History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A. D. 100-325

(10) Finally, the philosophical consideration, that the universal and uncontested spread of

the episcopate in the second century cannot be satisfactorily explained without the presumption of

at least the indirect sanction of the apostles. By the same argument the observance of Sunday and

infant baptism are usually traced to apostolic origin. But it is not quite conclusive, since most of

the apostles died before the destruction of Jerusalem. It could only apply to John, who was the

living centre of the church in Asia Minor to the close of the first century.

175

74

II. The theory of the post-apostolic origin of the episcopate as a separate office or order,

and its rise out of the presidency of the original congregational presbyterate, by way of human,

though natural and necessary, development, is supported by the following facts:

(1) The undeniable identity of presbyters and bishops in the New Testament,

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75

 conceded

even by the best interpreters among the church fathers, by Jerome, Chrysostom, and Theodoret,

and by the best scholars of recent times.

(2) Later, at the close of the first and even in the second century, the two terms are still used

in like manner for the same office. The Roman bishop Clement, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians

says, that the apostles, in the newly-founded churches, appointed the first fruits of the faith, i.e.,

the first converts, "bishops and deacons."

177

76 He here omits the 

           

, as Paul does in Phil. 1:1,

for the simple reason that they are in his view identical with 

         

; while conversely, in c. 57, he

enjoins subjection to presbyters, without mentioning bishops.

178

77

 The Didache mentions bishops

and deacons, but no presbyters.

179

78 Clement of Alexandria distinguishes, it is true, the deaconate,

the presbyterate, and the episcopate; but he supposes only a two-fold official character, that of

presbyters, and that of deacons—a view which found advocates so late as the middle ages, even in

pope Urban II., a.d. 1091. Lastly, Irenaeus, towards the close of the second century, though himself

a bishop, makes only a relative difference between episcopi and presbyteri; speaks of successions

of the one in the same sense as of the other; terms the office of the latter episcopatus; and calls the

bishops of Rome "presbyters".

180

79

 Sometimes, it is true, he appears to use the term "presbyters"

in a more general sense, for the old men, the fathers.

181

80

 But in any case his language shows that

the distinction between the two offices was at that time still relative and indefinite.

175

Hence Rothe traces the institution to John. And Bishop Lightfoot (Philippians, p. 204) is inclined to this view: "Asia Minor

was the nurse, if not the mother of episcopacy in the Gentile churches. So important an institution, developed in a Christian

community, of which St. John was the living centre and guide, could hardly, have grown up without his sanction: and early

tradition very distinctly connects his name with the appointment of bishops in these parts." He repeats the same view more

confidently in his Ignat. and Polyc., I. 377.

176

Acts 20:17, 28; Phil. 1:1; Tit. 1:5; 1 Tim. 3:1-7, 8-13; 1 Pet. 5:1, 2. Comp. the author’s Hist. of the Apost. Ch. §§ 132, 133,

pp. 522-531 (N. York ed.); and vol. I. p. 492 sqq.

177

C. 42. Comp. the Commentary of Lightfoot. "It is impossible that he should have omitted the presbyters, more especially

as his one object is to defend their authority, which had been assailed. The words 

ἐπίσκοπὸς and πρεσβύτερος therefore are

synonymes in Clement, as they are in the apostolic writers. In Ignatius and Polycarp they first appear as distinct titles."

178

The 

ἡγούμενοι, c. 1, also, and the προηγούμενοι, c. 21, are not bishops, but congregational officers collectively, as in Heb.

13:7, 17, 24.

179

Ch. 15: 

Χειροτονήσατε ἑαυτοῖς ἐπισκόπους καὶ διακόνους. See Schaff’s monograph on the Didache, p. 211 sq

180

Adv. Haer. iii. 2, §5. Comp. also the letter of Irenaeus to the Roman bishop Victor in Euseb., v. 24.

181

Comp. 2 Jno. 1. and 1.

