Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

ishops), than this of plurality of suffrages, intimated by St. Paul
in the word cheirotonesantes.*(3) Nor was there ever any choosing of
bishops, before the emperors found it necessary to regulate them in
order to the keeping of the peace amongst them, but by the
assemblies of the Christians in every several town.
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* Acts, 14. 23
*(2) Titus, 1. 5
*(3) Acts, 14. 23
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The same is also confirmed by the continual practice even to this
day in the election of the bishops of Rome. For if the bishop of any
place had the right of choosing another to the succession of the
pastoral office, in any city, at such time as he went from thence to
plant the same in another place; much more had he had the right to
appoint his successor in that place in which he last resided and died:
and we find not that ever any bishop of Rome appointed his
successor. For they were a long time chosen by the people, as we may
see by the sedition raised about the election between Damasus and
Ursinus; which Ammianus Marcellinus saith was so great that
Juventius the Praefect, unable to keep the peace between them, was
forced to go out of the city; and that there were above a hundred
men found dead upon that occasion in the church itself. And though
they afterwards were chosen, first, by the whole clergy of Rome, and
afterwards by the cardinals; yet never any was appointed to the
succession by his predecessor. If therefore they pretended no right to
appoint their own successors, I think I may reasonably conclude they
had no right to appoint the successors of other bishops without
receiving some new power; which none could take from the Church to
bestow on them, but such as had a lawful authority, not only to teach,
but to command the Church, which none could do but the civil
sovereign.
The word minister in the original, diakonos, signifieth one that
voluntarily doth the business of another man, and differeth from a
servant only in this, that servants are obliged by their condition
to what is commanded them; whereas ministers are obliged only by their
undertaking, and bound therefore to no more than that they have
undertaken: so that both they that teach the word of God and they that
administer the secular affairs of the Church are both ministers, but
they are ministers of different persons. For the pastors of the
Church, called "the ministers of the word,"* are ministers of
Christ, whose word it is: but the ministry of a deacon, which is
called "serving of tables,"*(2) is a service done to the church or
congregation: so that neither any one man nor the whole Church could
ever of their pastor say he was their minister; but of a deacon,
whether the charge he undertook were to serve tables or distribute
maintenance to the Christians when they lived in each city on a common
stock, or upon collections, as in the first times, or to take a care
of the house of prayer, or of the revenue, or other worldly business
of the Church, the whole congregation might properly call him their
minister.
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* Acts, 6. 4
*(2) Ibid., 6. 2
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For their employment as deacons was to serve the congregation,
though upon occasion they omitted not to preach the Gospel, and