significasse collegium presbyterorum qui ecelesiæ Christianæ erant præfuturi, cujus presbyterii mentio fit, 1 Tim. iv. Now if Christ hath committed the power of excommunication unto the church, what have bishops to say for themselves who appropriate this power unto themselves, each one in his diocese?
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