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THE CHEISTIAN MINISTRY
THE CHKISTIAN MINISTKY
BY THE LATE
J. B. LIGHTFOOT, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D..
LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM.
PUBLISHED BY THE TRUSTEES OF THE LIGHTFOOT FUND
Slontion MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1901
[All Rights reserved.]
L53
C c o.' c
Cambritjge :
PBINTED BY J. AND C. F. CLAY, AT THR UNIVERSITY PRESS.
PREFACE.
~rN response to frequent applications from many quarters the Trustees of the Lightfoot Fund have decided to issue in a separate form the Essay on the Christian Ministry as it was left by Bishop Lightfoot.
The Essay originally appeared in the Com- mentary on the Epistle to the Philippians and afterwards in the volume of Dissertations on the Apostolic Age.
The Trustees have appended to it (A) extracts explanatory of the Essay selected for this purpose by the Bishop himself, (B) an extract bearing on the subject from his Preface to the Didache, (C) a passage also by the Bishop explaining his change of opinion respecting the Ignatian question.
VI PKEFACE.
The readers of the foregoing lines will have a chastened interest in learning that they are among the last which passed under Bishop Westcott's eye ; and that among his latest judgments was one of entire approval of the appearance of this Essay in its present form.
H. W. W.
Durham,
July 29, 1901.
CONTENTS.
PAGES
The Christian Ministry 1 — 135
Explanatory Extracts 136 — 143
Extract from Preface to the Didache . . 144
The Ignatian question . . . .. . 145 — 148
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
THE kingdom of Christ, not being a kingdom of Ideal this world, is not limited by the restrictions christian which fetter other societies, political or religious, ^'^^i'*'^- It is in the fullest sense free, comprehensive, uni- versal. It displays this character, not only in the acceptance of all comers who seek admission, irre- spective of race or caste or sex, but also in the instruction and treatment of those who are already its members. It has no sacred days or seasons, no special sanctuaries, because every time and every place alike are holy. Above all it has no sacerdotal system. It interposes no sacrificial tribe or class between God and man, by whose intervention alone God is reconciled and man forgiven. Each indi- vidual member holds personal communion with the Divine Head. To Him immediately he is responsible, and from Him directly he obtains pardon and draws strength.
It is most important that we should keep this Necessaiy ideal definitely in view, and I have therefore stated ^"* ^^ ^*' it as broadly as possible. Yet the broad statement, if allowed to stand alone, would suggest a false impression, or at least would convey only a half truth. L. 1
"5 '^' * * '
3c/;t r/ V.^Z ♦ '• THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
? r* :X? -,« ':.,:;•■'
It must be evident that no society of men could hold together without officers, without rules, without institutions of any kind; and the Church of Christ is not exempt from this universal law. The con- ception in short is strictly an ideal, which we must The idea ever hold before our eyes, which should inspire and r^aliza^ interpret ecclesiastical polity, but which neverthe- tion. less cannot supersede the necessary wants of human
society, and, if crudely and hastily applied, will lead only to signal failure. As appointed days and set places are indispensable to her efficiency, so also the Church could not fulfil the purposes for which she exists, without rulers and teachers, without a ministry of reconciliation, in short, without an order of men who may in some sense be designated a priesthood. In this respect the ethics of Christianity present an analogy to the politics. Here also the ideal con- ception and the actual realization are incommensurate and in a manner contradictory. The Gospel is con- trasted with the Law, as the spirit with the letter. Its ethical principle is not a code of positive ordi- nances, but conformity to a perfect exemplar, in- corporation into a divine life. The distinction is most important and eminently fertile in practical results. Yet no man would dare to live without laying down more or less definite rules for his own guidance, without yielding obedience to law in som-e sense ; and those who discard or attempt to discard all such aids are often farthest from the attainment of Christian perfection.
This qualification is introduced here to deprecate any misunderstanding to which the opening state- ment, if left without compensation, would fairly be
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 3
exposed. It will be time to enquire hereafter in
what sense the Christian ministry may or may not
be called a priesthood. But in attempting to in- Special
vestigate the historical development of this divine ^g^^^^^ ^^'
institution, no better starting-point suggested itself Christian-
than the characteristic distinction of Christianity, as
declared occasionally by the direct language but
more frequently by the eloquent silence of the
apostolic writings.
For in this respect Christianity stands apart from
all the older religions of the world. So far at least,
the Mosaic dispensation did not differ from the
religions of Egypt or Asia or Greece. Yet the sacer- The Jew-
dotal system of the Old Testament possessed one hooJ'^^^^*"
important characteristic, which separated it from
heathen priesthoods and which deserves especial
notice. The priestly tribe held this peculiar relation
to God only as the representatives of the whole nation.
As delegates of the people, they offered sacrifice and
made atonement. The whole community is regarded
as ' a kingdom of priests,' 'a holy nation.' When the
sons of Levi are set apart, their consecration is
distinctly stated to be due under the divine guidance
not to any inherent sanctity or to any caste privilege,
but to an act of delegation on the part of the entire
people. The Levites are, so to speak, ordained by
the whole congregation. 'The children of Israel,' it
is said, 'shall put their hands upon the Levites \'
The nation thus deputes to a single tribe the priestly
functions which belong properly to itself as a whole. J.*^^^^^-, mi /^i • • ' 1 1 n 1 . . tiontothe
I he Christian idea therefore was the restitution Christian
of this immediate and direct relation with God, which ^^^f'
^ Num. viii. 10.
1—2
4 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
was partly suspended but not abolished by the appointment of a sacerdotal tribe. The Levitical priesthood, like the Mosaic law, had served its temporary purpose. The period of childhood had passed, and the Church of God was now arrived at mature age. The covenant people resumed their sacerdotal functions. But the privileges of the cove- nant were no longer confined to the limits of a single nation. Every member of the human family was potentially a member of the Church, and, as such, a priest of God. Influence The influence of this idea on the moral and
Ch*^^f spiritual growth of the individual believer is too ideal. plain to require any comment ; but its social effects may call for a passing remark. It will hardly be denied, I think, by those who have studied the history of modern civilization with attention, that this conception of the Christian Church has been mainly instrumental in the emancipation of the degraded and oppressed, in the removal of artificial barriers between class and class, and in the diffusion of a general philanthropy untrammelled by the fetters of party or race ; in short, that to it mainly must be attributed the most important advantages which constitute the superiority of modern societies over ancient. Consciously or unconsciously, the idea of an universal priesthood, of the religious equality of all men, which, though not untaught before, was first embodied in the Church of Christ, has worked and is working untold blessings in political institu- tions and in social life. But the careful student will also observe that this idea has hitherto been very imperfectly apprehended ; that throughout the his-
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 5
tory of the Church it has been struggling for re- cognition, at most times discerned in some of its aspects but at all times wholly ignored in others ; and that therefore the actual results are a very inadequate measure of its efficacy, if only it could assume due prominence and were allowed free scope in action.
This then is the Christian ideal; a holy season extending the whole year round — a temple confined only by the limits of the habitable world — a priest- hood coextensive with the human race.
Strict loyalty to this conception was not held Practical incompatible with practical measures of organization, ti^n "^^* As the Church grew in numbers, as new and hetero- geneous elements were added, as the early fervour of devotion cooled and strange forms of disorder sprang up, it became necessary to provide for the emergency by fixed rules and definite officers. The community of goods, by which the infant Church had attempted to give effect to the idea of an universal brotherhood, must very soon have been abandoned under the pressure of circumstances. The celebration of the Fixed days first day in the week at once, the institution of *"^^Pg^^jp! annual festivals afterwards, were seen to be necessary to stimulate and direct the devotion of the believers. The appointment of definite places of meeting in the earliest days, the erection of special buildings for worship at a later date, were found indispensable to the working of the Church. But the Apostles never lost sight of the idea in their teaching, but the They proclaimed loudly that * God dwelleth not in '^^^-^^^^ temples made by hands.' They indignantly de- nounced those who ' observed days and months and
b THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
seasons and years.' This language is not satisfied by supposing that they condemned only the temple- worship in the one case, that they reprobated only Jewish sabbaths and new moons in the other. It was against the false principle that they waged war ; the principle which exalted the means into an end, and gave an absolute intrinsic value to subordinate aids and expedients. These aids and expedients, . for his own sake and for the good of the society to which he belonged, a Christian could not afford to hold lightly or neglect. But they were no part of the essence of God's message to man in the Gospel : they must not be allowed to obscure the idea of Christian worship.
Appoint- So it was also with the Christian priesthood.
mh^stiT^ For communicating instruction and for preserving public order, for conducting religious worship and for dispensing social charities, it became necessary to appoint special officers. But the priestly functions and privileges of the Christian people are never regarded as transferred or even delegated to these officers. They are called stewards or messengers of God, servants or ministers of the Church, and the like: but the sacerdotal title is never once conferred upon them. The only priests under the Gospel, designated as such in the New Testament, are the saints, the members of the Christian brotherhood \
1 1 Pet. ii. 5, 9, Apoc. i. 6, genere Aaron Levitae : nunc
V. 10, XX. 6. The commentator aiitem omnes ex genere sunt
Hilary has expressed this truth sacerdotali, dicente Petro Apo-
with much distinctness : ' In stolo, Quia estis genus regale et
lege nascebantur sacerdotes ex sacerdotale etc' (Ambrosiast.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 7
As individuals, all Christians are priests alike. Two pas- As members of a corporation, they have their pauTr " ^* several and distinct offices. The similitude of the lating human body, where each limb or organ performs its own functions, and the health and growth of the whole frame are promoted by the harmonious but separate working of every part, was chosen by St Paul to represent the progress and operation of the Church. In two passages, written at two , different stages in his apostolic career, he briefly sums up the offices in the Church with reference to this image. In the earlier^ he enumerates ' first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then powers, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, kinds of tongues.' In the second passage''' the list is briefer ; ' some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.' The earlier enumeration differs chiefly from the later in specifying distinctly certain miraculous powers, this being required by the Apostle's argu- ment which is directed against an exaggerated estimate and abuse of such gifts. Neither list can have been intended to be exhaustive. In both They refer alike the work of converting unbelievers and found- thrtemDo- ing congregations holds the foremost place, while rary min- the permanent government and instruction of the ^^ ^^' several Churches is kept in the background. This prominence was necessary in the earliest age of the Gospel. The apostles, prophets, evangelists, all
on Ephes. iv. 12). The whole count of the relation of the
passage, to which I shall have ministry to the congregation, occasion to refer again, contains ^ 1 Cor. xii. 28.
a singularly appreciative ac- ^ Ephes. iv. 11.
8 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
range under the former head. But the permanent ministry, though lightly touched upon, is not for- gotten ; for under the designation of ' teachers, helps, governments' in the one passage, of ^pastors and teachers' in the other, these officers must be intended. Again in both passages alike it will be seen that great stress is laid on the work of the Spirit. The faculty of governing not less than the utterance of prophecy, the gift of healing not less than the gift of tongues, is an inspiration of the Holy Ghost. But on the other hand in both alike there is an entire silence about priestly functions : for the most exalted office in the Church, the highest gift of the Spirit, conveyed no sacerdotal right which was not enjoyed by the humblest member of the Christian community. Growing From the subordinate place, which it thus
import- occupies in the notices of St Paul, the permanent permanent ministry gradually emerged, as the Church assumed mmis ry. ^ jjiore settled form, and the higher but temporary offices, such as the apostolate, fell away. This pro- gressive growth and development of the ministry, until it arrived at its mature and normal state, it will be the object of the following pages to trace. Definition But before proceeding further, some definition of
of terms iq^^^q is necessary. On no subject has more serious necessary. ^ •' •'
error arisen from the confusion of language. The word ' priest ' has two different senses. In the one it is a synonyme for presbyter or elder, and desig- nates the minister who piesides over and instructs a Christian congregation : in the other it is equiva- lent to the Latin sacerdos, the Greek i€p€v<;, or the Hebrew JHD, the offerer of sacrifices, who also
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 9
performs other mediatorial offices between God and man. How the confusion between these two meanings has affected the history and theology of the Church, it will be instructive to consider in the sequel. At present it is sufficient to say that 'Priest' the word will be used throughout this essay, as it byter.^^^^ has been used hitherto, in the latter sense only, so that priestly will be equivalent to ' sacerdotal ' or ' hieratic' Etymologically indeed the other mean- ing is alone correct (for the words priest and pi-esbyter are the same); but convenience will justify its restriction to this secondary and imported sense, since the English language supplies no other rendering of sacerdos or i€p€v<;. On the other hand, when the Christian elder is meant, the longer form * presbyter ' will be employed throughout.
History seems to show decisively that before the Different
middle of the second century each church or organ- ^^^ origin
ized Christian community had its three orders of «/ 1^®
. , . , . "^ , 1-1 threefold
ministers, its bishop, its presbyters, and its deacons, ministry. On this point there cannot reasonably be two opinions. But at what time and under what cir- cumstances this organization was matured, and to what extent our allegiance is due to it as an authoritative ordinance, are more difficult questions. Some have recognized in episcopacy an institution of divine origin, absolute and indispensable ; others have represented it as destitute of all apostolic sanction and authority. Some again have sought for the archetype of the threefold ministry in the Aaronic priesthood ; others in the arrangements of synagogue worship. In this clamour of antagonistic
10 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
opinions history is obviously the sole upright, im- partial referee ; and the historical mode of treatment will therefore be strictly adhered to in the following investigation. The doctrine in this instance at all events is involved in the history \ Ministry St Luke's narrative represents the Twelve
to relieve Apostles in the earliest days as the sole directors the Apo- and administrators of the Church. For the financial business of the infant community, not less than for its spiritual guidance, they alone are responsible. This state of things could not last long. By the rapid accession of numbers, and still more by the admission of heterogeneous classes into the Church, the work became too vast and too various for them to discharge unaided. To relieve them from the increasing pressure, the inferior and less important functions passed successively into other hands : and thus each grade of the ministry, beginning from the lowest, was created in order. 1. Dea- 1. The establishment of the diaconate came
Appoint- ^^^^- Complaints had reached the ears of the Apo- mentof gtles from an outlying portion of the community. ' The Hellenist widows had been overlooked in the daily distribution of food and alms. To remedy this neglect a new office was created. Seven men were appointed whose duty it was to superintend the
1 The origin of the Christian important of the more recent
ministry is ably investigated in works on the subject with which
Rothe's Avfange der Christ- I am acquainted, and to both
lichen Kirche etc. (1837), and of them I wish to acknowledge
Ritschl's Entstehung der Alt- my obligations, though in many
katholischen Kirche (2nd ed. respects I have arrived at re-
1857). These are the most suits different from either.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 11
public messes^ and, as we may suppose, to provide in other ways for the bodily wants of the helpless poor. Thus relieved, the Twelve were enabled to devote themselves without interruption * to prayer and to the ministry of the word.' The Apostles suggested the creation of this new office, but the persons were chosen by popular election and after- wards ordained by the Twelve with imposition of hands. Though the complaint came from the Hellenists, it must not be supposed that the minis- trations of the Seven were confined to this class ^. The object in creating this new office is stated to be not the partial but the entire relief of the Apostles from the serving of tables. This being the case, the appointment of Hellenists (for such they would appear to have been from their names ^) is a token of the liberal and loving spirit which prompted the Hebrew members of the Church in the selection of persons to fill the office.
I have assumed that the office thus established The Seven represents the later diaconate ; for though this point ^^^g ^*' has been much disputed, I do not see how the identity of the two can reasonably be called in question'*. If the word 'deacon' does not occur
1 Acts vi. 2 diuKoueiv Tpairi-' ^ It is maintained by Vi- fais. tringa iii. 2. 5, p. 920 sq. , that
2 So for instance Vitringa de the office of the Seven was Synag. iii. 2. 5, p. 928 sq., and different from the later diaco- Mosheim de lieh. Christ, p. 119, nate. He quotes Chrysost. followed by many later writers. Horn. 14 in Act. (ix. p. 115, ed.
