Bishop Carleton's
Defence of Episcopacy
at the Synod of Dort.
George Carleton (1559-1628) entered Saint Edmond's Hall, Oxford in 1576; became fellow of Merton College, 1580; took his Master of Arts in 1585. He was vicar of Mayfield, Sussex from 1589 to 1605; took a Doctor of Divinity in 1613; and became bishop of Llandaff in 1618. He represented the Church of England at the synod at Dort 1618-1619 after which he became bishop of Chichester in 1619. He published complementary verses, theological tracts, and a life of Bernard Gilpin.(1)
"When we were to yield our consent to the Belgic Confession at Dort, I made open protestation in the synod, that whereas in the Confession there was inserted a strange conceit of the parity of ministers to be instituted by Christ, I declared our dissent utterly in that point."
"I showed, that by Christ a parity wa never instituted in the Church: that the authority of the twelve apostles, as also seventy disciples: that the authority of the twelve was above other; that the Church preserved this order left by our Saviour. And therefore, when the extraordinary power of the Apostles ceased, yet this ordinary authority continued in bishops, who succeeded them, who were by the Apostles left in the government of the Church, to ordain ministers, and to see that they who were so ordained should preach no other doctrine: that in an inferior degree the ministers, who were governed by bishops, succeeded the seventy disciples; that this order hath been maintained in the Church from the times of the Apostles."
"And herein I appealed to the judgment of antiquity, and to the judgment of any learned man now living; and craved herein to be satisfied, if any man of learning could speak to the contrary. My lord of Salisbury is my witness, and so are all the rest of our company, who spake also in the cause."(2)
He also added that in a private discussion with some of the divines of the Synod of Dort he told them "The cause of all their troubles, was because they had no bishops amongst them, who by their authority might repress turbulent spirits that broached novelty, every man having liberty to speak or write what they list: and that as long as there were no ecclesiastical men in authority to repress and censure such contentious spirits, their Church could never be without trouble."(3)
To this their answer was, "That they had a great honour for the good order and discipline of the Church of England, and heartily wished they could establish themselves upon this model: but they had no prospect of such a happiness; and since civil government had made their desires impractical, they hoped God would be merciful to them ."(4)
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Notes.
[Back](1) The Concise Dictionary of
National Biography, Oxford 1930, p.204 (full edition vol. ix, p.
90).
[Back](2) An Ecclesiastical History of
Great Britain by Jeremy Collier, London, 1852, Vol. VII, p. 413.
[Back](3) ibid. p. 413.
[Back](4) ibid. p. 413, 414.