Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

Of the ex

Minor and

of dioceses contained therein.

verted by St. Thomas the Apostle; and the Iberians and other nations lying upon the Caspian Sea, which Ruffin 36 says were converted first by a captive woman, in the time of Constantine. Ancient history affords us but slender accounts of the original of these Churches, and less of the constitution and settlement of them. So that, taking our leave of these far distant regions, we will come next to a part of the world which is better known, which is the patriarchate of Constantinople, under which were anciently comprehended all the provinces of Thrace and Asia Minor, except Isauria and Cilicia, which always belonged to the patriarch of Antioch. I shall first speak of Asia Minor, and then proceed to the European provinces, taking each country as they lie in their natural order.

CHAP. III.

A continuation of this account of the provinces of Asia

Minor.

1. To understand the state of diocesan churches in Asia tent of Asia Minor, it will be proper, before we descend to particulars, to the number examine the extent of the country in gross, and see how many dioceses are to be found in the whole: for by this we may make an estimate of them in general, allowing each diocese its proportion, upon an equal distribution of the country into so many parts as there were dioceses in it. Not that they were really so equally divided; for, in summing up the particulars, we shall find here were some of the largest and some of the smallest dioceses in the world. But we may conceive them as equal, in order to make a division of the whole country at once among them.

Now Dr. Heylin, in his Geography 37, reckons the length of Asia Minor, from the Hellespont to the river Euphrates, to be

36 L. 1. [al. 10.] c. 10. (p. 226 a. 5.) Per idem tempus Iberorum gens, quæ sub axe Pontico jacet, verbi Dei fœdera et fidem futuri susceperat regni. Sed hujus tanti boni præstitit causam mulier quædam captiva, quæ apud eos reperta, cum fidelem et sobriam satis ac pudicam duceret vitam, totisque diebus et noctibus obsecrationes Deo pervi

giles exhiberet, in admiratione esse ipsa rei novitas barbaris cœpit, et quid hoc sibi velit curiosius perquirebant. Illa, ut res erat, simpliciter Christum se Deum hoc ritu colere fatebatur, &c.

37 Cosmograph. b. 3. (p. 3.) So having cleared our way in regard of the name, &c.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

630 miles, and the breadth, from Sinus Issicus in Cilicia, to [Trapezus, or] Trebizond in Pontus, to be 210 miles. The ancient geographers, Strabo 38 and Pliny 39, make it almost 200 miles more in length. But then their accounts are taken from some ancient Periplus, or Sea-Voyage, which never proceeds in a direct line, but takes in the bendings and windings of the sea, which may easily stretch from 600 to 800 miles: so that the accounts may be the same, when allowance is made for the excesses of one way of measuring above the other. As to the breadth, Pliny's account is rather less: for he 40 makes it but barely 200 miles from Sinus Issicus to the Euxine sea. But then he says, this was the narrowest part of it, where the two seas almost made it a peninsula. And it is certain in other parts it was much broader: for Strabo 41 reckons the breadth of Cappadocia only, from Pontus to Mount Taurus, 1800 stadia, which is above 200 miles: and yet Casaubon 42 supposes, that by Pontus he does not mean the Pontus Euxinus, but the province of Pontus, which was to be added to the breadth of Asia, on one side of Cappadocia, as Cilicia was on the other. So that we can hardly suppose the breadth of Asia, taking one part with another, to be less than 300 miles. Now this was

38 L. 12. pp. 547, 548. (t. 2. p. 824 C. 12.) Οἱ σύμπαντες ἀπὸ τοῦ ἱεροῦ μέχρι Φάσιδος περὶ ὀκτακισχιλίους σταδίους εἰσὶν, ἢ μικρῷ πλείους ἢ ἐλάττους.

[Hæc 8 millia stadiorum ita colliguntur ex Strabonis descriptione: A Fano Sinopen usque, stad. 3500 A Sinope Amisum, stad... 900 Inde Trapezuntem, stad... 2200 Trapezunte ad Phasin, stad. 1400

Summa 8000

Grischov.] 39 L. 6. c. 2. (p. 82. 18.) Mons Cytorus a Tio 63. m. pass.. Promoпtorium Carambis vasto excursu, abest a Ponti ostio 315. m. pass. vel, ut aliis placuit, 350. m. Tantumdem a Cimmerio, aut ut aliqui maluere 312. M. D. Fuit et oppidum eodem nomine, et aliud inde Armene, nunc est, colonia Sinope, a Cytoro 164. m. ... Amisum liberum, a Sinope 130. m. passuum.