3 This inference however is Montf.) and Can. 10 of the far from certain, since many Quinisextine Council (comp. p. Hebrews bore Greek names, e.g. 13, note 1) as favouring his the Apostles Andrew and Philip. view. With strange perversity
12 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
in the passage, yet the corresponding verb and substantive, StaKovelv and BiaKovla, are repeated more than once. The functions moreover are substantially those which devolved on the deacons of the earliest ages, and which still in theory, though not altogether in practice, form the primary duties of the office. Again, it seems clear from the emphasis with which St Luke dwells on the new institution, that he looks on the establishment of this office, not as an isolated incident, but as the initiation of a new order of things in the Church. It is in short one of those representative facts, of which the earlier part of his narrative is almost wholly made up. Lastly, the tradition of the identity of the two offices has been unanimous from the earliest times. Irenseus, the first writer who alludes to the appointment of the Seven, distinctly holds them to have been deacons^ The Roman Church some centuries later, though the presbytery had largely increased meanwhile, still restricted the number of deacons to seven, thus preserving the memory of the first institution of this office^. And in like manner a canon of the
Bohmer {Diss. Jur. Eccl. p. ^ i^ the middle of the third
349 sq.) supposes them to be century, when Cornelius writes
presbyters, and this account has to Fabius, Rome has 46 presby-
been adopted even by Ritschl, tars but only 7 deacons, Euseb.
p. 355 sq. According to another H. E. vi. 43 ; see Routh's Ilel.
view the office of the Seven Sacr. iii. p. 23, with his note
branched out into the two later p. 61. Even in the fourth and
orders of the diaconate and the fifth centuries the number of
presbyterate, Lange Apost. Zeit. Roman deacons still remained
n. i. p. 75. constant : see Ambrosiast. on.
1 Iran. i. 26. 3, iii. 12. 10, iv. 1 Tim. iii. 13, Sozom. vii. 19
15. 1. dioLKOvoL 8e Trapa 'Fufxalois eicriri
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 13
Council of Neocaesarea (a.d. 315) enacted that there should be no more than seven deacons in any city however greats alleging the apostolic model. This rule, it is true, was only partially observed ; but the tradition was at all events so far respected, that the creation of an order of subdeacons was found neces- sary in order to remedy the inconvenience arising from the limitation ^
The narrative in the Acts, if I mistake not, The office implies that the office thus created was entirely iJistitutkm new. Some writers however have explained the incident as an extension to the Hellenists of an institution which already existed among the Hebrew Christians and is implied in the * younger men ' mentioned in an earlier part of St Luke's history ^ This view seems not only to be groundless in itself, but also to contradict the general tenour of the narrative. It would appear moreover, that the institution was not merely new within the Chris- tian Church, but novel absolutely. There is no reason for connecting it with any prototype existing in the Jewish community. The narrative offers no hint that it was either a continuation of the order of Levites or an adaptation of an office in the syna- gogue. The philanthropic purpose for which it was established presents no direct point of contact with
vvv cialv €irTa...'irapa de to?s a\- rejected: see Hefele Consilien-
Xois d5ta0opo5 0 tovtuv dptdfMs. gesch. iii. p. 304, and Vitringa
1 Concil. Neocaes. c. 14 (Routh p. 922. Rel. Sacr. iv. p. 185) : see Bing- ^ See Bingham iii. 1. 3.
ham's Antiq. ii. 20. 19. At the ^ ^cts v. 6, 10. This is the
Quinisextine or 2nd Trullan view of Mosheim de Reb. Christ.
council (a.d. 692) this Neocae- p. 114. sarean canon was refuted and
14
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
not
borrowed from the Levitical order.
nor from the syna- gogue.
Teaching only inci- dental to the office.
the known duties of either. The Levite, whose function it was to keep the beasts for slaughter, to cleanse away the blood and offal of the sacrifices, to serve as porter at the temple gates, and to swell the chorus of sacred psalmody, bears no strong resemblance to the Christian deacon, whose minis- trations lay among the widows and orphans, and whose time was almost wholly spent in works of charity. And again, the Chazan or attendant in the synagogue, whose duties were confined to the care of the building and the preparation for service, has more in common with the modern parish clerk than with the deacon in the infant Church of Christ^ It is therefore a baseless, though a very common, assumption that the Cliristian diaconate was copied from the arrangements of the synagogue. The Hebrew Chazan is not rendered by * deacon ' in the Greek Testament ; but a different word is used instead^ We may fairly presume that St Luke dwells at such length on the establishment of the diaconate, because he regards it as a novel creation.
Thus the work primarily assigned to the deacons was the relief of the poor. Their office was essen- tially a * serving of tables,' as distinguished from the higher function of preaching and instruction. But partly from the circumstances of their position, partly from the personal character of those first
1 Vitringa (in. 2. 4, p. 914 sq., III. 2. 22, p. 1130 sq.) de- rives the Christian deacon from the Chazan of the synagogue. Among other objections to this
view, the fact that as a rule there was only one Chazan to each synagogue must not be overlooked. 2 vir7)p^T7}i, Luke iv. 20.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 15
appointed, the deacons at once assumed a promi- nence which is not indicated in the original creation of the office. Moving about freely among the poorer brethren and charged with the relief of their material wants, they would find opportunities of influence which were denied to the higher officers of the Church whd necessarily kept themselves more aloof. The devout zeal of a Stephen or a Philip would turn these opportunities to the best account ; and thus, without ceasing to be dispensers of alms, they became also ministers of the Word. The Apostles themselves had directed that the persons chosen should be not only 'men of honest report,' but also 'full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom ' : and this careful fore- sight, to which the extended influence of the diaconate may be ascribed, proved also the security against its abuse. But still the work of teaching nmst be traced rather to the capacity of the individual officer than to the direct functions of the office. St Paul, writing thirty years later, and stating the requirements of the diaconate, lays the stress mainly on those qualifications which would be most important in persons moving about from house to house and entrusted with the distribution of alms. While he requires that they shall ' hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience,' in other words, that they shall be sincere believers, he is not anxious, as in the case of the presbyters, to secure ' aptness to teach,' but demands especially that they shall be free from certain vicious habits, such as a love of gossiping, and a greed of paltry gain, into which they might easily fall from the nature of their duties^
1 1 Tim. iii. 8 sq.
16 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
Spread of From the mother Church of Jerusalem the in- nate to^° stitution spread to Gentile Christian brotherhoods. Gentile By the ' helps i' in the First Epistle to the Corinthians
cliiircliGs
(a.d. 57), and by the ' ministration^ ' in the Epistle to the Romans (a.d. 58), the diaconate solely or chiefly seems to be intended ; but besides these incidental allusions, the latter epistle bears more significant testimony to the general extension of the office. The strict seclusion of the female sex in Greece and in some Oriental countries necessarily debarred them from the ministrations of men : and to meet the want thus felt, it was found necessary at an early date to admit women to the diaconate. A woman-deacon belonging to the Church of Cenchrese is mentioned in the Epistle to the Romans^ As time advances, the diaconate becomes still more prominent. In the Philippian Church a few years later (about A.D. 62) the deacons take their rank after the presbyters, the two orders together constituting the recognised ministry of the Christian society there ^ Again, passing over another interval of some years, we find St Paul in the First Epistle to Timothy (about A.D. 66) giving express directions as to the qualifications of men-deacons and women-deacons alike ^ From the tenour of his language it seems clear that in the Christian communities of procon- sular Asia at all events the institution was so common that ministerial organization would be considered incomplete without it. On the other hand we may perhaps infer from the instructions
1 1 Cor. xii. 28. ^ pi^ii, ii^
2 Rom. xii. 7. ^ 1 Tim. iii. 8 sq. ' Bom. xvi. 1.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 17
which he sends about the same time to Titus in Crete, that he did not consider it indispensable ; for while he mentions having given direct orders to his delegate to appoint presbyters in every city, he is silent about a diaconate^
2. While the diaconate was thus an entirely 2. Pres- new creation, called forth by a special emergency '
and developed by the progress of events, the early history of the presbyterate was different. If the sacred historian dwells at length on the institution of the lower office but is silent about the first beginnings of the higher, the explanation seems to be, that the latter had not the claim of novelty like the former. The Christian Church in its earliest not a new stage was regarded by the body of the Jewish *^ ' people as nothing more than a new sect springing up by the side of the old. This was not unnatural : for the first disciples conformed to the religion of their fathers in all essential points, practising cir- cumcision, observing the sabbaths, and attending the temple-worship. The sects in the Jewish commonwealth were not, properly speaking, non- conformists. They only superadded their own special organization to the established religion of their country, which for the most part they were careful to observe. The institution of synagogues but adopt- was flexible enough to allow free scope for wide ^jjg gy^g^, divergencies of creed and practice. Different races gogue. as the Cyrenians and Alexandrians, different classes of society as the freedmen^, perhaps also different sects as the Sadducees or the Essenes, each had or
1 Tit. i. 5 sq. 2 Acts vi. 9.
L. 2
18 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
could have their own special synagogue \ where they might indulge their peculiarities without hindrance. As soon as the expansion of the Church rendered some organization necessary, it would form a ' sj^na- gogue ' of its own. The Christian congregations in Palestine long continued to be designated by this name^ though the term 'ecclesia' took its place from the very first in heathen countries. With the synagogue itself they would naturally, if not necessarily, adopt the normal government of a synagogue, and a body of elders or presbyters would be chosen to direct the religious worship and partly also to watch over the temporal well- being of the society.
Hence the silence of St Luke. When he first mentions the presbyters, he introduces them without preface, as though the institution were a matter of Occasion course. But the moment of their introduction is adopUon. significant. I have pointed out elsewhere^ that the two persecutions, of which St Stephen and St James were respectively the chief victims, mark two im- portant stages in the diffusion of the Gospel. Their connexion with the internal organization of the Church is not less remarkable. The first results
1 It is stated, that there were \oO(ti rrjv iavroiu iKKXrjalav, Kai no less than 480 synagogues in ovxl UKXriaiav. See also Hieron. Jerusalem. The number is Epist. cxii. 13 (i. p. 746, ed. doubtless greatly exaggerated, Vail.) ' per totas orientis syna- but must have been very con- gogas,' speaking of the Naza- siderable : see Vitriuga prol. 4, raeaus ; though his meaning is p. 28, and i. 1. 14, p. 253. not altogether clear. Comp.
2 James ii. 2. Epiphanius Test. xii. Patr. Benj. 11. (xxx. 18, p. 142) says of the ^ See Dissertations on the Ebionites a-vvayioyijv oh-oi Ka- AjyostoUc Age, pp. 53, 58.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 19
directly from the establishment of the lowest order in the ministry, the diaconate. To the second may probably be ascribed the adoption of the next higher grade, the presbytery. This later perse- cution was the signal for ^ the dispersion of the Twelve on a wider mission. Since Jerusalem would no longer be their home as hitherto, it became necessary to provide for the permanent direction of the Church there ; and for this purpose the usual government of the synagogue would be adopted. Now at all events for the first time we read of ' presbyters ' in connexion with the Christian brotherhood at Jerusalem ^
From this time forward all official communications Presbytery with the mother Church are carried on through their J^em""^* intervention. To the presbyters Barnabas and Saul bear the alms contributed by the Gentile Churches ^ The presbyters are persistently associated with the Apostles, in convening the congress, in the super- scription of the decree, and in the general settlement of the dispute between the Jewish and Gentile Christians^ By the presbyters St Paul is received many years later on his last visit to Jerusalem, and to them he gives an account of his missionary labours and triumphs 1
But the office was not confined to the mother Extension Church alone. Jewish presbyteries existed already '^^1^^^^^ in all the principal cities of the dispersion, and Cxentile Christian presbyteries would early occupy a not less
1 Acts xi. 30. On the se- » Acts xv. 2, 4, 6, 22, 23, quence of events at this time xvi. 4.
see Galatiam p. 124. •* Acts xxi. 18.
2 Acts xi. 30.
2—2
20
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
Presbyters called also bishops,
but only in
Gentile
Churches.
Possible origin of the term.
wide area. On their very first missionary journey the Apostles Paul and Barnabas are described as appointing presbyters in every church \ The same rule was doubtless carried out in all the brother- hoods founded later; but it is mentioned here and here only, because the mode of procedure on this occasion would suffice as a type of the Apostles' dealings elsewhere under similar circumstances.
The name of the presbyter then presents no difficulty. But what must be said of the term * bishop ' ? It has been shown that in the apostolic writings the two are only different designations of one and the same office'^. How and where was this second name originated ?
To the officers of Gentile Churches alone is the term applied, as a synonyme for presbyter. At Philippic, in Asia Minor'', in Crete ■^, the presbyter is so called. In the next generation the title is employed in a letter written by the Greek Churcb of Rome to the Greek Church of Corinth ''. Thus the word would seem to be especially Hellenic. Beyond this we are left to conjecture. But if we may assume that the directors of religious and social clubs among the heathen were commonly so called'', it would naturally occur, if not to the Gentile
1 Acts xiv. 23.
- See Philippians p. 96 sq.
a Phil. i. 1.
4 Acts XX. 28, 1 Tim. iii. 1,2; comp. 1 Pet. ii. 25, v. 2.
5 Tit. i. 7.
« Clem. Eom. 42, 44. 7 The evidence however is slight : see Philippians p. 95,
note 2. Some light is thrown on this subject by the fact that the Roman government seems first to have recognised the Christian brotherhoods in their corporate capacity, as burial clubs : see de Rossi Rom. Sotterr. I. p. 371.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 21
Christians themselves, at all events to their heathen associates, as a fit designation for the presiding members of the new society. The infant Church of Christ, which appeared to the Jew as a synagogue, would be regarded by the heathen as a confraternity^ But whatever may have been the origin of the term, it did not altogether dispossess the earlier name ' presbyter,' which still held its place as a synonyme, even in Gentile congregations ^ And, when at length the term bishop was appropriated to a higher office in the Church, the latter became again, as it had been at first, the sole designation of the Christian elder^.
The duties of the presbyters were twofold. They Twofold were both rulers and instructors of the congregation, q^^-^1 This double function appears in St Paul's expression presbyter, 'pastors and teachers^,' where, as the form of the original seems to show, the two words describe the same office under different aspects. Though govern- ment was probably the first conception of the office, yet the work of teaching must have fallen to the presbyters from the very first and have assumed
1 On these clubs or confra- 7, 17, 24). For the former ternities see Eenan Les Apotres comp. Hermas Vis. ii. 4, Justin p. 351 sq. ; comp. Saint Paul p. Apol. i. 67 (6 irpoeaTws) ; for the 239. latter, Clem. Rom. 1, 21, Her-
2 Acts XX. 17, 1 Tim. v. 17, mas Vis. ii. 2, iii. 9 {oi irporjyov- Tit. i. 5, 1 Pet. v. 1, Clem. fxevoi).
Rom. 21, 44. 4 Ephes. iv. 11 rods de iroifxi-
3 Other more general designa- vas /cat SiSaaKoXov^. For ttol- tions in the New Testament are fialvetv applied to the eiriaKoiro^ oi TrpoLa-TafxepoL (1 Thess. v. 12, or irpea^vrepoi see Acts xx. 28, Rom. xii. 8 : comp. 1 Tim. v. 1 Pet. v. 2 ; comp. 1 Pet. ii. 25. 17), or ol ijyovfievoi (Hebr. xiii.
22 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
greater prominence as time went on. With the growth of the Church, the visits of the apostles and evangelists to any individual community must The func- have become less and less frequent, so that the tesLchinc. burden of instruction would be gradually transferred from these missionary preachers to the local officers of the congregation. Hence St Paul in two passages, where he gives directions relating to bishops or presbyters, insists specially on the faculty of teaching as a qualification for the position \ Yet even here this work seems to be regarded rather as incidental to than as inherent in the office. In the one epistle he directs that double honour shall be paid to those presbyters who have ruled well, but especially to such as 'labour in word and doctrine',' as though one holding this office might decline the work of instruction. In the other, he closes the list of qualifications with the requirement that the bishop (or presbyter) hold fast the faithful word in accord- ance with the apostolic teaching, 'that he may be able both to exhort in the healthy doctrine and to confute gainsayers,' alleging as a reason the pernicious activity and growing numbers of the false teachers. Nevertheless there is no ground for supposing that the work of teaching and the work of governing pertained to separate members of the presbyteral college ^ As each had his special gift, so would he
1 1 Tim. iii. 2, Tit. i. 9. even then the work of teaching
2 1 Tim. V. 17 fidXiara oi was not absolutely indispens- KOTTiiovTes €v Xoyif) Kal 8i5aaKa\la. able to the presbyteral office ; At a much later date we read Act. Perp. et Fel. 13, Cyprian of ' presbyteri doctores,' whence Epist. 29 : see Ritschl p. 352. it may perhaps be inferred that ^ The distinction of lay or
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
23
devote himself more or less exclusively to the one or the other of these sacred functions.
