under him exercise their several charges in virtue of his commission; wherein that which they do is no less de jure divino mediato , than that which the bishops do in virtue of the Pope’s ordination. All lawful power is of God, immediately in the supreme governor, and mediately in those that have authority under him: so that either he must grant every constable in the state to hold his office in the right of God; or he must not hold that any bishop holds his so, besides the Pope himself.
But this whole dispute, whether Christ left the jurisdiction to the Pope only, or to other bishops also, if considered out of those places where the Pope has the civil sovereignty, is a contention de lana caprina : for none of them, where they are not sovereigns, has any jurisdiction at all. For jurisdiction is the power of hearing and determining causes between man and man: and can belong to none but him that hath the power to prescribe the rules of right and wrong; that is, to make laws; and with the sword of justice to compel men to obey his decisions, pronounced either by himself or by the judges he ordaineth thereto; which none can lawfully do but the civil sovereign.
Therefore when he allegeth out of chapter 6 of Luke, that our Saviour called His disciples together, and chose twelve of them, which He named apostles, he proveth that He elected them (all, except Matthias, Paul, and Barnabas), and gave them power and command to preach, but not to judge of causes between man and man: for that is a power which He refused to take upon himself, saying, “Who made me a judge, or a divider, amongst you?” and in another place, “My kingdom is not of this world.” But he that hath not the power to hear and determine causes between man and man, cannot be said to have any jurisdiction at all. And yet this hinders not, but that our Saviour gave them power to preach and baptize in all parts of the world, supposing they were not by their own lawful sovereign forbidden: for to our own sovereigns Christ himself, and His apostles, have in sundry places expressly commanded us in all things to be obedient.