40 L.6. c. 2. (ibid. 24.) Ejusdemque nominis sinus tanti recessus, ut Asiam pene insulam faciat 200. m. passuum haud amplius per continentem ad Issicum Cilicia Sinum.

41 L. 12. p. 539. (t. 2. p. 813 d. 2.) Μέγεθος δὲ τῆς χώρας κατὰ πλάτος μὲν, τὸ ἀπὸ τοῦ Πόντου πρὸς τὸν Ταῦρον, ὅσον χίλιοι καὶ ὀκτακόσιοι στάδιοι.

42 In loc. supr. citat. (ibid. 3.) Falsum hoc: nam libro secundo, p. 73, docuit nos, Bagadoniam, partem Cappadociæ inter Argæum et Taurum, distare a Ponto stadia 3000. Putabam legendum, őσov dioxido Kai OKT. σTad. Verum auctor Epitomes retinet vulgatam lectionem: quam si probamus, non erunt illa verba άñò Пóvтоυ, de ipso Ponto et mari Euxino intelligenda, sed de regione Ponto, quam separant a reliqua Cappadocia montes Tauro paralleli. Sic non erit discedendum a vulgata lectione.

44

divided by the Romans into two large civil dioceses, the Asiatic and the Pontic, each of which had ten or eleven provinces in them, and every province several cities and episcopal dioceses, beside those of Isauria and Cilicia, which are reckoned to the Oriental diocese, and were under the patriarch of Antioch. Christophorson, in his translation of Theodoret 43, makes a strange mistake concerning these bishoprics; for, whereas Theodoret says, that Asia, or the Asiatic diocese, was vπò ëvdekа åрxóvтwr, under eleven civil prefects, he translates it undecim antistites; as if there had been but eleven bishops in all the Asiatic diocese, and only as many in the Pontic diocese; because Theodoret says, it had loapílμovs yovμévovs, the same ισαρίθμους number of governors: whereas Theodoret is not speaking of ecclesiastical governors, but civil governors of provinces, whereof there was the number Theodoret speaks of in each of those dioceses. But bishoprics were abundantly more numerous; for some single provinces had above forty; and, in the whole number, they were, according to Carolus à Sancto Paulo's reckoning, 388, viz. in Asia, 42; Hellespont, 19; Phrygia Pacatiana Prima, 29; Pacatiana Altera, 5; Phrygia Salutaris, 20; Lydia, 24; Caria, 25; Lycia, 28; Pamphylia Prima, 12; Pamphylia Secunda, 24; Pisidia, 19; Lycaonia, 19; Cappadocia Prima, 6; Cappadocia Secunda, 6; Cappadocia Tertia, 5; Armenia Prima, 5; Armenia Secunda, 10; Galatia Prima, 7; Galatia Secunda, 4; Pontus Polemoniacus, 6; Hellenopontus, 6; Paphlagonia, 5; Honorias, 5; Bithynia Prima, 14; Bithynia Secunda, 4; Cilicia Prima, 7; Cilicia Secunda, 9; Isauria, 23. In the latter Notitia, which the reader will find at the end of this Book, the number is a little increased to 403; for though some provinces decreased, yet others increased in their numbers: so that, in the eighth century, we find fifteen dioceses more than were in former ages, which is no great alteration in such a multitude, considering what great additions have been made in some other countries in comparison of

43 [Colon. Agripp. 1570. (p. 716.) Et cuncta etiam Asiæ, quæ undecim habet antistites. ED.]

44 L. 5. c. 28. (v. 3. p. 230. 16.) Καὶ ταύτην ἐποιεῖτο τὴν προμήθειαν, οὐ μόνης ἐκείνης τῆς πόλεως, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς Θρᾴκης ἁπάσης· εἰς ἐξ δὲ αὕτη

ήγεμονίας διῄρηται· καὶ τῆς ̓Ασίας ὅλης, ὑπὸ ἕνδεκα δὲ καὶ αὕτη ἀρχόν τῶν, ἰθύνεται· καὶ μέντοι καὶ τὴν Ποντικὴν τούτοις κατεκόσμει τοῖς νόμοις ισαρίθμους δὲ καὶ αὕτη ἔχει τῆς ̓Ασίας τοὺς ἡγουμένους.

« PoprzedniaDalej »