3. It is clear then that at the close of the 3. Bishop?. apostolic age, the two lower orders of the threefold ministry were firmly and widely established; but traces of the third and highest order, the episcopate properly so called, are few and indistinct.
For the opinion hazarded by Theodoret and The office adopted by many later writers ^ that the same JJ^^aUon officers in the Church who were first called apostles oftheapo- came afterwards to be designated bishops, is baseless. If the two offices had been identical, the substitution of the one name for the other would have required some explanation. But in fact the functions of the Apostle and the bishop differed widely. The Apostle, like the prophet or the evangelist, held no local
stolate.
ruling elders, and ministers proper or teaching elders, was laid down by Calvin and has been adopted as the constitu- tion of several presbyterian Churches. This interpretation of St Paul's language is refuted by Rothe p. 224, Ritschl p. 352 sq., and Schaff Hist, of Apost. Ch. II. p. 312, besides older writers such as Vitringa and Mosheim.
^ On 1 Tim. iii. 1, roi>s 5^ vvu
KoKoVfX^POVS iiriffKOTTOVS aTTOffrd-
\ovs (liuofia^ov Tov 8^ xpofov irpolovTOS rb fxev r^s diroffroX^s dvofia Tois &\rjdu)S airoaToKoit KaT^Xiirov, TO d^ rijs eiricrKOTrijs TotJ iraXai KaXovfx^vois dvocTToXois iir^deffav. See also his note on Phil. i. 1. Comp. Wordsworth
Theoph. Angl. c. x., Blunt First Three Centuries p. 81. Theo- doret, as usual, has borrowed from Theodore of Mopsuestia on 1 Tim. iii. 1, ' Qui vero nunc episcopi norninantur, illi tunc apostoli dicebantur. . .Beatis vero apostolis decedentibus, illi qui post illos ordinati sunt... grave existimaverunt apostolorum sibi vindicare nuncupationem ; di- viserunt ergo ipsa nomina etc' (Raban. Maur. vi. p. 604 n, ed. Migne). Theodore however makes a distinction between the two offices : nor does he, hke Theodoret, misinterpret Phil. ii. 25. The commentator Hilary also, on Ephes. iv. 11, says ' apostoli episcopi sunt. '
24 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
office. He was essentially, as his name denotes, a missionary, moving about from place to place, found- ing and confirming new brotherhoods. The only ground on which Theodoret builds his theory is a false interpretation of a passage in St Paul. At the opening of the Epistle to Philippi the presbyters (here called bishops) and deacons are saluted, while in the body of the letter one Epaphroditus is men- Phil, ii. 25 tioned as an * apostle ' of the Philippians. If ' apostle ' explained ^^^^ ^^^ *^^ meaning which is thus assigned to it, all the three orders of the ministry would be found at Philippi. But this interpretation will not stand. The true Apostle, like St Peter or St John, bears ;this title as the messenger, the delegate, of Christ Himself: while Epaphroditus is only so styled as the messenger of the Philippian brotherhood ; and in the very next clause the expression is explained by the statement that he carried their alms to St PauP. The use of the word here has a parallel in another passage ^ where messengers (or apostles) of the churches are mentioned. It is not therefore to the apostle that we must look for the prototype of the bishop. How far indeed and in what sense the bishop may be called a successor of the Apostles, will be a proper subject for consideration : but the suc- cession at least does not consist in an identity of office. The epi- The history of the name itself suggests a different
devefoped ^ccount of the origin of the episcopate. If bishop out of the was at first used as a synonyme for presbyter and tery. afterwards came to designate the higher officer under
whom the presbyters served, the episcopate properly
' Phil. ii. 25, see Philippians ^ 2 Cor. viii. 23, see Galatians
p. 123. p. 95, note 3.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 25
SO called would seem to have been developed from the subordinate office. In other words, the episco- pate was formed not out of the apostolic order by localisation but out of the presbyteral by elevation : and the title, which originally was common to all, came at length to be appropriated to the chief among them^
If this account be true, we might expect to find st James in the mother Church of Jerusalem, which as the gadiest^ earliest founded would soonest ripen into maturity, bishop, the first traces of this developed form of the ministry. Nor is this expectation disappointed. James the Lord's brother alone, within the period compassed by the apostolic writings, can claim to be regarded as a bishop in the later and more special sense of the term. In the language of St Paul he takes precedence even of the earliest and greatest preachers of the Gospel, St Peter and St John^, where the affairs of the Jewish Church specially are concerned. In St Luke's narrative he appears as the local representative of the brotherhood in Jeru- salem, presiding at the congress, whose decision he suggests and whose decree he appears to have framed^, receiving the missionary preachers as they
* A parallel instance from Timocr. § 157), but even ad- Athenian institutions will illus- dressed by this name in the trate this usage. The iinaTdTr}s presence of the other wpoeSpoL was chairman of a body of ten (Thuc. vi. 14). irpdedpoi, who themselves were ^ Gal. ii. 9 ; see the note, appointed in turn by lot to ^ Acts xv. 13 sq. St James serve from a larger body of fifty speaks last and apparently with irpvTdveis. Yet we find the im- some degree of authority {iyio (TTOLT-ns not only designated irpv- Kpivw ver. 19). The decree is TOivis par excellence (Demosth. clearly framed on his recom-
26 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
revisit the mother Church^, acting generally as the referee in communications with foreign brotherhoods. The place assigned to him in the spurious Clemen- tines, where he is represented as supreme arbiter over the Church universal in matters of doctrine, must be treated as a gross exaggeration. This kind of authority is nowhere conferred upon him in the apostolic writings : but his social and ecclesiastical position, as it appears in St Luke and St Paul, ex- plains how the exaggeration was possible. And this position is the more remarkable if, as seems to have' been the case, he was not one of the Twelve^ but yet On the other hand, though especially prominent,
lated'^from ^^ appears in the Acts as a member of a body. Ilia pres- When St Peter, after his escape from prison, is about ^ ^^^' to leave Jerusalem, he desires that his deliverance shall be reported to 'James and the brethren'.' When again St Paul on his last visit to the Holy City goes to see James, we are told that all the presbyters were present*. If in some passages St James is named by himself, in others he is omitted and the presbyters alone are mentioned^ From this it may be inferred that though holding a position superior to the rest, he was still considered as a member of the presbytery ; that he was in fact the head or president of the college. What power this - presidency conferred, how far it was recognised as an
mendations, and some inde- ^ See Dissertations on the
cisive coincidences of style with Apostolic Age, p. 1 sq.
his epistle have been pointed ^ Acts xii. 17.
out. ■* Acts xxi. 18.
1 Acts xxi. 18; comp. xii. 17. ** Acts xi. 30; comp. xv. 4,
See also Gal. i. 19, ii. 12. 23, xvi. 4.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 27
independent official position, and to what degree it was due to the ascendancy of his personal gifts, are questions, which in the absence of direct information can only be answered by conjecture. But his close relationship with the Lord, his rare energy of character, and his rigid sanctity of life which won the respect even of the unconverted Jews\ would react upon his office, and may perhaps have elevated it to a level which was not definitely contemplated in its origin.
But while the episcopal office thus existed in the Nobishops mother Church of Jerusalem from very early days, JheGentile at least in a rudimentary form, the New Testament Churches, presents no distinct traces of such organization in the Gentile congregations. The government of the Gentile churches, as there represented, exhibits two Twostages successive stages of development tending in this ^entT ^^ direction ; but the third stage, in which episcopacy definitel}'^ appears, still lies beyond the horizon.
(1) We have first of all the Apostles themselves (1) Occa- exercising the superintendence of the churches pe^xTision
under their care, sometimes in person and on the by the
,. , , , Apostles
spot, sometimes at a distance by letter or by message, them-
The imaginary picture drawn by St Paul, when he s^^^^^- directs the punishment of the Corinthian offender, vividly represents his position in this respect. The members of the church are gathered together, the elders, we may suppose, being seated apart on a dais or tribune ; he himself, as president, directs their deliberations, collects their votes, pronounces sen- tence on the guilty man 2. How the absence of the apostolic president was actually supplied in this 1 See Dissertations on the Apostolic Age, p. 12 sq. - 1 Cor. v. 3 sq.
28 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
instance, we do not know. But a council was held ; he did direct their verdict * in spirit though not in person'; and 'the majority 'condemned the offender^ In the same way St Peter, giving directions to the elders, claims a place among them. The title 'fellow-presbyter,' which he applies to himself-, would doubtless recal to the memory of his readers the occasions when he himself had presided with the elders and guided their deliberations. (2) Resi- (2) As the first stage then, the Apostles them-
apostoHc s^^ves were the superintendents of each individual delegates, church. But the wider spread of the Gospel would diminish the frequency of their visits and impair the efficiency of such supervision. In the second stage therefore we find them, at critical seasons and in important congregations, delegating some trust- worthy disciple who should fix his abode in a given place for a time and direct the affairs of the church there. The Pastoral Epistles present this second stage to our view. It is the conception of a later age which represents Timothy as bishop of Ephesus and Titus as bishop of Crete^ St Paul's own language implies that the position which they held was temporary. In both cases their term of office is drawing to a close, when the Apostle writes'*. But the conception is not altogether without foundation. With less permanence but perhaps greater authority, the position occupied by these apostolic delegates nevertheless fairly represents the functions of the
^ 2 Cor. ii. 6 ij iiriTifxia avrrj i] H. E. iii. 4, and later writers. vvh Twv irXeiovoiv. * See 1 Tim. i. 3, iii. 14,
2 1 Pet. V. 1. 2 Tim. iv. 9, 21, Tit. i. 5, iii.
Const. Apost. vii. 46, Euseb. 12.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
29
bishop early in the second century. They were in fact the link between the Apostle whose superinten- dence was occasional and general and the bishop who exercised a permanent supervision over an individual congregation.
Beyond this second stage the notices in the The angels
1 • • • 1 i rni 1 o ill t^^
apostolic writings do not carry us. ine angels oi Apoca- the seven churches indeed are frequently alleged |3[P^e not as an exception^ But neither does the name 'angel' itself suggest such an explanation^ nor is this view in keeping with the highly figurative style of this wonderful book. Its sublime imagery seems to be seriously impaired by this interpretation. On the other hand St John's own language gives the true key to the symbolism. 'The seven stars,' so it is
1 See for instance among re- cent writers Thiersch Gesch. der Apost. Kirche p. 278, Trench Epistles to the Seven Churches p. 47 sq. with others.. This explanation is as old as the earliest commentators. Eothe supposes that the word anti- cipates the establishment of episcopacy, being a kind of pro- phetic symbol, p. 423 sq. Others again take the angel to designate the collective ministry, i.e. the whole body of priests and dea- cons. For various explanations see Schaff Hist, of Apost. Ch. II. p. 223.
Eothe (p. 426) supposes that Diotrephes 6 (piXoxpuTeixou av- Tu>v (3 Joh. 9) was a bishop. This cannot be pronounced im- possible, but the language is far
too indefinite to encourage such an inference.
- It is conceivable indeed that a bishop or chief pastor should be called an angel or messenger of God or of Christ (comp. Hag. i. 13, Mai. ii. 7), but he would hardly be styled an angel of the church over which he presides. See the parallel case of dwo- aroXos above, p. 24. Vitringa (ii. 9, p. 550), and others after him, explain dyyeXos in the Apocalypse by the Hw^, the messenger or deputy of the synagogue. These however were only inferior officers, and could not be compared to stars or made responsible for the well- being of the churches ; see Eothe p. 504.
30 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
explained, ' are the seven angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks are the seven churches \* This contrast between the heavenly and the earthly fires — the star shining steadily by its own inherent eternal light, and the lamp flickering and uncertain, requiring to be fed with fuel and tended with care — cannot be devoid of meaning. True ex- The Star is the suprasensual counterpart, the heaven- p ana ion. ^^ representative ; the lamp, the earthly realization, the outward embodiment. Whether the angel is here conceived as an actual person, the celestial guardian, or only as a personification, the idea or spirit of the church, it is unnecessary for my present purpose to consider. But whatever may be the exact conception, he is identified with and made responsible for it to a degree wholly unsuited to any human officer. Nothing is predicated of him, which may not be predicated of it. To him are imputed all its hopes, its fears, its graces, its shortcomings. He is punished with it, and he is rewarded with it. In one passage especially the language applied to the angel seems to exclude the common interpreta- tion. In the message to Thyatira the angel is blamed, because he suffers himself to be led astray by 'his wife Jezebel-^.' In this image of AhaVs idolatrous queen some dangerous and immoral teach- ing must be personified ; for it does violence alike to the general tenour and to the individual expressions in the passage to suppose that an actual woman is
* Kev. i. 20. text : or at least, if not a cor-
2 Rev. ii. 20 tt]v yvvaiKa <tov rect reading, it seems to be a
'Iefa/3e\. The word <tov should correct gloss.
probably be retained in the
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 31
meant. Thus the symbolism of the passage is entirely in keeping. Nor again is this mode of representation new. The 'princes' in the prophecy of Daniel^ present a very near if not an exact parallel to the angels of the Revelation. Here, as elsewhere, St John seems to adapt the imagery of this earliest apocalyptic book.
Indeed, if with most r-ecent writers we adopt the early date of the Apocalypse of St John, it is scarcely possible that the episcopal oi-ganization should have been so mature when it was written. In this case probably not more than two or three years have elapsed from the date of the Pastoral Epistles^ and this interval seems quite insufficient to account for so great a change in the administration of the Asiatic churches.
As late therefore as the year 70 no distinct signs Episco- of episcopal government have hitherto appeared in unshed 'rri Gentile Christendom. Yet unless we have recourse Gentile to a sweeping condemnation of received documents, before t?e it seems vain to deny that early in the second close of the century the episcopal office was firmly and widely established. Thus during the last three decades of the first century, and consequently during the life- time of the latest surviving Apostle, this change must have been brought about. But the circum- stances under which it was effected are shrouded in darkness ; and various attempts have been made to read the obscure enigma. Of several solutions
1 Dan. X. 13, 20, 21. while the Apocalypse on this
2 The date of the Pastoral hypothesis was written not later Epistles may be and probably than a.d. 70.
is as late as a.d. 66 or 67 ;
32 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
offered one at least deserves special notice. If Rothe's Rothe's view cannot be accepted as final, its examina- tion will at least serve to bring out the conditions of the problem : and for this reason I shall state and discuss it as briefly as possible \ For the words in which the theory is stated I am myself responsible. Import- ' The epoch to which we last adverted marks an
criSs?^'^^ important crisis in the history of Christianity. The Church was distracted and dismayed by the growing dissensions between the Jewish and Gentile brethren and by the menacing apparition of Gnostic heresy. So long as its three most prominent leaders were living, there had been some security against the ex- travagance of parties, some guarantee of harmonious combination among diverse churches. But St Peter, St Paul, and St James, were carried away by death ahnost at the same time and in the face of this great emergency. Another blow too had fallen : the long- delayed judgment of God on the once Holy City was delayed no more. With the overthrow of Jeru- salem the visible centre of the Church was removed. The keystone of the fabric was withdrawn, and the whole edifice threatened with ruin. There was a crying need for some organization which should cement together the diverse elements of Christian society and preserve it from disintegration.' Origin 'Out of this need the Catholic Church arose.
Catholic Christendom had hitherto existed as a number of Church, distinct isolated congregations, drawn in the same
1 See Rothe's ^7i/«7?r/e etc. pp. respects differing from those
854 — 392. Rothe's account of which I have urged) by Baur
the origin of episcopacy is as- Ursprung des Episcopats p. 39
sailed (on grounds in many sq., and Ritschl p. 410 sq.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 33
direction by a common faith and common sympathies, accidentally linked one with another by the personal influence and apostolic authority of their common teachers, but not bound together in a harmonious whole by any permanent external organization. Now ^ at length this great result was brought about. The magnitude of the change effected during this period may be measured by the difference in the consti- tution and conception of the Christian Church as presented in the Pastoral Epistles of St Paul and the letters of St Ignatius respectively.'
