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

At the same time the wavering terminology of Irenaeus in the interchangeable use of the

words "bishop" and "presbyter" reminds us of Clement of Rome, and shows that the distinction of

the two orders was not yet fully fixed.

203

02

The same view of the episcopal succession as the preserver of apostolic tradition and guardian

of orthodox doctrine, we find also, though less frequently, in the earlier writings of Tertullian, with

this difference that he uniformly and clearly distinguishes bishops and presbyters, and thus proves

a more advanced state of the episcopal polity at his time (about 200).

204

03 But afterwards, in the

chiliastic and democratic cause of Montanism, he broke with the episcopal hierarchy, and presented

against it the antithesis that the church does not consist of bishops, and that the laity are also

priests.

205

04

§ 47. Cyprianic Episcopacy.

The old catholic episcopalianism reached its maturity in the middle of the third century in the

teaching and example of Cyprian, bishop and martyr of the church in North Africa. He represents

the claims of episcopacy in close connection with the idea of a special priesthood and sacrifice.

206

05

He is the typical high-churchman of the ante-Nicene age. He vigorously put into practice what he

honestly believed. He had a good opportunity to assert his authority in the controversy about the

lapsed during the Decian persecution, in the schism of Felicissimus, and in the controversy on

heretical baptism.

Cyprian considers the bishops as the bearers of the Holy Spirit, who passed from Christ to

the apostles, from them by ordination to the bishops, propagates himself in an unbroken line of

succession, and gives efficacy to all religious exercises. Hence they are also the pillars of the unity

of the church; nay, in a certain sense they are the church itself. "The bishop," says he, "is in the

church, and the church in the bishop, and if any one is not with the bishop he is not in the

J. H. Newman, over to the church of Rome. The New Testament is the only safe guide and ultimate standard in all matters of

faith and discipline. The teaching of Irenaeus on episcopacy is well set forth by Lightfoot (l.c. p. 237): Irenaeus followed Ignatius

after an interval of about two generations. With the altered circumstances of the Church, the aspect of the episcopal office has

also undergone a change. The religious atmosphere is now charged with heretical speculations of all kinds. Amidst the competition

of rival teachers. all eagerly bidding for support, the perplexed believer asks for some decisive test by which he may try the

claims of disputants. To this question Irenaeeus supplies an answer. ’If you wish,’ he argues, ’to ascertain the doctrine of the

Apostles, apply to the Church of the Apostles.’ In the succession of bishops tracing their descent from the primitive age and

appointed by the Apostles themselves, you have a guarantee for the transmission of the pure faith, which no isolated, upstart,

self-constituted teacher can furnish. There is the Church of Rome for instance, whose episcopal pedigree is perfect in all its links,

and whose earliest bishops, Linus and Clement, associated with the Apostles themselves: there is the Church of Smyrna again,

whose bishop Polycarp, the disciple of St. John, died only the other day. Thus the episcopate is regarded now not so much as

the centre of ecclesiastical unity, but rather as the depositary of apostolic tradition."

203

Comp. Adv. Haer.III. 2, §2; IV. 26; V. 20; and his letter to Victor of Rome in Eusebius, H E. V. 24.

204

De Praescr. HaeR.C. 32, 36

205

. Non ecclesia numerus episcoporum. De Pudic. c. 21. Comp. § 42, p. 128.

206

"As Cyprian crowned the edifice of episcopal power, so also was he the first to put forward without relief or disguise the

sacerdotal assumptions; and so uncompromising was the tone in which he asserted them, that nothing was left to his successors

but to enforce his principles and reiterate his language." Lightfoot l. c. p. 257. "If with Ignatius the bishop is the centre of Christian

unity, if with Irenaeus he is the depository of apostolic tradition, with Cyprian he is the absolute viceregerent of Christ in thing

spiritual."Ibid. p. 238.

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

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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church."

207

06

 And this is the same with him as to say, he is no Christian. Cyprian is thoroughly

imbued with the idea of the solidary unity of the episcopate,—the many bishops exercising only

one office in solidum, each within his diocese, and each at the same time representing in himself

the whole office.

208

07

But with all this, the bishop still appears in Cyprian in the closest connexion with the

presbyters. He undertook no important matter without their advice. The fourth general council, at

Carthage, a.d. 398, even declared the sentence of a bishop, without the concurrence of the lower

clergy, void, and decreed that in the ordination of a presbyter, all the presbyters, with the bishop,

should lay their hands on the candidate.

209

08

The ordination of a bishop was performed by the neighboring bishops, requiring at least

three in number. In Egypt, however, so long as there was but one bishop there, presbyters must

have performed the consecration, which Eutychius

210

09

 and Hilary the Deacon

211

10

 expressly assert

was the case.

§ 48. The Pseudo-Clementine Episcopacy.

Besides this orthodox or catholic formation of the episcopate, the kindred monarchical hierarchy

of the Ebionitic sect deserves attention, as it meets us in the pseudo-Clementine Homilies.

Chronologically this falls in the middle of the second century, between Ignatius and Irenaeus, and

forms a sort of transition from the former to the latter; though it cannot exactly be said to have

influenced the Catholic church. It is rather a heretical counterpart of the orthodox episcopate. The

organization which consolidated the Catholic church answered the same purpose for a sect. The

author of the pseudo-Clementine, like Ignatius, represents the bishop as the vicar of Christ,

212

11

and at the same time, according to the view of Irenaeus, as the vicar and successor of the

apostles;

213

12 but outstrips both in his high hierarchical expressions, such as 

                            

, and in

his idea of the primacy, or of a universal church monarchy, which he finds, however, not as Irenaeus

suggests and Cyprian more distinctly states, in Peter and the Roman see, but, agreeably to his

Judaistic turn, in James of, Jerusalem, the "bishop of bishops."

214

13

The Manichaeans had likewise a hierarchical organization (as the Mormons in modern

times).

207

Epist. lxvi. 3. Comp. Ep. lv. 20: Christianus non est, qui in Christi ecclesia non est

208

De Unit. Eccl. c. 5:Episcopatus unus est, cujus a singulis in solidum pars tenetur. Comp.Ep. lv. 20: Quum sit a Christo una

ecclesia per totum mundum in multa membra divisa, item episcopatus unus episcoporum multorum concordi numerositate

diffusus.

209

Can. 3:Presbyter quum ordinatur, episcopo eum benedicente et manum super caput ejus tenente, etiam omnes presbyteri,

qui praesentes sunt, manus suas juxta manum episcopi super caput illius teneant.

210

Eutychii Patriarchae Alexandr. Annal. interpr. Pocockio (Oxon. 1658, I. p. 331). See the passage quoted, p. 141.

211

Or Ambrosiaster, Ad Eph. iv. 11.

212

Hom. iii. 60, 62, 66, 70. Ep. Clem. ad Jac. 17. Comp. Recogn. iii. 66.

213

Hom. xi. 36; Recogn. iii. 66; vi. 15.

214

Ἐπίσκοπος ἐπισκόπων , Hom. xi. 35; Recogn. iv. 35.

95

Philip Schaff

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

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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