b. Second Authority and the Weighing of It

37. This is also proved by the following chapter [n.29, Gratian, Decretum p.1 d.95 ch.6; taken from Ps.Jerome On the Seven Orders of the Church ch.6], and it is founded on the word of Paul to Timothy [I Timothy 4.14], “Do not neglect the grace given to you by the imposition of the hands of the priest,” where he does not draw a distinction, “since priests are also called bishops, according to what is said to a bishop ‘Do not neglect the grace given to you     etc .’ and elsewhere [Acts 20.17, 28] ‘[Paul] to the elders: He who placed you bishops to rule his Church’.” These the words of Jerome.

38 Paul does not distinguish, therefore     , the priest from the bishop, because he does not say that confirmation was given by the bishop alone, but he speaks of the priesthood.

39. Nor too in Acts is a distinction of priests from the Apostles, who were bishops, read of.

40. And if this is true, then to give confirmation could have belonged to every priest from his office, just as also to a bishop, because there was not, from first institution, another rank in the Church.

41. However afterwards, because of necessity, priests were multiplied and episcopal power as to some things was drawn away from them, and to the greater priests alone, who are called bishops, were certain things reserved, and ‘to confirm’ was such an act.

42. If this is true, Gregory [n.16] was well able to give the priests subject to Bishop Januarius license to confirm, because in this he did not concede an unfitting power to them but revoked a prohibition previously imposed on them.

43. If against this you object [Gandulphus Bononiensis, Alexander of Hales, William of Melitona, Thomas Aquinas] that according to these views, since in the primitive Church others besides the Apostles are not read to have confirmed, if then any of the priests was a a bishop, or equal to them as to this act, then it was, of their office, owed to bishops alone - I reply that either none other than the Apostles were priests, because the Apostles were then able to suffice, or if others were priests they deferred to the Apostles in this act, because of the evident manifestation of the Holy Spirt that used to happen in the conferring of this sacrament, so that it might be received with greater devotion because of the excellence of the ministers, and might be received in greater reverence.