21.
And, indeed, among our predecessors, some of the bishops here in our province thought that peace was not to be granted to adulterers, and wholly closed the gate of repentance against adultery. Still they did not withdraw from the assembly of their co-bishops, nor break the unity of the Catholic Church 1 by the persistency of their severity or censure; so that, because by some peace was granted to adulterers, he who did not grant it should be separated from the Church. While the bond of concord remains, and the undivided sacrament of the Catholic Church endures, every bishop disposes and directs his own acts, and will have to give an account of his purposes to the Lord. 2
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[The unity of the Catholic Church, in his view, consists in this unity of co-bishops in one episcopate, with which every Christian should be in communion through his own bishop.] ↩
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[The independence of bishops, and their intercommunion as one episcopate, is his theory of the undivided sacrament of Catholicity.] ↩
