Not My Bishop

As for the order and decree of bishops superior to that of elders, that there is no divine ordinance nor institution for it, it is not only held by Calvin, Beza, Bucer, Martyr, Sadeel, Luther, Chemnitz, Gerhard, Balduin, the Magdeburgians, Musculus, Piscator, Hemmingius, Zanchius, Polanus, Junius, Paraeus, Fenner, Danaeus, Morney, Whittaker, Willet, Perkins, Cartwright, the Professors of Leyden, and the far greatest part of writers in reformed churches, but also by Jerome, who, upon Titus 1, and in his epistle to Evagrius, speaks so plainly, that the Archbishop of Spalato is driven to say, “in this sense we are abandoning Jerome, and we are not in agreement with him in these pronouncements”; also by Ambrose on 1 Tim. 3; Augustine in his Book of Questions out of both Testaments, Quest. 101; Chrysostom on 1 Tim. 3; Isidore (dist. 21, cap. 1); the Canon Law (dist. 93, cap. 24; dist. 95, cap. 5); Lombard (lib. 4, dist. 24). And after him, by many schoolmen, such as Aquinas, Alensis, Albert, Bonadventura, Richardus, and Dominic de Soto, all mentioned by the Archbishop of Spalato. Gerhard cites for the same judgment, Anselm, Sedulius, Primasius, Theophlact, Oecumenius, the Council of Basil, Arelatensis, Joh. Parisiensis, Erasmus, Medina, and Cassander, all which authors have grounded that which they say upon Scripture; for besides that Scripture makes no difference of order and degree between bishops and elders, it shows also that they are one and the same order. For in Ephesus and Crete, they who were made elders were likewise made bishops (Acts 20:17, 28; Titus 1:5, 7). And the apostle divides the whole ministry in the church of Philippi into two orders, bishops and deacons, but says nothing of a third order (1 Tim. 3). Wherefore it is manifest, that beside those two orders of elders and deacons, there is no other ecclesiastical order which has any divine institution, or necessary use in the church; and princes should do well to apply their power and authority to the extirpation and rooting out of popes, cardinals, patriarchs, primates, archbishops, bishops, suffragans, abbots, deans, vice-deans, priors, archdeacons, subdeacons, abbots, chancellors, chantors, subchantors, exorcists, monks, eremites, acolytes, and all the rabble of popish orders, which undo the church, and work mischief in the earth that can be either soon seen or shortly told (George Gillespie, A Dispute Against the English Popish Ceremonies, 313-315).