Hotwells, Clifton.
_Nolo Episcopari_ (Vol. iv., p. 346.).--_Bishop Jeremy Taylor_ seems to
ascribe the above oft-quoted words to the _Roman Pontifical_:--
"It is lawful to desire a Bishoprick; neither can the
unwillingness to accept it be, in a prudent account, adjudged the
aptest disposition to receive it (especially if done in
ceremony--(in Pontifical. Rom.)--just in the instant of their
entertainment of it, and possibly after a long ambition.)"--_Life
of Christ_, Ad Sect. IX. Part I. 2.; _Considerations upon the
Baptism of Jesus_, p. 96. Lond. 1702. Fol.
On more occasions than one I have hunted Roman Pontificals in vain, but
I may have been unfortunate in the editions to which I had access.
It cannot at all events have descended from remote antiquity, for
"episcopari" is a comparatively modern word.
St. Bernard uses it in his 272nd _Epistle_; but the Benedictine editors
speak of it as an "exotic."