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Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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(3) The express testimony of the learned Jerome, that the churches originally, before divisions

arose through the instigation of Satan, were governed by the common council of the presbyters,

and not till a later period was one of the pres-byters placed at the head, to watch over the church

and suppress schisms.

182

81

 He traces the difference of the office simply to "ecclesiastical" custom

as distinct from divine institution.

183

82

(4) The custom of the church of Alexandria, where, from the evangelist Mark down to the

middle of the third century, the twelve presbyters elected one of their number president, and called

him bishop. This fact rests on the authority of Jerome,

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83

 and is confirmed independently by the

Annals of the Alexandrian patriarch, Eutychius, of the tenth century.

185

84 The latter states that Mark

instituted in that city a patriarch (this is an anachronism) and twelve presbyters, who should fill the

vacant patriarchate by electing and ordaining to that office one of their number and then electing

a new presbyter, so as always to retain the number twelve. He relates, moreover, that down to the

time of Demetrius, at the end of the second century, there was no bishop in Egypt besides the one

at Alexandria; consequently there could have been no episcopal ordination except by going out of

the province.

III. Conclusion. The only satisfactory conclusion from these various facts and traditions

seems to be, that the episcopate proceeded, both in the descending and ascending scale, from the

apostolate and the original presbyterate conjointly, as a contraction of the former and an expansion

of the latter, without either express concert or general regulation of the apostles, neither of which,

at least, can be historically proved. It arose, instinctively, as it were, in that obscure and critical

transition period between the end of the first and the middle of the second century. It was not a

sudden creation, much less the invention of a single mind. It grew, in part, out of the general demand

for a continuation of, or substitute for, the apostolic church government, and this, so far as it was

transmissible at all, very naturally passed first to the most eminent disciples and fellow-laborers of

the apostles, to Mark, Luke, Timothy, Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, Papias, which accounts for the

fact that tradition makes them all bishops in the prominent sense of the term. It was further

occasioned by the need of a unity in the presbyterial government of congregations, which, in the

nature of the case and according to the analogy of the Jewish 

             

,

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85

 required a head or president.

182

Ad Titum i. 7. Comp. Epist. 83 and 85.

183

Ad Tit. i. 7: "Sicut ergo presbyteri sciunt, see ex ecclesiae consuetudine ei, qui sibi praepositus fuerit, esse subjectos, ita

episcopi noverint, se magis consuetudine quam dispositionis Dominicae veritate presbyteris esse majores et in commune debere

ecclesiam regere." The Roman deacon Hilary (Ambrosiaster) says, ad 1 Tim. 3:10:"Hic enim episcopus est, qui inter presbyteros

primus est." Comp. also Chrysostom Hom. xi. in Epist, 1 ad Tim. 38.

184

Epist. ad Evangelum (Opp. iv. p. 802, ed. Martinay): Alexandriae a Marco evangelista usque ad Heraclam et Dionysium

episcopos presbyteri semper unum ex se electum in excelsiori gradu collocatum episcopum nominabant, quomodo si exercitus

imperatorem faciat, aut diaconi elegant de se, quem industrium noverint et archidiaconum vocent.

185

Ed. Oxon. 1658, p. 331: "Constituit evangelista Marcus una cum Hakania patriarcha duodecim presbyteros, qui nempe cum

patriarcha manerent, adeo ut cum vacaret patriachatus, unum e duodecim presbyteris eligerent, cnius capiti reliqui undecim

manus imponentes ipsi benedicerent et patriarcham crearent, deinde virum aliquem insignem eligerent, quem secum presbyterum

constituerent,loco ejus, qui factus est patriarcha, ut ita semper exstarent duodecim. Neque desiit Alexandriae institutum hoc de

presbyteris, ut scilcet patriarchas crearent ex presbyteris duodecim, usque ad tempera Alexandri patriarchae Alexandriae. Is

autem vetuit, ne deinceps patriarcham presbyteri crearent. Et decrervit, ut mortuo patriarcha convenient episcopi, qui patriarcham

ordinarent."

186

Mark 5:35, 36, 38; Luke 8:41-49; Acts 18:8-17.

89

Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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