, if he be of a different
opinion, from the right of Communion. _For no one of us sets himself up to
be a Bishop of Bishops, or by fear of his tyranny compels his colleagues to
the necessity of obedience, since every Bishop according to his recognised
liberty and power possesses a free choice, and can no more be judged by
another than he himself can judge another. But let us all await the
judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ, who singly and alone has the power both
of setting us up in the government of His Church, and of judging our
proceedings._"[21] The Bishops delivered their judgments _seriatim_,
finishing with St. Cyprian, and unanimously ratified what they had agreed
upon before, that heretics should be admitted into the Church by baptism,
and not merely by the imposition of hands: and thus an African Council of
the third century treated a judgment of the Pope, and his sentence of
excommunication until they altered their practice.

But these last words of St. Cyprian are so remarkable in themselves, and
have such a bearing on the present Papal claims, that they deserve further
notice. Now, lest we should imagine that St. Cyprian was hurried away by
the ardour of his defence of a favourite doctrine, and his sense of the
Pope's severity, into unjustifiable expressions concerning the rights of
Bishops, it so happens that we possess the comment of the greatest of the
Fathers on these very words. St. Augustin, writing 140 years after, and
fully agreeing with the judgment of Pope Stephen, as had the whole Church
finally, quotes the whole passage. "'It remains for us each to deliver our
sentiments on this matter, judging no one, nor removing any one, if he be
of a different opinion, from the right of communion.'[22] There he not only
permits me without loss of communion further to seek the truth, but even to
be of a different judgment. 'For no one of us,' saith he, 'sets himself up
to be a Bishop of Bishops, or by fear of his tyranny compels his colleagues
to the necessity of obedience.' What can be more gentle? What more humble?
Certainly no authority deters us from seeking what is the truth: 'since,'
he says, 'every Bishop according to his recognised liberty and power
possesses a free choice, and can no more be judged by another than he
himself can judge another:' certainly, I imagine, in those questions which
have not yet been thoroughly and completely settled. For he knew how great
and mysterious a sacrament the whole Chu