How is it that precious stones are hard to find, fertile land rare, bad horses everywhere, and good ones bred only in rich stables; but that you can find a bishop anywhere, totally untrained, but all ready-made in dignity
Gregory of Nazianzus, Concerning himself and the bishops (381), 389-92
tr. D.M. Meehan,, Three poems (1986), 61
A reminder that wrangling over appointment to the episcopate is not a modern phenomenon
