Walter Alison Phillips

“ It was the transference to the territorial sovereigns of modern Europe of the theocratic character of the Christian heads of the Roman world-empire; with the result that for the reformed Churches the unit of church organization was no longer the diocese, or the group of dioceses, but the Christian state. Thus in England the bishops, while retaining their potestas ordinis in virtue of their consecration as successors of the apostles, came to be regarded not as representing their dioceses in the state, but the state in their dioceses. ”

“ Church, as established in the several states of Germany and in Austria, are not bishops in any canonical sense, though their jurisdictions are known as dioceses and they exercise many episcopal functions. They have no special powers of order, being presbyters, and their legal status is admittedly merely that of officials of the territorial sovereign in his capacity as head of the territorial church (see Superintendent) . The “bishops” of the Lutheran Church in Transylvania are equivalent to the superintendents.
Episcopacy in a stricter sense is the system of the Moravian Brethren (q.v.) ”

“ Forced on their dioceses by the royal Congé d’élire (q.v.) , and enthusiastic apostles of the High Church doctrine of non-resistance, the bishops were looked upon as no more than lieutenants of the crown; [4] and Episcopacy was ultimately resisted by Presbyterians and Independents as an expression and instrument of arbitrary government, “Prelacy” being confounded with “Popery” in a common condemnation. ”

“ They were never mere royal officials, but peers of parliament, holding their temporalities as baronies under the crown. ↑ During the crisis of the Reformation all the Swedish sees became vacant but two, and the bishops of these two soon left the kingdom. The episcopate, however, was preserved by Peter Magnusson, who, when residing as warden of the Swedish hospital of St Bridget in Rome, had been duly elected bishop of the see of Westeraes, and consecrated, c. 1524. No official record of his consecration can be discovered, but there is no sufficient reason to doubt the fact ”

“ Princes are “God’s lieutenants, God’s presidents, God’s officers, God’s commissioners, God’s judges ... God’s vicegerents” (“The II. part of the Sermon of Obedience,” ib. p. 64) . ↑ Juridically they were, of course, never this in the strict sense in which the term could be used of the Lutheran superintendents (see below) . ”