favoured the case of the new Bishops. This MS. was published by Hody, under the following title: "The unreasonableness of a separation from the new Bishops: or a treatise out of Ecclesiastical history, shewing that although a Bishop was originally deprived, neither he nor the Church ever made a separation if the successor was not an heretic. Translated out of an ancient MS. in the Public Library at Oxford, 4to, 1691." In this work, therefore, the aim is to shew that a separation from the Church could not lawfully be made by the deprived Bishops, unless the new Bishops were guilty of heresy. Hody, however, omitted some of the Canons: and the author of the preceding work printed the omissions. He contends that the suppressed Canons favour the old Bishops, and not the new. He charges Hody with "Shamming the world with part of the MS. for the whole." Hody had said that there was a "Singular Providence in the discovery at that juncture: and the author hopes that the Canons, which he publishes, "may have as good a title to that singular Providence."[1] These Canons were written in the same hand with the previous portion of the MS., and the author of "The Unity of Priesthood" states, that Hody, as it was alleged, had declined to print them, on the ground that they did not appear to have been written by the same author. It certainly was disin-
- ↑ In the preface Hody says, "The Greek MS. from which this treatise is translated, is in that part of the Public Library at Oxton that is called the Baroccian. It is very likely that this is the only copy of this book now remaining in the world. And that it should be preserved till our times and yet hitherto be overlooked: and at this very juncture be taken notice of, and so opportunely brought to light, seems to be more than a fortuitous hit: it appears to have something of τὸ Θεῖον and a singular Providence in it."
