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Succession Uninterrupted

Charles Buck Theological Dictionary

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A term made use of by the Romanists, and others, in reference to those bishops who are supposed to have derived their authority from the apostles, and so communicated that authority to others in a line, or succession. It is a very precarious and uncomfortable foundation for Christian hope (says Dr. Doddridge) which is laid in the doctrine of an uninterrupted succession of bishops, and which makes the validity of the administration of Christian ministers depend upon such a succession, since there is so great a darkness upon many periods of ecclesiastical history, insomuch that it is not agreed who were the seven first bishops of the church of Rome, though that church was so celebrated; and Eusebius himself, from whom the greatest patrons of this doctrine have made their catalogues, expressly owns that it is no easy matter to tell who succeeded the apostles in the government of the churches, excepting such as may be collected from St. Paul's own words. (

See EPISCOPACY.) Contested elections, in almost all considerable cities, make it very dubious which were the true bishops; and decrees of councils, rendering all those ordinations null where any sinoniacal contract, was the foundation of them, makes it impossible to prove that there is now upon earth any one person who is a legal successor of the apostles; at least according to the principles of the Romish church. Consequently, whatever system is built on this doctrine must be very precarious. Howe's Episcopacy, p. 170, 183; Doddridge's Lec. lec. 197; Chandler's Sermons against Popery p. 34-37; Pierce's Sermons, pref. and article ORDINATION.