'By whom then was the new constitution organ- Agency of ized ? To this question only one answer can be i„„ j^p^. given. This great work must be ascribed to the ^tles. surviving Apostles. St John especially, who built up the speculative theology of the Church, was mainly instrumental in completing its external con- stitution also ; for Asia Minor was the centre from which the new movement spread. St John however was not the only Apostle or early disciple who lived in this province. St Philip is known to have settled in Hierapolis^ St Andrew also seems to have dwelt in these parts ^. The silence of history clearly pro- claims the fact which the voice of history but faintly suggests. If we hear nothing more of the Apostles' missionary labours, it is because they had organized an united Church, to which they had transferred the work of evangelization.'
' Of such a combined effort on the part of the Evidence Apostles, resulting in a definite ecclesiastical polity, in Apostolic
Council. ^ Papias in Euseb. H. E. iii. ^ Muratorian Canon (circ.
39; Polycrates and Cains in 170 a.d.), Routh Rel. Sacr. i.
Euseb. H. E. iii. 31. p. 394.
L. 3
34 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
an united Catholic Church, no direct account is pre- served : but incidental notices are not wanting ; and in the general paucity of information respecting the whole period more than this was not to be expected ^' Hegesip- '(1) Eusebius relates that after the martyr-
P"^' dom of St James and the fall of Jerusalem, the
remaining Apostles and personal disciples of the Lord, with His surviving relations, met together and after consultation unanimously appointed Symeon the son of Clopas to the vacant see '^. It can hardly be doubted that Eusebius in this passage quotes from the earlier historian Hegesippus, from whom he has derived the other incidents in the lives of James and Symeon : and we may well believe that this council discussed larger questions than the appointment of a single bishop, and that the con- stitution and prospects of the Church generally came under deliberation. It may have been on this occasion that the surviving Apostles partitioned out the world among them, and 'Asia was assigned to John^' IrensBUB. ' (2) A fragment of Irenaeus points in the same
direction. Writing of the holy eucharist he says, * They who have paid attention to the second ordi-
* Besides the evidence which a meeting of St Peter and
I have stated and discussed in St Paul in Rome. The main
the text, Rothe also brings for- question however is so slightly
ward a fragment of the Praedi- affected thereby, that I have
catio Pauli (preserved in the not thought it necessary to in-
tract de Baptismo Haereti- vestigate the value and bearing
corww, which is included among of this fragment. Cyprian's works, app. p. 30, ^ Euseb. H. E. iii. 11.
ed. Fell ; see Dissertations on ^ According to the tradition
the Apostolic Age, p. Ill, note reported by Origen as quoted in
2), where the writer mentions Euseb. H. E. iii. 1.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 35
nances of the Apostles know that the Lord ap- pointed a new offering in the new covenant \' By these ' second ordinances ' must be understood some later decrees or injunctions than those contained in the apostolic epistles : and these would naturally be framed and promulgated by such a council as the notice of Eusebius suggests.'
' (3) To the same effect St Clement of Rome Clement writes, that the Apostles, having appointed elders in every church and foreseeing the disputes which would arise, * afterwards added a codicil (supple- mentary direction) that if they should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed to their office*.' Here the pronouns ' they,' ' their,' must refer, not to the first appointed presbyters, but to the Apostles themselves. Thus interpreted, the passage contains a distinct notice of the institution of bishops as successors of the Apostles ; while in the word * after- wards ' is involved an allusion to the later council to which the 'second ordinances' of Irenaeus also refer^'
1 One of the Pfaffian frag- sage).
ments, no. xxxviii, p. 854 in 3 ^ much more explicit though
Stieren's edition of IrensBUs somewhat later authority may
(vol. I.). be quoted in favour of his
2 Clem. Rom. § 44 KariaTrjaap view. The Ambrosian Hilary Toi)$ irpoeLpijfjLiuovs (sc. wpea^vT^- on Ephes. iv. 12, speaking of povs) Kal fX€Ta^i>-f iTivoiJ.7)vf5€5i!}- the change from the presby- Kaaip, oTTws, iau Koi/xrjdQaiv, dia- teral to the episcopal form of di^ovTui 'hepoi ZedoKiixaffixivoi government, says ' immutata dudpei TTjv XeiTovpyiav avrdv. est ratio, prospiciente concilio^ The interpretation of the pas- ut non ordo etc. ' If the read- sage depends on the persons ing be correct, I suppose he intended in Koiix-qdCiaLv and av- was thinking of the Apostolic Twv (see the notes on the pas- Constitutions. See also the ex-
3—2
36
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
Eesults of the Coun- cU.
Value of
Bothe's
theory.
The evi- dence ex- amined. Hegesip- pus.
'These notices seem to justify the conclusion that immediately after the fall of Jerusalem a council of the Apostles and first teachers of the Gospel was held to deliberate on the crisis, and to frame measures for the well-being of the Church. The centre of the system then organized was episcopacy, which at once secured the compact and harmonious working of each individual congregation, and as the link of commu- nication between separate brotherhoods formed the whole into one undivided Catholic Church. Recom- mended by this high authority, the new constitution was immediately and generally adopted.'
This theory, which is maintained with much ability and vigour, attracted considerable notice, as being a new defence of episcopacy advanced by a member of a presbyterian Church. On the other hand, its intrinsic value seems to have been unduly depreciated; for, if it fails to give a satisfactory solution, it has at least the merit of stating the conditions of the problem with great distinctness, and of pointing out the direction to be followed. On this account it seemed worthy of attention.
It must indeed be confessed that the historical notices will not bear the weight of the inference built upon them. (1) The account of Hegesippus (for to Hegesippus the statement in Eusebius may fairly be ascribed) confines the object of this gather- ing to the appointment of a successor to St James. If its deliberations had exerted that vast and per- manent influence on the future of the Church which Rothe's theory supposes, it is scarcely possible that
pression of St Jerome on Tit. i. toto orbe decretum est.' 5 (quoted below, p. 39) 'in
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY J^7
this early historian should have been ignorant of the fact or knowing it should have passed it over in silence. (2) The genuineness of the Pfaffian frag- ments of Irena3us must always remain doubtful \ Irenaeus. Independently of the mystery which hangs over their publication, the very passage quoted throws great suspicion . on their authorship ; for the ex- pression in question'^ seems naturally to refer to the so-called Apostolic Constitutions, which have been swelled to their present size by the accretions of successive generations, but can hardly have existed even in a rudimentary form in the age of Irenaeus, or if existing have been regarded by him as genuine. If he had been acquainted with such later ordinances issued by the authority of an apostolic council, is it conceivable that in his great work on heresies he should have omitted to quote a sanction so un- questionable, where his main object is to show that the doctrine of the Catholic Church in his day represented the true teaching of the Apostles, and his main argument the fact that the Catholic bishops of his time derived their office by direct succession from the Apostles ? (3) The passage in the epistle Clement, of St Clement cannot be correctly interpreted by Rothe: for his explanation, though elaborately de-
1 The controversial treatises accuracy of the transcriber or
on either side are printed in ascertaining the character of
Stieren's Irenseus ij. p. 381 sq. the ms.
It is sufficient here to state that '^ The expression at devrepat
shortly after the transcription tQu drroaToXwu diara^eis closely
of these fragments by Pfafif, the resembles the language of these
Turin ms from which they were Constitutions ; see Hippol. p.
taken disappeared ; so that there 74, 82 (Lagarde). was no means of testing the
38 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
fended, disregards the purpose of the letter. The Corinthian Church is disturbed by a spirit of in- subordination. Presbyters, who have faithfully discharged their duties, have nevertheless been ruthlessly expelled from office. St Clement writes in the name of the Roman Church to correct these irregularities. He reminds the Corinthians that the presbyteral office was established by the Apostles, who not only themselves appointed elders,' but also gave directions that the vacancies caused from time to time by death should be filled up by other men of character, thus providing for a succession in the ministry. Consequently in these unworthy feuds they were setting themselves in opposition to officers of repute either actually nominated by Apostles, or appointed by those so nominated in accordance with the apostolic injunctions. There is no mention of episcopacy, properly so called, throughout the epistle; for in the language of St Clement, 'bishop' and ' presbyter ' are still synonymous terms^ Thus the pronouns * they,' ' their,' refer naturally to the pres- byters first appointed by the Apostles themselves. Whether (supposing the reading to be correct*) Rothe has rightly translated iTripofxrjv ' a codicil,' it is unnecessary to enquire, as the rendering does not materially affect the question. Episco- Nor again does it appear that the rise of episco-
a*uddeti P^^^ ^^^ ^^ sudden and so immediate, that an creation, authoritative order issuing from an apostolic council alone can explain the phenomenon. In the myste- rious period which comprises the last thirty years
^ See Philippians pp. 97, 98. bably ^inixov-f]v ; see the notes ^ The right reading is pro- on the passage.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 39
of the first century, and on which history is almost wholly silent, episcopacy must, it is true, have been mainly developed. But before this period its begin- nings may be traced, and after the close it is not yet fully matured. It seems vain to deny with Rothe ^ that the position of St James in the mother Church furnished the precedent and the pattern of the later episcopate. It appears equally mistaken to main- tain, as this theory requires, that at the close of the first and the beginning of the second century the. organization of all churches alike had arrived at the same stage of development and exhibited the episco- pate in an equally perfect form.
On the other hand, the emergency which con-^"*^?"* solidated the episcopal form of government is cor- a critical rectly and forcibly stated. It was remarked long ago ^^^^^^^^y by Jerome, that 'before factions were introduced into religion by the prompting of the devil,' the churches were governed by a council of elders, * but as soon as each man began to consider those whom he had baptized to belong to himself and not to Christ, it was decided throughout the world that one elected from among the elders should be placed over the rest, so that the care of the church should devolve on him and the seeds of schism be removed ^' And again in another passage he writes to the same effect; 'When afterwards one presbyter was elected that he might be placed over the rest, this was done as a remedy against schism, that each man might not drag to himself and thus break up the Church
2 On Tit. i. 5 (vii. p. 694, ed. Vail.).
40 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
of Christ \' To the dissensions of Jew and Gentile converts, and to the disputes of Gnostic false teachers, the development of episcopacy may be mainly ascribed, and in Nor again is Rothe probably wrong as to the
undef th^ authority mainly instrumental in effecting the influence change. Asia Minor was the adopted home of more ' than one Apostle after the fall of Jerusalem. Asia Minor too was the nurse, if not the mother, of episco- pacy 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, as will be seen presently, early tradition very distinctly connects his name with the appointment of bishops in these parts. Manner of But to the question how this change was brought lopmTnt. about, a somewhat different answer must be given. We have seen that the needs of the Church and the ascendancy of his personal character placed St James at the head of the Christian brotherhood in Jerusalem. Though remaining a member of the presbyteral council he was singled out from the rest and placed in a position of superior responsibility. His exact power it would be impossible, and it is unnecessary, to define. When therefore after the fall of the city St John with other surviving Apostles removed to Asia Minor and found there manifold irregularities and threatening symptoms of disrup- tion, he would not unnaturally encourage an ap- proach in these Gentile Churches to the same organization which had been signally blessed, and 1 Epist. cxlvi. ad Evang. (i. p. 1082).
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 41
proved effectual in holding together the mother Church amid dangers not less serious. The exist- ence of a council or college necessarily supposes a presidency of some kind, whether this presidency be assumed by each member in turn, or lodged in the hands of a single person \ It was only necessary therefore for him to give permanence, definiteness, stability, to an office which already existed in germ. There is no reason however for supposing that any direct ordinance was issued to the churches. The evident utility and even pressing need of such an office, sanctioned by the most venerated name in Christendom, would be sufficient to secure its wide though gradual reception. Such a reception, it is true, supposes a substantial harmony and freedom of intercourse among the churches, which remained un- disturbed by the troubles of the times; but the silence of history is not at all unfavourable to this supposition. In this way, during the historical
1 The Ambrosian Hilary on 7W70S appears to denote the
Ephes. iv. 12 seems to say that president of the council of
the senior member was presi- elders : see Vitringa 11. 2, p.
dent ; but this may be mere 586 sq., iii. 1, p. 610 sq. The
conjecture. The constitution of opinions of Vitringa must be
the synagogue does not aid received with caution, as his
materially in settling this ques- tendency to press the resem-
tion. In the New Testament blance between the government
at all events apxiffvpayuyos is of the Jewish synagogue and
only another name for an elder the Christian Church is strong.
of the synagogue (Mark v. 22, The real likeness consists in the
Acts xiii. 15, xviii. 8, 17 ; comp. council of presbyters ; but the
Justin Dial. c. Tryph. § 137), threefold order of the Christian
and therefore corresponds not ministry as a whole seems to
to the bishop but to the pres- have no counterpart in the
byter of the Christian Church. synagogue. Sometimes however dpxi<rvpd-
42 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
blank which extends over half a century after the
fall of Jerusalem, episcopacy was matured and the
Catholic Church consolidated^
This view At all events, when we come to trace the early
by^Uie no- ^^^tory of the office in the principal churches of
tices of in- Christendom in succession, we shall find all the
churches. ^^^^^ consistent with the account adopted here,
while some of them are hardly reconcileable with
any other. In this review it will be convenient to
commence with the mother Church, and to take the
others in order, as they are connected either by
neighbourhood or by political or religious sympathy.
Jerusa- 1. The Church of Jerusalem, as I have already
pointed out, presents the earliest instance of a
bishop. A certain official prominence is assigned
St James, to James the Lord's brother, both in the Epistles of
St Paul and in the Acts of the Apostles. And the
inference drawn from the notices in the canonical
Scriptures is borne out by the tradition of the next
ages. As early as the middle of the second century
all parties concur in representing him as a bishop
in the strict sense of the term-^. In this respect
Catholic Christians and Ebionite Christians hold the
same language : the testimony of Hegesippus on
the one hand is matched by the testimony of the
Clementine writings on the other. On his death,
1 The expression ' Catholic 2 Hegesipp. in Euseb. H. E.
Church ' is found first in the ii. 23, iv. 22 ; Clem. Horn. xi.
Ignatian letter to the Smyr- 35, Ep. Petr. init., and Ep.
njeans § 8. In the Martyrdom Clem. init. ; Clem. Recogn. i. 43,
of Polycarp it occurs several 68, 73 ; Clem. Alex, in Euseb.
times, inscr. and §§ 8, 16, 19. ii. 1 ; Cojist. Apost. v. 8, vi. 14,
On its meaning see Westcott viii. 35, 46. Canon p. 28, note (4th ed.).
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 43
which is recorded as taking place immediately before the war of Vespasian, Symeon was appointed in his Symeon. placed Hegesippus, who is our authority for this statement, distinctly regards Symeon as holding the same office with James, and no less distinctly calls him a bishop. The same historian also mentions the circumstance that one Thebuthis (apparently on this occasion), being disappointed of the bishopric, raised a schism and attempted to corrupt the virgin purity of the Church with false doctrine. As Symeon died in the reign of Trajan at an advanced age, it is not improbable that Hegesippus was born during his lifetime. Of the successors of Symeon Later a complete list is preserved by Eusebius^ The ^^ ^^^* fact however that it comprises thirteen names within a period of less than thirty years must throw suspicion on its accuracy. A succession so rapid is hardly consistent with the known tenure of life offices in ordinary cases : and if the list be correct, the frequent changes must be attributed to the troubles and uncertainties of the times ^ If Eusebius here also had derived his information from
1 Hegesipp. in Euseb. H. E. 190) we count fifteen bishops. iv. 22. The repetition of the same
2 H. E. iv. 5. The episco- names however suggests that pate of Justus the successor of some conflict was going on Symeon commences about a.d. during this interval.
108 : that of Marcus the first ^ Parallels nevertheless may
Gentile bishop, a.d. 136. Thus be found in the annals of the
thirteen bishops occupy only papacy. Thus from a.d. 882 to
about twenty-eight years. Even a.d. 904 there were thirteen
after the foundation of Aelia popes : and in other times of
Capitolina the succession is very trouble the succession has been
rapid. In the period from Mar- almost as rapid, cus (a.d. 136) to Narcissus (a.d.
