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.
94
Philip Schaff
History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene
Christianity. A.D. 100-325.
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.