Section 306
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 275 restrain me, and was much in dread lest I should be carried away by this sink of iniquity, saying that my mind would be corrupted, in which he spoke the truth, as I thought, I was confirmed in my purpose by a vision sent me from heaven, when a voice came to me and commanded me in words as follows : Read all that thou takest in hand, for thou art qualified to correct and prove all, and this very thing has been the cause of thy faith in Christ from the beginning.' I received the vision, as coinciding with the apostolic declaration, which says to the more competent, Be ye skilful moneychangers/ " Then after some remarks on all the heresies, he adds : " This rule and form I have received from our father* (naTtcn) the bless ed Heraclas, that those who come from the heretics, although they had apostatized from the church, or rather that had not apos tatized, but seemed to have communion with the brethren, but were reported as frequenting some one of those who taught strange doctrines, after they had been expelled from the church were not admitted again by him, though they entreated much, until they had publicly declared all that they had heard from their adversaries ; and then indeed he admitted them to commune, with out deeming another baptism necessary for them. For they had already before received the Holy Spiritf from him." But after agitating the question again considerably, he adds : " I have also understood that this practice was introduced not only by those of Africa, but also long since, during the times of those bishops before us, in the most populous churches, the same thing was decreed by the councils of the brethren at Iconium and Synada." To overturn their determinations, and to drive them into contention and strife, I cannot endure. For thou shalt not remove, as it is The word *™s here used, and applied by Dionysius to his predecessor at Alexandria was, as we see in this instance, applied to the more aged and venerable prelates. We thus see the origin of the word pope, Latin papa, German pabst. This word is no doubt to be traced to the language of nature, as forming the first syllables that the infant lisps. It is explained by a scholiast on Juvenal, Senex veneratione dignus, pater. See Juv. Sat. vi. 632. f This phrase was applied where the bishop admitted the heretics by the imposi tion of hands, 26