44 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
Hegesippus, it must at least have had some solid foundation in fact ; but even then the alternation between Jerusalem and Pella, and the possible confusion of the bishops with other prominent members of the presbytery, might introduce much error. It appears however that in this instance he was indebted to less trustworthy sources of informa- tion'. The statement that after the foundation of Aelia Capitolina (A.D. 136) Marcus presided over the mother Church, as its first Gentile bishop, need not be questioned ; and beyond this point it is unnecessary to carry the investigation*. Other sees Qf other bishops in Palestine and the neighbour- tine and hood, before the latter half of the second century, bounna ^^ trustworthy notice is preserved, so far as I know, countries. During the Roman episcopate of Victor however (about A.t). 190), we find three bishops, Theophilus of Cagsarea, Cassius of Tyre, and Clarus of Ptolemais, in conjunction with Narcissus of Jerusalem, writing an encyclical letter in favour of the western view in the Paschal controversy'. If indeed any reliance could be placed on the Clementine writings, the episcopate of Palestine was matured at a very early
^ This may be inferred from tion were,
a comparison of H. E. iv. 5 ^ Narcissus, who became
TWTovTov i^ iyypatpuv irapei\ri<pa bishop of Jerusalem in 190 a.d.,
with H. E. V. 12 al tQv aurodi might well have preserved the
diadoxal irepUxovat. His infor- memory of much earlier times,
mation was probably taken from His successor Alexander, in
a list kept at Jerusalem ; but whose favour he resigned a.d.
the case of the spurious corre- 214, speaks of him as still living
spondence with Abgarus pre- at the advanced age of 116
served in the archives of Edessa (Euseb. H. E. vi. 11).
{H. E. i. 13) shows how treach- » Euseb. H. E. v. 25. erous such sources of informa-
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 45
date : for St Peter is there represented as appoint- ing bishops in every city which he visits, in Caesarea, Tyre, Sidon, Berytus, Tripolis, and Laodicea^ And though the fictions of this theological romance have no direct historical value, it is hardly probable that the writer would have indulged in such statements, unless an early development of the episcopate in these parts had invested his narrative with an air of probability. The institution would naturally spread from the Church of Jerusalem to the more important communities in the neighbourhood, even without the direct intervention of the Apostles.
2. From the mother Church of the Hebrews we Antioch. pass naturally to the metropolis of Gentile Christen- dom. Antioch is traditionally reported to have received its first bishop Evodius from St Peter^. Evodius. The story may perhaps rest on some basis of truth, though no confidence can be placed in this class of statements, unless they are known to have been derived from some early authority. But of Ignatius, Ignatius. who stands second in the traditional catalogue of Antiochene bishops, we can speak with more confi- dence. He is designated a bishop by very early authors, and he himself speaks as such. He writes to one bishop, Polycarp ; and he mentions several others. Again and again he urges the duty of obedience to their bishops on his correspondents. And, lest it should be supposed that he uses the term in its earlier sense as a synonyme for presbyter,
1 Clem. Hovi. iii. 68 sq. comp. Clem. Recogn. iii. 65, 66,
(Caesarea), vii. 5 (Tyre), vii. 8 74, vi. 15, x. 68.
(Sidon), vii. 12 (Berytus), xi. 36 ^ Const. Apost. vii. 46, Euseb.
(Tripolis), xx. 23 (Laodicea) : H. E. iii. 22.
46 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
he names in conjunction the three orders of the ministry, the bishop, the presbyter, and the deacons \ Altogether it is plain that he looks upon the episcopal system as the one recognised and autho- ritative form of government in all those churches with which he is most directly concerned. It may be suggested indeed that he would hardly have enforced the claims of episcopacy, unless it were an object of attack, and its comparatively recent origin might therefore be inferred : but still some years would be required before it could have assumed that mature and definite form which it has in his letters. It seems impossible to decide, and it is needless to investigate, the exact date of the epistles of St Ignatius : but we cannot do wrong in placing them during the earliest years of the second century. Later The immediate successor of Ignatius is reported to IS ops. \^g^yQ been Hero^: and from his time onward the list of Antiochene bishops is completed If the authenticity of the list, as a whole, is questionable, two bishops of Antioch at least during the second century, Theophilus and Serapion, are known as historical persons. Cie- If the Clementine writings emanated, as seems
men tine probable, from Syria or Palestine*, this will be the
writings. ^ ' *' ...
proper place to state their attitude with regard to
episcopacy. Whether the opinions there advanced exhibit the recognised tenets of a sect or congrega- tion, or the private views of the individual writer
1 e.g. Polyc. 6. I single out 2 Euseb. H. E. iii. 36.
this passage from several which ^ Euseb. H. E. iv. 20.
might be alleged, because it is ^ See Dissertations on the
found in the Syriac. See below, Apostolic Age, pp. 98 sq. p. 83.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 47
or writers, will probably never be ascertained ; but, whatever may be said on this point, these heretical books outstrip the most rigid orthodoxy in their reverence for the episcopal office. Monarchy is represented as necessary to the peace of the Churchy The bishop occupies the seat of Christ and must be honoured as the image of God I And hence St Peter, as he moves from place to place, ordains bishops everywhere, as though this were the crown- ing act of his missionary labours ^ The divergence of the Clementine doctrine from the tenets of Catholic Christianity only renders this phenomenon more remarkable, when we remember the very early date of these writings ; for the Homilies cannot well be placed later than the end, and should perhaps be placed before the middle of the second century.
3. We have hitherto been concerned only with Syrian the Greek Church of Syria. Of the early history ^'''^^''^^ of the Syrian Church, strictly so called, no trust- worthy account is preserved. The documents which profess to give information respecting it are com- paratively late : and while their violent anachron- isms discredit them as a whole, it is impossible to separate the fabulous from the historic''. It should be remarked however, that they exhibit a high
1 Glevi. Horn. iii. 62. London 1876. This work at all
2 Clem. Horn. iii. 62, 66, 70. events must be old, for it was See below, p. 89. found by Eusebius in the
3 See the references given archives of Edessa {H. E. i. above, p. 45, note 1. 13) ; but it abounds in gross
4 Ancient Syriac Documents anachronisms and probably is (ed. Cureton), The Doctrine of not earlier than the middle of Addai has recently been pub- the 3rd century : see Zahn Go«. lished complete by Dr Phillips, Gel. Anz. 1877, p. 161 sq.
48 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
sacerdotal view of the episcopate as prevailing in
these churches from the earliest times of which any
record is preserved \
Asia 4. AsiA Ml NOR follows next in order ; and here
Minor. ^^ ^^^^ ^j^^ widest and most unequivocal traces of
episcopacy at an early date. Clement of Alexandria
distinctly states that St John went about from city
to city, his purpose being ' in some places to esta-
Activity of blish bishops, in othei-s to consolidate whole churches,
proconsu-'^ in others again to appoint to the clerical office some
lar Asia, one of those who had been signified by the Spirit^*
The sequence of bishgps, writes Tertullian in like
manner of Asia Minor, ' traced back to its origin
will be found to rest on the authority of John'.'
And a writer earlier than either speaks of St John's
'fellow-disciples and bishops*' as gathered about
him. The conclusiveness even of such testimony
might perhaps be doubted, if it were not supported
by other more direct evidence. At the beginning
of the second century the letters of Ignatius, even
if we accept as genuine only the part contained
in the Syriac, mention by name two bishops in
Onesimus. these parts, Onesimus of Ephesus and Polycarp of
Polycarp. giY^y^.i^s q£ ^^^ former nothing more is known :
^ See for instance pp. 13, 16, * Adv. Marc. iv. 5.
18, 21, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30, 33, 4MuratorianFragment,Routh
34, 35, 42, 71 (Cureton). The Rel. Sacr. i. p. 394. Irenffius
succession to the episcopate is too, whose experience was drawn
conferred by the ' Hand of chiefly from Asia Minor, more
Priesthood ' through the Apo- than once speaks of bishops ap-
stles, who received it from our pointed by the Apostles, iii.3.1.
Lord, and is derived ultimately v. 20. 1.
from Moses and Aaron (p. 24). ^ Polyc. inscr., Ephes. 1.
2 Quis Div. Salv. 42 (p. 959).
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 49
the latter evidently writes as a bishop, for he dis- tinguishes himself from his presbyters^ and is expressly so called by other writers besides Ignatius. His pupil Irenseus says of him, that he had ' not only been instructed by Apostles and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but had also been established by Apostles in Asia as bishop in the Church at Smyrna-.' Polycrates also, a younger contemporary of Polycarp and himself bishop of Ephesus, designates him by this title •■^; and again in the letter written by his own church and giving an account of his martyrdom he is styled * bishop of the Church in Smyrna"*.' As Polycarp survived the middle of the second century, dying at a very advanced age (a.d. 155 or 156), the possibility of error on this point seems to be excluded : and indeed all historical evidence must be thrown aside as worthless, if testimony so strong can be dis- regarded.
It is probable however, that we should receive Ignatian as genuine not only those portions of the Ignatian ® ^^^' letters which are represented in the Syriac, but also the Greek text in its shorter form. Under any cir- cumstances, this text can hardly have been made later than the middle of the second century ^ and its witness would still be highly valuable, even if it were a forgery. The staunch advocacy of the episcopate which distinguishes these writings is well known and will be considered hereafter. At
1 Polyc. Phil. init. * Mart. Polyc. 16. Polycarp
2 Iren. iii. 3. 4. Comp. Ter- is called ' bishop of Smyrna ' tuU. de Praescr. 32. also in Mart. Ignat. Ant. 3.
3 In Euseb. v. 24. ^ See below, p. 83, note.
L. ' 4
50 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
present we are only concerned with the historical testimony which they bear to the wide extension and authoritative claims of the episcopal office. Besides Poly carp and . Onesimus, mentioned in the Syriac, the writer names also Damas bishop of Magnesia^ and Polybius bishop of Tralles-; and he urges on the Philadelphians also the duty of obedience to their bishop ^ though the name is not given. Under any circumstances it seems probable that these were not fictitious personages, for, even if he were a forger, he would be anxious to give an air of reality to his writings : but whether or not we regard his testimony as indirectly affecting the age of Ignatius, for his own time at least it must be regarded as valid.
But the evidence is not confined to the persons
Bishops of and the churches already mentioned. Papias, who
lis?^*^° was a friend of Polycarp and had conversed with personal disciples of the Lord, is commonly desig- nated bishop of Hierapolis* ; and we learn from a younger contemporary Serapion^, that Claudius ApoJlinaris, known as a writer against the Monta- nists, also held this see in the reign of M. Aurelius.
Sagaris. Again Sagaris the martyr, who seems to have perished in the early years of M. Aurelius, about A.D. 165^ is designated bishop of Laodicea by an author writing towards the close of the same
Melito. century, who also alludes to Melito the contem-
* Magn. 2. ' <» On the authority of his
'■^ Trail. 1. contemporary Melito in Euseb.
2 Philad. 1. H. E. iv. 26 : see Colossians
4 Euseb. H. E. iii. 36. p. 63.
5 In Euseb. U. E. v. 19.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 51
porary of Sagaris as holding the see of Sardis\
The authority just quoted, Polycrates of Ephesus, Polycrates
who flourished in the last decade of the century, ^^^.-^j^^^'^^'
says moreover that he had had seven relations
bishops before him, himself being the eighth, and
that he followed their tradition^ When he wrote
he had been ' sixty-five years in the Lord ' ; so that
even if this period date from the time of his birth
and not of his conversion or baptism, he must have
been born scarcely a quarter of a century after the
death of the last surviving Apostle, whose latest
years were spent in the very Church over which
Polycrates himself presided. It appears moreover
from his language that none of these relations to
whom he refers were surviving when he wrote.
Thus the evidence for the early and wide ex- tension of episcopacy throughout proconsular Asia, the scene of St John's latest labours, may be considered irrefragable. And when we pass to Bishops in other districts of Asia Minor, examples are not ^^ ^sia^^ ^ wanting though these are neither so early nor so Minor, frequent. Marcion a native of Sinope is related to have been the son of a Christian bishop^: and Marcion himself had elaborated his theological system before the middle of the second century. Again, a bishop of Eumenia, Thraseas by name, is stated by Polycrates to have been martyred and buried at Smyrna*; and, as he is mentioned
1 Polycrates in Euseb. H. E. ^ In Euseb. H. E. v. 24. See
V. 24. Melito's office may be Dissertations on the Apostolic
inferred from the contrast im- Age, p. 121, note,
plied in irepifiiucov t7]v dirb tuv '^ [Tertull.] adf. onm. /laeres. 6.
ovpavwu iTri<TKoirr]v. "^ In Euseb. H. E. v. 24.
4—2
52 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
in connexion with Polycarp, it may fairly be sup- posed that the two suffered in the same persecution. Dionysius of Corinth moreover, writing to Amastris and the other churches of Pontus (about A.D. 170), mentions Palmas the bishop of this city^ : and when the Paschal controversy breaks out afresh under Victor of Rome, we find this same Pahnas putting his signature first to a circular letter, as the senior of the bishops of Pontus'''. An anonymous writer also, who took part in the Montanist controversy, speaks of two bishops of repute, Zoticus of Comana and Julianus of Apamea, as having resisted the Episcopal impostures of the false prophetesses^. But indeed syno 8. ^j^^ frequent notices of encyclical letters written and synods held towards the close of the second century are a much more powerful testimony to the wide extension of episcopacy throughout the provinces of Asia Minor than the incidental mention of individual names. On one such occasion Poly- crates speaks of the ' crowds ' of bishops whom he had summoned to confer with him on the Paschal question*. Macedo- 5. As we turn from Asia Minor to Macedonia
Greece. ^^^ GREECE, the evidence becomes fainter and scantier. This circumstance is no doubt due partly to the fact that these churches were much less active and important during the second century than the Christian communities of Asia Minor,
1 In Euseb. H. E. iv. 23. chapter, probably this is the
'^ Euseb. H. £. v. 23. place meant.
3 In Euseb. H. E. v. 16. As ■* In Euseb. if. E. v. 24 TroXXd
Apamea on the Maeander is ttX^^t;. mentioned at the end of the
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 53
but the phenomena cannot perhaps be wholly explained by this consideration. When Tertullian Later de- in one of his rhetorical flights challenges the ^^ gp^co^- heretical teachers to consult the apostolic churches, pacy. where 'the very sees of the Apostles still preside/ adding, ' If Achaia is nearest to you, then you have Corinth ; if you are not far from Macedonia, you have Philippi, you have the Thessalonians ; if you can reach Asia, you have Ephesus^'; his main argu- ment was doubtless just, and even the language would commend itself to its own age, for episcopacy was the only form of government known or remem- bered in the church when he wrote : but a careful investigation scarcely allows, and certainly does not encourage us, to place Corinth and Philippi and Thessalonica in the same category with Ephesus as regards episcopacy. The term 'apostolic see' was appropriate to the latter; but so far as we know, it cannot be strictly applied to the former. During the early years of the second century, when episcopacy was firmly established in the principal churches of Asia Minor, Polycarp sends a letter to the Philippians. He writes in the name of himself Philippi. and his presbyters ; he gives advice to the Philip- pians respecting the obligations and the authority of presbyters and deacons; he is minute in his instructions respecting one individual presbyter, Valens by name, who had been guilty of some crime; but throughout the letter he never once refers to their bishop; and indeed its whole tone is hardly consistent with the supposition that they had any chief officer holding the same prominent I TertuU. de Praescr. 37.
54 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
position at Philippi which he himself held at Smyrna. We are thus led to the inference that episcopacy did not exist at all among the Philip- pians at this time, or existed only in an elementary form, so that the bishop was a mere president of Thessalo- the presbyteral council. At Thessalonica indeed, "*^^* according to a tradition mentioned by Origen^ the
same Caius whom St Paul describes as his host at Corinth was afterwards appointed bishop ; but with so common a name the possibilities of error are great, even if the testimony were earlier in date and expressed in more distinct terms. When from Macedonia we pass to Achaia, the same phenomena present themselves. At the close of the first century Corinth. Clement writes to Corinth, as at the beginning of the second century Polycarp writes to Philippi. As in the latter epistle, so in the former, there is no allusion to the episcopal office : yet the main subject of Clement's letter is the expulsion and ill-treatment of certain presbyters, whose authority he maintains as holding an office instituted by and handed down from the Apostles themselves. If Corinth however was without a bishop in the strict sense at the close of the first century, she cannot long have remained so. When some fifty years later Hegesippus stayed here on his way to Rome, Primus was bishop of this Church ; and it is clear moreover from this writer's language that Primus had been preceded by several occupants of the seel Indeed the order of his
1 On Bom. xvi. 23 ; ' Fertur irrinevev i] eKKK-qaia 17 Kopivdiiav sane traditione majorum ' (iv. h t^ 6pd^ Xoyip fiixP'- iipl-M-ov p. 86, ed. Delarue). iiria-KOTrevovTOi ip Kopivdi^ k.t.X.
2 In Enseb. H, E. iv. 22, kuI A little later he speaks of efcacrr?;
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 55
narrative, so far as we can piece it together from the broken fragments preserved in Eusebiiis, might suggest the inference, not at all improbable in itself, that episcopacy had been established at Corinth as a corrective of the dissensions and feuds which had called forth Clement's letter*. Again Dionysius, one of the immediate successors of Primus, was the writer of several letters of which fragments are extant^; and at the close of the century we meet with a later bishop of Corinth, Bacchyllus, who takes an active part in the Paschal controversy ^ When from Corinth we pass on to Athens, a very Athens, early instance of a bishop confronts us, on authority which seems at first sight good. Eusebius represents Dionysius of Corinth, who wrote apparently about the year 170, as stating that his namesake the Areopagite, 'having been brought to the faith by the Apostle Paul according to the account in the Acts, was the first to be entrusted with the bishopric (or supervision) of the diocese (in the language of those times, the parish) of the Athenians".' Now, if we could be sure that Eus6bius was here reporting the exact words of Dionysius, the testimony though
8t.aSox^, referring apparently to words which are quoted in the
Corinth among other churches. last note [iirCKiyovros ravra, Kal
1 Hegesippus mentioned the iw^fievev i] eKK\T](Tia k.t.X.). On
feuds in the Church of Corinth the probable tenour of Hegesip-
during the reign of Domitian, pus' work see below, p. 61.
whichhad occasioned the writing ^ The fragments of Dionysius
of this letter {H. E. iii. 16) ; are found in Euseb. H. E. iv.
and then after some account of 23. See also Routh Rel. Sacr.
Clement's epistle (/xerd riva irepl i. p. 177 sq.
T^s K\T)p.€VTo% irpbs Kopipdiovs ^ Euseb. H. E. v. 22, 23.
eTTtoToX^ ai)r<p elprjfx^a, H. E. '* In Euseb, H. E. iv. 23. iv. 22) he continued in the
56 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
not conclusive would be entitled to great deference. In this case the easiest solution would be, that this ancient writer had not unnaturally confounded the earlier and later usage of the word bishop. But it seems not improbable that Eusebius (for he does not profess to be giving a direct quotation) has uninten- tionally paraphrased and interpreted the statement of Dionysius by the light of later ecclesiastical usages. However Athens, like Corinth, did not long remain without a bishop. The same Dionysius, writing to the Athenians, reminds them how, after the mar- tyrdom of Publius their ruler (rov TrpoeaTcora), Quadratus becoming bishop sustained the courage and stimulated the faith of the Athenian brother- hoods If, as seems more probable than not, this was the famous Quadratus who presented his apology to Hadrian during that emperor's visit to Athens, the existence of episcopacy in this city is thrown back early in the century; even though Quadratus were not already bishop when Hadrian paid his visit. Ckete. 6. The same writerj from whom we learn these
particulars about episcopacy at Athens, also furnishes information on the Church in Crete. He writes letters to two different communities in this island, the one to Gortyna commending Philip who held this see, the other to the Cnossians offering words of advice to their bishop Pinytus*. The first was author of a treatise against Marcion"; the latter wrote a reply to Dionysius, of which Eusebius has preserved a brief notice'.
1 Euseb. H. E. iv. 23. 3 Euseb. H. E. v. 19. The
2 Euseb. H. E. iv. 25. combination of three gentile
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 57
7. Of episcopacy in Thrace, and indeed of the Thrace. Thracian Church generally, we read nothing till the
close of the second century, when one iElius Publius Julius bishop of Debeltum, a colony in this province, signs an encyclical letter^ The existence of a see at a place so unimportant implies the wide spread of episcopacy in these regions.
8. As we turn to Rome, we are confronted by a Rome. far more perplexing problem than any encountered hitherto. The attempt to decipher the early history
of episcopacy here seems almost hopeless, where the evidence is at once scanty and conflicting. It has The pre- been often assumed that in the metropolis of the IpiVit not world, the seat of imperial rule, the spirit which monarchi- dominated in the State must by natural predispo- sition and sympathy have infused itself into the Church also, so that a monarchical form of govern- ment would be developed more rapidly here than in other parts of Christendom. This supposition seems to overlook the fact that the influences which pre- vailed in the early church of the metropolis were more Greek than Roman '^, and that therefore the tendency would be rather towards individual liberty than towards compact and rigorous government. But indeed such presumptions, however attractive and specious, are valueless against the slightest evidence of facts. And the most trustworthy sources of information which we possess do not
names in 'iElius Publius Julius' confused. The error however,
is possible at this late epoch ; if error it be, does not affect
but, being a gross violation of the inference in the text.
Roman usage, suggests the sus- ^ See preceding note,
picion that the signatures of ^ See Philippians, p. 20 sq. three distinct persons have got
58 THE CHTIISTIAN MINISTRY
Bearing of countenance the idea. The earliest authentic docu- Epistle. nient bearing on the subject is the Epistle from the Romans to the Corinthians, probably written in the last decade of the first century. I have already considered the bearing of this letter on episcopacy in the Church of Corinth, and it is now time to ask what light it throws on the same institution at Rome. Now we cannot hesitate to accept the universal testimony of antiquity that it was written by Clement, the reputed bishop of Rome : and it is therefore the more surprising that, if he held this high office, the writer should not only not distinguish himself in any way from the rest of the church (as Poly carp does for instance), but that even his name should be suppressed ^ It is still more important to observe that, though he has occasion to speak of the ministry as an institution of the Apostles, he men- tions only two orders and is silent about the episcopal office. Moreover he still uses the word ' bishop ' in the older sense in which it occurs in the apostolic writings, as a synonyme for presbyter 2, and it may be argued that the recognition of the episcopate as a higher and distinct office would oblige the adoption of a special name and therefore must have synchro- nized roughly with the separation of meaning between Testimony * bishop ' and * presbyter.' Again, not many years of Ignatius ^^^^^ ^^^ j^^^ ^^ Clement's letter, St Ignatius on
his way to martyrdom writes to the Romans. Though this saint is the recognised champion of episcopacy, though the remaining six of the Ignatian letters all
1 See S. Clement of Rome, p. Rome, i. p. 69 sq,]. 252 sq. Appendix [and Apostolic ^ See Philippians p. 96 sq.
Fathers, Part i. S. Clement of
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contain direct injunctions of obedience to bishops, in this epistle alone there is no allusion to the epi- scopal office as existing among his correspondents. The lapse of a few years carries us from the letters of Ignatius to the Shepherd of Hermas. And here and the indications are equivocal. Hermas receives directions in a vision to impart the revelation to the presbyters and also to make two copies, the one for Clement who shall communicate with the foreign churches (such being his duty), the other for Grapte who shall instruct the widows. Hermas himself is charged to ' read it to this city with the elders who preside over the church^' Elsewhere mention is made of the 'rulers* of the church ^ And again, in an enumeration of the faithful officers of the churches past and present, he speaks of the 'apostles and bishops and teachers and deacons^.' Here most probably the word 'bishop' is used in its later sense, and the presbyters are designated by the term ' teachers.' Yet this interpretation cannot be regarded as certain, for the 'bishops and teachers' in Hermas, like the 'pastors and teachers' in St Paul, might possibly refer to the one presbyteral office in its twofold aspect. Other passages in which Hermas uses the same terms are indecisive. Thus he speaks of 'apostles and teachers who preached to the whole world and taught with
^ Vis. ii. 4 ypd\l/€is oTiv 8vo 6p(f>avoi^' ad 5e dv ay vdcreti eh
/3tj3\i5apia Kal ir^/xypeis ^p KXt^- raiJTrjv t7)u irdXiv fxerd. tCov irpecr-
fievTi Kal ^v TpaiTTrj. irifixf/eL odv ^vripuiv tu>v irpo'CaTafi^vcav tt}s
KXtj/Lujs ets ras ^fw iroXeis ' eKeiv(p eKKKrja-ias. yap ewiTeTpaTTTai ' TpairTij 8^ ^ Vis. ii. 2, iii. 9.
vovder-qaei ras XVP^^ '^"^ '''^^^ ^ Vis. iii. 5,
60 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
reverence and purity the word of the Lord^'; of 'deacons who exercised their diaconate ill and plundered the life (rrjv ^wrjv) of widows and orphans 2 ' ; of ' hospitable bishops who at all times received the servants of God into their homes cheerfully and without hypocrisy/ 'who protected the bereaved and the widows in their ministrations without ceasing^' From these passages it seems impossible to arrive at a safe conclusion respecting the ministry at the time when Hermas wrote. In other places he condemns the false prophet 'who, seeming to have the Spirit, exalts himself and would fain have the first seat* ' ; or he warns * those who rule over the church and those who hold the chief-seat,' bidding them give up their dissensions and live at peace among themselves''; or he de- nounces those who have * emulation one with another for the first place or for some honour^' Unwar- If we could accept the suggestion that in this inference ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ passages the writer condemns the ambition which aimed at transforming the presby- terian into the episcopal form of government ^ we should have arrived at a solution of the difficulty : but the rebukes are couched in the most general terms and apply at least as well to the ambitious pursuit of existing offices as to the arrogant assertion of a hitherto unrecognized powers This clue failing
1 Sim. ix. 25. the form TrpuTOKadeSpiTfis see the
^ Sim. ix. 26. note on (rvvSidaaKoKiTaiSj Ignat.
» Sim. ix. 27. Ephes. 3.
* Mand. xi. ^ Sim. viii. 7.
^ Vis. iii. 9 iffuu Xiyu rots ^ So Ritschl pp. 403, 535.
irporjyovfxivoi^ t^s eKKXrjaias /cat ^ Comp. Matt, xxiii. 6, etc.
To7s TTpojTOKadeSpiTais, k,t.\. For When Ireneeus wrote, episcopacy
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US, the notices in the Shepherd are in themselves too vague to lead to any result. Were it not known that the writer's own brother was bishop of Rome, we should be at a loss what to say about the consti- tution of the Roman Church in his day\
But while the testimony of these early writers appears at first sight and on the whole unfavourable to the existence of episcopacy in Rome when they wrote, the impression needs to be corrected by im- portant considerations on the other side. Hegesippus, Testimony who visited Rome about the middle of the second gippus^ century during the papacy of Anicetus, has left it on record that he drew up a list of the Roman bishops to his own time'^. As the list is not pre- served ^ we can only conjecture its contents ; but if we may judge from the sentence immediately follow- ing, in which he praises the orthodoxy of this and other churches under each succession, his object was probably to show that the teachings of the Apostles had been carefully preserved and handed down, and he would therefore trace the episcopal succession back to apostolic times ^ Such at all
was certainly a venerable insti- ^ j^ Euseb. U. E. iv. 22.
tution : yet his language closely ^ [It is probably preserved in
resembles the reproachful ex- Epiphanius, see Apostolic Fa-
pressions of Hermas : ' Contu- tliers, Parti. S. Clement of Rome ,
meliis agunt reliquos et princi- i. p. 327 sq.]
palis consessionis (mss conces- ^ The words of Hegesippus
sionis) tumore elati sunt ' (iv. ev eKaarri diadoxv xal ev eKdarri
26. 3). 7r6\et /c.r.X. have a parallel in
1 See Philippians p. 168, note those of Irenasus (iii. 3. 3) rrj
9, and S. Clement of Rome p. avrrj rdfei Kal ry avrrj didaxv
316, Appendix [Apostolic Fa- (Lat. 'hac ordinatione et suc-
thers, Part i. S. Clement of Rome, cessione ') 17 re airh tQv diroa-Td-
I. p. 359 sq.]. Xup iv rrj iKKK-r}(Ti<f. TrapdSoiXis Kai
62
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and of Irenseus.
Lists of Roman bishops.
events is the aim and method of Irenseus, who, writing somewhat later than Hegesippiis and com- bating Gnostic heresies, appeals especially to the bishops of Rome, as depositaries of the apostolic tradition ^ The list of Irenseus commences with Linus, whom he identifies with the person of this name mentioned by St Paul, and whom he states to have been ' entrusted with the office of the bishopric' by the Apostles. The second in suc- cession is Anencletus of whom he relates nothing, the third Clemens whom he describes as a hearer of the Apostles and as writer of the letter to the Corinthians. The others in order are Evarestus, Alexander, Xystus, Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius, Anicetus, Soter, and Eleutherus during whose epi- scopacy Irenaeus writes. Eusebius in different works gives two lists, both agreeing in the order with Irenseus, though not according with each other in the dates. Catalogues are also found in writers later than Irenseus, transposing the sequence of the earliest bishops, and adding the name Cletus or substituting it for Anencletus'. These discrepancies
t6 TTJs dXrjdelas K-qpvyfia KaTrjvTrj- K€v ds iifias. May not Irenseus have derived his information from the diadoxv of Roman bishops which Hegesippus drew up? See below, p. 91 [and Apostolic Fathers', Part i. S. Cle- ment of Rome, i. pp. 63 sq., 204 sq., 327 sq.].
1 Iren. iii. 33.
2 On this subject see Pear- son's Dissertationes duae de serie et successione primoriim Romae
episcoporum in his Minor Theo- logical Works II. p. 296 sq. (ed. Churton), and especially the re- cent work of Lipsius, Chrono- logic der romischen Bischofe, Kiel 1869. The earliest list which places Clement's name first belongs to the age of Hip- polytus. The omission of his name in a recently discovered Syriac list {Ancient Syriac Docu- ments p. 71) is doubtless due to the fact that the names Cletus,
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 63
may be explained by assuming two distinct churches in Rome — a Jewish and a Gentile community — in the first age ; or they may have arisen from a con- fusion of the earlier and later senses of iiriaKoiro^ ; or the names may have been transposed in the later lists owing to the influence of the Cleinentine Homilies, in which romance Clement is represented as the immediate disciple and successor of St Peter^ With the many possibilities of error, no more can Linus, safely be assumed of LiNUS and Anencletus than A^y^pig, that they held some prominent position in the tus, Roman Church. But the reason for supposing ' ' ' Clement to have been a bishop is as strong as a.d. 92. the universal tradition of the next ages can make it. Yet, while calling him a bishop, we need not suppose him to have attained the same distinct isolated position of authority which was occupied by his successors Eleutherus and Victor for instance at the close of the second century, or even by his contemporaries Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna. He was rather the chief of the presbyters than the chief over the presbyters. Only when thus limited, can the episcopacy of St Clement be reconciled witli the language of his own epistle or with the notice in his younger contemporary Hermas. At the same time the allusion in the Shepherd, though inconsistent with any exalted conception of
Clemens, begin with the same of the earlier names. See Phi-
letters. In the margin I have lippians p. 169 [and Apostolic
for convenience given the dates Fathers, Part i. S. Clement of
of the Eoman bishops from the Rome, i. p. 201 sq.]. Ecclesiastical History of Euse- i See Dissertations on the
bins, without however attaching Apostolic Age, p. 99. any weight to them in the case
64 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
his office, does assign to him as his special province the duty of communicating with foreign churches \ which in the early ages was essentially the bishop's function, as may be seen by the instances of Poly- carp, of Dionysius, of Irenseus, and of Polycrates. Evarestus, Of the two succeeding bishops, EvARESTUS and Alexander ALEXANDER, no authentic notices are preserved. A.D. 109. Xystus, who follows, is the reputed author of a ^y^*"^' collection of proverbs, which a recent distinguished critic has not hesitated to accept as genuine^. He is also the earliest of those Roman prelates whom Irenseus, writing to Victor in the name of the Gal- lican Churches, mentions as having observed Easter after the western reckoning and yet maintained peace with those who kept it otherwise^ The next Telespho- two, Telesphorus and Hyginus, are described in ^Ti) 128 ^^^ same terms. The former is likewise distinguished Hyginus, as the sole martyr among the early bishops of the A.D. 13'). metropolis*; the latter is mentioned as being in office when the peace of the Roman Church was disturbed by the presence of the heretics Valentinus Pius, and Cerdon^ With Pius, the next in order, the A.D. 142. Qf^QQ^ [f jQQ^ ^]^Q man, emerges into daylight. An anonymous writer, treating on the canon of Scrip- ture, says that the Shepherd was written by Hennas ' quite lately while his brother Pius held the see of
1 See above, p. 59, note 1. Sexti Sententice, 1873.
2 Ewald, Gesch. des V. I. vii. ^ jren. in Euseb. H. E. v. 24. p. 321 sq. On the other hand •* Iren. iii. 3. 3. At least see Zeller Philos. der Griechen Irenaeus mentions him alone as III. 1, p. 601 note, and Sanger a martyr. Later stories confer in the Jiidische Zeitschrift the glory of martyrdom on (1867) p. 29 sq. It has recently others also.
been edited by Gildemeister, ^ Iren. iii. 4. 3.
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the Church of Rome^' This passage, written by a contemporary, besides the testimony which it bears to the date and authorship of the Shepherd (with which we are not here concerned), is valuable in its bearing on this investigation ; for the use of the ' chair ' or ' see ' as a recognised phrase points to a more or less prolonged existence of episcopacy in Rome, when this writer lived. To Pius succeeds Anicetus. And now Rome becomes for the moment Anicetus, the centre of interest and activity in the Christian world^. During this episcopate Hegesippus, visiting the metropolis for the purpose of ascertaining and recording the doctrines of the Roman Church, is welcomed by the bishop-'. About the same time also another more illustrious visitor, Polycarp the venerable bishop of Smyrna, arrives in Rome to confer with the head of the Roman Church on the Paschal dispute'' and there falls in with and de- nounces the heretic Marcionl These facts are stated on contemporary authority. Of SoTER also, the Soter, next in succession, a contemporary record is pre- ^'^' served. Dionysius of Corinth, writing to the Romans, praises the zeal of their bishop, who in his fatherly care for the suffering poor and for the prisoners working in the mines had maintained and extended the hereditary fame of his church for zeal in all charitable and good works*'. In Eleutherus, who Eleuthe- succeeds Soter, we have the earliest recorded instance ^^^'^ yj^
^ See Philippians p. 168, note iv. 22.
9, where the passage is quoted. ^ Iren. in Euseb. H. E. v. 24.
^ See Westcott Canon p. 191, ^ Iren. ill. 3. 4 ; comp. iii.
ed. 4. 4. 4.
. 3 Hegesipp. in Euseb. H. E. ^ In Euseb. H. E. iv. 23.
L. 5
66
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"Victor, A.D. 189.
of an archdeacon. When Hegesippiis paid his visit to the metropolis, he found Eleutherus standing in this relation to the bishop Anicetus, and seems to have made his acquaintance while acting in this capacity \ Eleutherus however was a contemporary, not only of Hegesippus, but also of the great writers Irenseus and TertuUian^, who speak of the episcopal succession in the churches generally, and in Rome especially, as the best safeguard for the trans- mission of the true faith from apostolic tiniest With Victor, the successor of Eleutherus, a new era begins. Apparently the first Latin prelate who held the metropolitan see of Latin Christendom'*, he was moreover the first Roman bishop who is
1 In Euseb. H. E. iv. 22 /x^-
XptS ^AviKTjTOV OV BlCiKOUOS TjV
2 He is mentioned by IreneBus iii. 3. 3 vvv dudeKdrcf Tbiri^ rbv T^s iirifTKOirris cItto tCjv dwoaTdXuu /caWx^t li^yjpov 'EXeiJ^epos, and by Tertullian, Praescr: 30 ' sub episcopatu Eleutheri benedicti.'
3 Iren. iii. 3. 2, Tertull. de Praescr. 32, 36, adv. Marc. iv. 5.
"* All the predecessors of Vic- tor bear Greek names with two exceptions, Clemens and Pius ; and even these appear not to have been Latin. Clement writes in Greek, and his style is wholly unlike what might be expected from a Roman. Her- mas, the brother of Pius, not only employs the Greek lan- guage in writing, but bears a Greek name also. It is worth
observing also that Tertullian {de Praescr. 30), speaking of the episcopate of Eleutherus, desig- nates the church of the metro- polis not 'ecclesia Romana,' but 'ecclesia Romanensis,' i.e. not the Church of Rome, but the Church in Rome. The transition from a Greek to a Latin Church was of course gradual ; but, if a definite epoch must be named, the episcopate of Victor serves better than any other. The two immediate suc- cessors of Victor, Zephyrinus (202—219) and Callistus (219— 223), bear Greek names, and it may be inferred from the ac- count in Hippolytus that they were Greeks ; but from this time forward the Roman bishops, with scarcely an exception, seem to have been Latins.
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known to have had intimate relations with the imperial courts and the first also who advanced those claims to universal dominion which his suc- cessors in later ages have always consistently and often successfully maintained 2. ' I hear,' writes Ter- tullian scornfully, * that an edict has gone forth, aye and that a peremptory edict ; the chief pontiff, forsooth, I mean the bishop of bishops, has issued his commands^' At the end of the first century the Roman Church was swayed by the mild and peaceful counsels of the presbyter-bishop Clement ; the close of the second witnessed the autocratic pre- tensions of tlie haughty pope Victor, the prototype of a Hildebrand or an Innocent.
9. The Churches of Gaul were closely connected Gaul. with and probably descended from the Churches of Asia Minor. If so, the episcopal form of government would probably be coeval with the foundation of Christian brotherhoods in this country. It is true we do not meet with any earlier bishop than the immediate predecessor of Irenseus at Lyons, the aged Pothinus, of whose martyrdom an account is given in the letter of the Gallican Churches'*. But
1 Hippol. Haer. ix. 12, pp. this time. See also Cyprian in 287, 288. the opening of the Concil. Carth.
2 See the account of his atti- p. 158 (ed. Fell) ' neque enim tude in the Paschal controversy, quisquam nostrum episcopum Euseb. H. E. v. 24, se episcoporum constituit etc.,'
3 Tertull. de Pudic. i. The doubtless in allusion to the bishop here mentioned will be arrogance of the Eoman pre- either Victor or Zephyrinus ; and lates.
the passage points to the as- ^ The Epistle of the Gallican
sumption of extraordinary titles Churches in Euseb. U. E. v. 1. by the Eoman bishops about
5—2
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this is also the first distinct historical notice of any kind relating to Christianity in Gaul.
Africa. 10. AFRICA again was evangelized from Rome
at a comparatively late date. Of the African Church before the close of the second century, when a flood of light is suddenly thrown upon it by the writings of Tertullian, we know absolutely nothing. But we need not doubt that this father represents the traditions and sentiments of his church, when he lays stress on episcopacy as an apostolic institution and on the episcopate as the depositary of pure Christian doctrine. If we may judge by the large number of prelates assembled in the African councils of a later generation, it would appear that the ex- tension of the episcopate was far more rapid here than in most parts of Christendom \
Albxan- 11. The Church of Alexandria, on the other
hand, was probably founded in apostolic times^ Nor
1 At the African council con- Ruinart's Victor Vitensis p. 117
voked by Cyprian about 50 years sq., with the notes p. 215 sq.
later, the opinions of as many These last references I owe to
as 87 bishops are recorded ; and Gibbon, c. xxxvii. and c. xli.
allusion is made in one of his ^ Independently of the tradi-
letters (Epht. 59) to a council tion relating to St Mark, this
held before his time, when 90 may be inferred from extant
bishops assembled. For a list canonical and uncanonical
of the African bishoprics at this writings which appear to have
time see Miinter Primord. Eccl. emanated from Alexandria. The
Afric. p. 31 sq. The enormous Epistle to the Hebrews, even if
number of African bishops a we may not ascribe it to the
few centuries later would seem learned Alexandrian ApoUos
incredible, were it not reported (Acts xviii. 24), at least bears
on the best authority. Dupin obvious marks of Alexandrian
(Optat. Milev. p. lix) counts up culture. The so-called Epistle
as many as 690 African sees : of Barnabas again, which may
compare also the Notitia in have been written as early as
I)RIA
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is there any reason to doubt the tradition which con- nects it with the name of St Mark, though the autho- rities for the statement are comparatively recent. Nevertheless of its early history we have no authen- tic record. Eusebius indeed gives a list of bishops beginning with St Mark, which here, as in the case of the Roman see, is accompanied by dates^; but from what source he derived his information is un- known. The first contemporary notice of church officers in Alexandria is found in a heathen writer. The emperor Hadrian, writing to the consul Servia- Hadrian's nus, thus describes the state of religion in this city : ^^"®^- ' I have become perfectly familiar with Egypt, which you praised to me ; it is fickle, uncertain, blown about by every gust of rumour. Those who worship Serapis are Christians, and those are devoted to Serapis who call themselves bishops of Christ. There is no ruler of a synagogue there, no Samaritan, no Christian presbyter, who is not an astrologer, a soothsayer, a quack. The patriarch himself when- ever he comes to Egypt is compelled by some to worship Serapis, by others to w^orship Christ I' In
the reign of Vespasian and can to be 'compelled to worship hardly date later than Nerva, Christ.' Otherwise the ana- must be referred to the Alex- chronism involved in such a andrian school of theology. title would alone have sufficed
1 Euseb. H. E. ii, 24, iii. 14, to condemn the letter as spuri- etc. See Clinton's Fasti Ro- ous. Yet Salmasius, Casaubon, mani ii. p. 544. and the older commentators
2 Preserved in Vopiscus Vit. generally, agree in the supposi- Satum. 8. The Jewish patri- tion that the bishop of Alex- arch (who resided at Tiberias) andria is styled patriarch here, is doubtless intended ; for it The manner in which the docu- would be no hardship to the ment is stated by Vopiscus to Christian bishop of Alexandria have been preserved (' Hadriani
70
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Clement of Alexan- dria.
this letter, which seems to have been written in the year 134, Hadrian shows more knowledge of Jewish ecclesiastical polity than of Christian : but, appa- rently without knowing the exact value of terms, he seems to distinguish the bishop and the presbyter in the Christian community \ From the age of Hadrian to the age of Clement no contemporary or nearly contemporary notices are found, bearing on the government of the Alexandrian Church. The language of Clement is significant ; he speaks some- times of two orders of the ministry, the presbyters and deacons'^ ; sometimes of three, the bishops, pres-
epistolam ex libris Phlegontis liberti ejus proditam') is favour- able to its genuineness ; nor does the mention of Verus as the emperor's ' son ' in another part of the letter present any real chronological difficulty. Hadrian paid his visit to Egypt in the autumn of 130, but the letter is not stated to have been written there. The date of the third consulship of Servianus is A.D. 134, and the account of Spartianus {Ver. 3) easily ad- mits of the adoption of Verus before or during this year, though Clinton {Fast. Rom. i. p. 124) places it as late as a.d. 135. Gregorovius {Kaiser Ha- drian p. 71) suggests that ' filium meum' may have been added by Phlegou or by some one else. The prominence of the Chris- tians in this letter is not sur- prising when we remember how
Hadrian interested himself in their tenets on another occasion (at Athens). This document is considered genuine by such op- posite authorities as Tillemont {Hist, des Emp. ii. p. 265) and Gregorovius (I.e. p. 41), and may be accepted without hesitation.
^ At this time there appears to have been only one bishop in Egypt (see below, p. 80). But Hadrian, who would have heard of numerous bishops elsewhere, and perhaps had no very pre- cise knowledge of the Egyptian Church, might well indulge in this rhetorical flourish. At all events he seems to mean differ- ent offices when speaking of the bishop and the presbyter.
2 Strom, vii. i (p. 830, Potter) ofioiojs 8^ Kal Kara ttju eKKKrjcriav, Tr]v jxkv j8eXTiwri/c7jj/ ol irpea^C- Tcpoi ado^ovaiv eUdva, ttjp vwripe-
TLKTJV 5^ oi BldKOVOl.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 71
byters, and deacons \ Thus it would appear that even as late as the close of the second century the bishop of Alexandria was regarded as distinct and yet not distinct from the presbytery ^ And the language of Clement is further illustrated by the fact, which will have to be considered at length presently, that at Alexandria the bishop was nomi- nated and apparently ordained by the twelve pres- byters out of their own number'. The episcopal office in this Church during the second century gives no presage of the world-wide influence to which under the prouder name of patriarchate it was destined in later ages to attain. The Alexan- drian succession, in which history is hitherto most interested, is not the succession of the bishops but of the heads of the catechetical school. The first bishop of Alexandria, of whom any distinct incident is recorded on trustworthy authority, was a contem- porary of Origen.
The notices thus collected* present a large body Infer- ences.
1 Strom, vi. 13 (p. 793) at iv- eyyeypd(l)aTat rais /Si^Xots rats ravda Kard. ttjv iKKKiqaiav wpoKo- aylais, ai fih irpea^vTipois at rral, iTri<TK6ir(*}v, irpea^vr^pfav^ 8k iiriaKdirois ai 5k SiaKdvon, diaKdvuv, fiifXTj/xaTa ol/Mai dyye- &\\ai XVP^i-^ k.t.X.
XiKTis 56|77s, Strom, iii. 12 (p. ^ See below, p. 77.
552), Paed. iii. 12 (see the next ^ In this sketch of theepisco-
note) : see Kaye's Clement of pate in the different churches I
Alexandria p. 463 sq. have not thought it necessary
2 Yet in one passage he, like to carry the lists later than the Irenseus (see Philippians p. 98), second century. Nor (except in betrays his ignorance that in a very few cases) has any testi- the language of the New Testa- mony been accepted, unless ment bishop and presbyter are the writer himself flourished synonymes ; see Faed. iii. 12 (p. before the close of this century. 309) fxvplai Se 6<TaL virodiJKai els The Apostohc Constitutions irpdffuira iKXcKTCL Siareluovixai would add several names to the
72 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
The gene- of evidence establishing the fact of the early and [ence of^" extensive adoption of episcopacy in the Christian episco- Church. The investigation however would not be complete, unless attention were called to such in- direct testimony as is furnished by the tacit assump- tions of writers living towards and at the close of the second century. Episcopacy is so inseparably interwoven with all the traditions and beliefs of men like Irenseus and Tertullian, that they betray no knowledge of a time when it was not. Even Irenaeus, the earlier of these, who was certainly born and probably grown up before the middle of the century, seems to be wholly ignorant that the woixl bishop had passed from a lower to a higher value since the apostolic times\ Nor is it important only to observe the positive though indirect testimony which they afford. '^ Their silence suggests a strong negative presumption, that while every other point of doctrine or practice was eagerly canvassed, the form of Church government alone scarcely came under discussion. Gradual But these notices, besides establishing the general
even deve- pievalence of episcopacy, also throw considerable
lopmentof Horht on its orisfin. They indicate that the solution
the office. ^ ,, T,- ni . . ■ ^ , ^
suggested by the history of the word * bishop and
its transference from the lower to the higher office
is the true solution, and that the episcopate was
created out of the presbytery. They shew that this
creation was not so much an isolated act as a progres-
list ; but this evidence is not ^ See Philippions p. 98. The
trustworthy, though in many same is true of Clement of
cases the statements doubtless Alexandria : see above, p. 71,
rested on some traditional basis. note 2.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 73
sive development, not advancing everywhere at an uniform rate but exhibiting at one and the same time different stages of growth in different churches. They seem to hint also that, so far as this develop- ment was affected at all by national temper and characteristics, it was slower where the prevailing influences were more purely Greek, as at Corinth and Philippi and Rome, and more rapid where an oriental spirit predominated, as at Jerusalem and Antioch and Ephesus. Above all, they establish this result clearly, that its maturer forms are seen first in those regions where the latest surviving Apostles (more especially St John) fixed their abode, and at a time when its prevalence cannot be dissociated from their influence or their sanction.
The original relation of the bishop to the pres- Original byter, which this investigation reveals, was not for- [^e^^wo ° gotten even after the lapse of centuries. Though offices not set over the presbyters, he was still regarded as in some sense one of them. Irenaeus indicates this position of the episcopate very clearly. In his lan- guage a presbyter is never designated a bishop, while on the other hand he very frequently speaks of a bishop as a presbyter. In other words, though A bishop he views the episcopate as a distinct office from the ^ pj-esby^^ presbytery, he does not regard it as a distinct order ter by lie-
. . . nreus
in the same sense in which the diaconate is a distinct order. Thus, arguing against the heretics he says, ' But when again we appeal against them to that tradition which is derived from the Apostles, which is preserved in the churches by successions of pres- byters, they place themselves in opposition to it, saying that they, being wiser not only than the
74 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
presbyters but even than the Apostles, have dis- covered the genuine truths' Yet just below, after again mentioning the apostolic tradition, he adds, ' We are able to enumerate those who have been appointed by the Apostles bishops in the churches and their successors down to our own time^'; and still further, after saying that it would take up too much space if he were to trace the succession in all the churches, he declares that he will confound his opponents by singling out the ancient and renowned Church of Rome founded by the Apostles Peter and Paul and will point out the tradition handed down to his own time * by the succession of bishops,' after which he gives a list from Linus to Eleutherus^. So again in another passage he writes, * Therefore obe- dience ought to be rendered to the presbyters who are in the churches, who have the succession from the Apostles as we have shown, who with the suc- cession of the episcopate have also received the sure grace of truth according to the pleasure of the Father' ; after which he mentions some * who are believed by many to be presbyters, but serve their own lusts and are elated with the pomp of the chief seat' and bids his readers shun these and seek such as ' together with the rank of the presbytery show their speech sound and their conversation void of offence,' adding of these latter, ' Such presbyters the Church nurtures and rears, concerning whom also the prophet saith, " I will give thy rulers in peace and thy bishops in righteousness''".' Thus also writing to Victor of Rome in the name of the Galli-
1 Iren. iii. 2. 2. » jren. iii. 3. 2, 3.
2 Iren. iii. 3. 1. " Iren. iv. 26. 2, 3, 4, 5.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 75
can churches, he says, ' It was not so observed by
the presbyters before Soter, who ruled the Church
which thou now guidest, we mean Anicetus and
Pius, Hyginus and Telesphorus and Xystus\' And
the same estimate of the office appears in Clement and Cle-
of Alexandria : for, while he speaks elsewhere of the Alexan-
three offices in the ministry, mentioning them by ^"^•
name, he in one passage puts forward a twofold
division, the presbyters whose duty it is to improve,
and the deacons whose duty it is to serve, the
Church I The functions of the bishop and presbyter
are thus regarded as substantially the same in kind,
though different in degree, while the functions of
the diaconate are separate from both. More than a Testimony
century and a half later, this view is put forward siaster,
with the greatest distinctness by the most learned
and most illustrious of the Latin fathers. * There is
one ordination,' writes the commentator Hilary, ' of
the bishop and the presbyter ; for either is a priest,
1 In Eus. H. E. V. 24. In why the usage of Irena3us should
other places Irenaeus apparently throughout be uniform in this
uses Trpea^Orepoi to denote an- matter.
tiquity and not office, as in the 2 ggg ^}je passage quoted
letter to Florinus, Euseb. H. above, p. 70, note 2. So also
E. V. 20 ol irpb tj/xuiu irpea^iTepot. in the anecdote of St John
oi Kul Tois dTTOffTdXois (Tv/j.ipoiT'^- {Quu div. salv. 42, p. 959) we
ffavres (comp. ii. 22. 5) ; in read t(^ KadearcLTi irpoaSXixpas
which sense the word occurs eTria-Koinp, but immediately
also in Papias (Euseb. //. E. afterwards 6 5^ ir pea^irepo^
iii. 39; see Contemporary Re- dmXajQwj' /c.r.X., and then again
view, Aug. 1875, p. 379 sq. aye b-q, ^(p-r), <Z iTri(TKOire, otiYie
[Essays on Supernatural Re- same person. Thus he too,
ligion p. 143 sq.]) ; but the like Irenseus, regards the bishop
passages quoted in the text are as a presbyter, though the con-
decisive, nor is there any reason verse would not be true, (as Rothe assumes, p. 414 sq.)
76 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
but the bishop is first. Every bishop is a presbyter, but every presbyter is not a bishop : for he is bishop who is first among the presbytei's\' The language Jerome, of St Jerome to the same effect has been quoted elsewhere I To the passages there given may be added the following: 'This has been said to show that with the ancients presbyters were the same as bishops : but gradually all the responsibility was deferred to a single person, that the thickets of heresies might be rooted out. Therefore, as pres- byters know that by the custom of the Church they are subject to him who shall have been set over them, so let bishops also be aware that they are superior to presbyters more owing to custom than to any actual ordinance of the Lord, etc. : Let us see therefore what sort of person ought to be ordained presbyter or bishop I' In the same spirit too the and An- great Augustine writing to Jerome says, ' Although gns ine. according to titles of honour which the practice of the Church has now made valid, the episcopate is greater than the presbytery, yet in many things Augustine is less than Jerome"*.' To these fathers this view seemed to be an obvious deduction from the identity of the terms ' bishop ' and ' presbyter ' in the apostolic writings ; nor indeed, when they wrote, had usage entirely effaced the original con- Bishops nexion between the two offices. Even in the fourth them- ^^^ ^^^^ centuries, when the independence and selves fel- power of the episcopate had reached its maximum,
loW'DrGS-
byters. it was still customary for a bishop in writing to a
1 Ambrosiast. on 1 Tim. iii. 3 On Tit. i. 5 (vii. p. 696).
10. 4 Epist. Ixxxii. 33 (ii. p. 202,
^ See Philippians p. 98. ed. Ben.).
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 77
presbyter to address him as * fellow-presbyter \' thus bearing testimony to a substantial identity of order. Nor does it appear that this view was ever questioned until the era of the Reformation. In the western Church at all events it carried the sanction of the highest ecclesiastical authorities and was maintained even by popes and councils'-.
Nor was it only in the language of the later The Church that the memory of this fact was preserved. A\exan-^ Even in her practice indications might here and dria cho- there be traced, which pointed to a time when the created by bishop was still only the chief member of the pres- {J^^ P^®^" bytery. The case of the Alexandrian Church, which has already been mentioned casually, deserves special notice. St Jerome, after denouncing the audacity of certain persons who 'would give to deacons the precedence over presbyters, that is over bishops,' and alleging scriptural proofs of the identity of the two, gives the following fact in illustration: 'At Alexandria, from Mark the Evangelist down to the times of the bishops Heraclas (a.d. 233 — 249) and
1 So for instance Cyprian, Test. ci. (in Augustin. Op. iii.
£2>isf. 14, writes ' compresbyteri P. 2, p. 93) 'Quid est enim
nostri Donatus et Fortunatus ' ; episcopus nisi primus presbyter,
and addressing Cornelius bishop hoc est summus sacerdos?
of Rome {Epist. 45) he says Denique non aliter quam com-
' cum ad me talia de te et com- presbyteros hie vocat et con-
presbyteris tecum considentibus sacerdotes suos. Numquid et
scripta venissent.' Compare ministros condiaconos suos dicit
also Epist. 44, 45, 71, 76. episcopus?', where the writer is
Augustine writes to Jerome in arguing against the arrogance
the same terms, and in fact of the Roman deacons. See
this seems to have been the Philippians p. 96.
recognised form of address. ^ ggg ^^le references collected
See the Qiiaest. Vet. et Nov. by Gieseler, i. p. 105 sq.
78 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
Dionysius (a.d. 249 — 265), the presbyters always nominated as bishop one chosen out of their own body and placed in a higher grade : just as if an army were to appoint a general, or deacons were to choose from their own body one whom they knew to be diligent and call him archdeacon \ Though the direct statement of this father refers only to the ap- 2)0i?itment of the bishop, still it may be inferred that the function of the presbyters extended also to the consecration. And this inference is borne out by other evidence. ' In Egypt,' writes an older contemporary of St Jerome, the commentator Hilary, 'the pres- byters seal (i.e. ordain or consecrate), if the bishop be not present*.' This however might refer only to the ordination of presbyters, and not to the consecration of a bishop. But even the latter is supported by direct evidence, which though com- paratively late deserves consideration, inasmuch as it comes from one who was himself a patriarch of Testimony Alexandria. Eutychius, who held the patriarchal chius. ^^^ from A.D. 933 to A.D. 940, writes as follows : 'The Evangelist Mark appointed along with the patriarch Hananias twelve presbyters who should remain with the patriarch, to the end that, when the patriarchate was vacant, they might choose one of the twelve presbyters, on whose head the remain- ing eleven laying their hands should bless him and create him patriarch.' The vacant place in the
1 Epist. cxlvi. ad Evaiuj. (i. to St Augustine), August. Op. p. 1082). III. P. 2, p. 93, 'Nam in Alex-
2 Ambrosiast. on Ephes. iv. andria et per totam iEgyptum, 12. So too in the Quaest. Vet. si desit episcopus, consecrat (v. et Nov. Test. ci. (falsely ascribed 1. consignat) presbyter.'
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
79
presbytery was then to be filled up, that the number twelve might be constant \ ' This custom/ adds this writer, 'did not cease till the time of Alexander (a.d. 313 — 326), patriarch of Alexandria. He how- ever forbad that henceforth the presbyters should create the patriarch, and decreed that on the death of the patriarch the bishops should meet to ordain the (new) patriarch, etc.^' It is clear from this passage that Eutychius considered the functions of nomination and ordination to rest with the same persons.
If this view however be correct, the practice of the Alexandrian Church was exceptional ; for at this
1 Eutychii Patr. Alexandr. Annales i. p. 331 (Pococke, Oxon. 1656). The inferences in the text are resisted by . Abraham Ecchellensis Euty- chius vindicatus p. 22 sq. (in answer to Selden the translator of Eutychius), and by Le Quien Oriens Ghristianus ii. p. 342, who urge all that can be said on the opposite side. The au- thority of a writer so inaccurate as Eutychius, if it had been unsupported, would have had no weight ; but, as we have seen, this is not the case.
2 Between Dionysius and Alexander four bishops of Alex- andria intervene, Maximus (a.d. 265), Theonas (a.d. 283), Peter I. (a.d. 301), and Achillas (a.d. 312). It will therefore be seen that there is a considerable dis- crepancy between the accounts
of Jerome and Eutychius as to the time when the change was effected. But we may reasonably conjecture (with Ritschl, p. 432) that the tran- sition from the old state of things to the new would be the result of a prolonged con- flict between the Alexandrian presbytery who had hitherto held these functions, and the bishops of the recently created Egyptian sees to whom it was proposed to transfer them.
Somewhat later one Ischyras was deprived of his orders by an Alexandrian synod, because he had been ordained by a presbyter only : Athan. Apol. c. Arian. 75 (i. p. 152). From this time at all events the Alexandrian Church insisted as strictly as any other on episco- pal ordination.
80
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
Increase of the Egyptian episco- pate.
Decree of the Coun- cil of Au- cyra.
time the formal act of the bishop was considered generally necessary to give validity to ordination. Nor is the exception difficult to account for. At the close of the second century, when every con- siderable church in Europe and Asia appears to have had its bishop, the only representative of the episcopal order in Egypt was the bishop of Alex- andria. It was Demetrius first (a.d. 190 — 233), as Eutychius informs us^ who appointed three other bishops, to which number his successor Heraclas (a.d. 233 — 249) added twenty more. This extension of episcopacy to the provincial towns of Egypt paved the way for a change in the mode of appointing and ordaining the patriarch of Alexandria. But before this time it was a matter of convenience and almost of necessity that the Alexandrian presbyters should themselves ordain their chief
Nor is it only in Alexandria that we meet with this peculiarity. Where the same urgent reason existed, the same exceptional practice seems to have been tolerated. A decree of the Council of Ancyra (a.d. 314) ordains that 'it be not allowed to country- bishops {')(oyp€'m(j K67roi<^) to ordain presbyters or deacons, nor even to city- presbyters, except permis- sion be given in each parish by the bishop in writing'^'
1 Eutych. Ann. 1. c. p. 332. Heraclas, we are informed on the same authority (p. 335), was the first Alexandrian prelate who bore the title of patriarch ; this designation being equiva- lent to metropolitan or bishop of bishops.
2 Co?ici7.Jwc?/r.can.l3(Routh
Rel. Sacr. iv. p. 121) x^peTrio"- kSttois fir] e^eipai irpea^vrepovs ij diUKduovs x^'POTOJ'et/', dXXd [/Utji/] fxrjSe Tpecr^vT^pots TroXeios x^P'-^ Tou eTiTpaTTTJvat vwb toG einaKd- TTOV fiera ypa/ufxaTuu iv eKaaTy irapoidq.. The various readings and interpretations of this canon will be found in Routh's note,
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
81
Thus while restraining the existing license, the framers of the decree still allow very considerable latitude. And it is especially important to observe that they lay more stress on episcopal sanction than on episcopal ordination. Provided that the former
p. 144 sq. Routh himself reads ctXXA fj.r]v fji.r}8^ Trpea^vrepovs irb- Xews, making Trpea^ur^povs wdXeus the object of x^^porope'iv, but to this there is a twofold objection : (1) he necessarily understands the former irpea^vr^pov^ to mean irpea^vripovs x^P^-^y though this is not expressed: (2) he inter- prets aWa fiT]v firiS^ 'much less,' a sense which fjLrjSd seems to exclude and which is not borne out by his examples.
The name and office of the XwpeTTtV/coTros appear to be re- liques of the time when iirl- (T/fOTTos and irpeff^irepos were synonymes. While the large cities had their college of pres- byters, for the villages a single 7r/)e<rj8i/Tepos (or kirlaKoiros) would suffice; but from his isolated position he would be tempted, even if he were not obliged, to perform on his own responsi- bility certain acta which in the city would only be performed by the bishop properly so called, or at least would not be performed without his consent. Out of this position the office of the later x^P^'^'^'^'^ottos would gradually be developed ; but the rate of progression would not be uniform, and the regulations
affecting it would be determined by the circumstances of the par- ticular locality. Hence, at a later date, it seems in some places to have been presbyteral, in others episcopal. In the Ancyran canon just quoted a chorepiscopus is evidently placed below the city presbytery; but in other notices he occupies a higher position. For the con- flicting accounts of the xw/seTrfo- KOTTos see Bingham ii. xiv,
Baur's account of the origin of the episcopate supposes that each Christian congregation was presided over, not by a college of presbyters, but by a single irpeapOrepos or iiricTKOTros, i.e. that the constitution of the Church was from the first mon- archical: see Pastoralbriefe p. 81 sq., Ursprung des Episco- pats p. 84 sq. This view is inconsistent alike with the ana- logy of the synagogue and with the notices in the apostolic and early ecclesiastical writings . But the practice which he con- siders to have been the general rule would probably hold in small country congregations, where a college of presbyters would be unnecessary as well as impossible.
6
82
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
Ordina- tion con- fined to the bishops.
Causes of the deve- lopment of episco- pacy.
is secured, they are content to dispense with the latter.
As a general rule however, even those writers who maintain a substantial identity in the offices of the bishop and presbyter reserve the power of or- daining to the former^ This distinction in fact may be regarded as a settled maxim of Church polity in the fourth and later centuries. And when Aerius maintained the equality of the bishop and presbyter and denied the necessity of episcopal ordination, his opinion was condemned as heretical, and is stigma- tized as ' frantic ' by Epiphanius^
It has been seen that the institution of an episcopate must be placed as far back as the closing years of the first century, and that it cannot, without violence to historical testimony, be dissevered from the name of St John. But it has been seen also that the earliest bishops did not hold the same independent position of supremacy which was and is occupied by their later representatives. It will therefore be instructive to trace the successive stages by which the power of the office was deve- loped during the second and third centuries. Though something must be attributed to the frailty of human
^ St Jerome himself {Epist. cxlvi.), in the context of the passage in which he maintains the identity of the two orders and alleges the tradition of the Alexandrian Church (see above, p. 77), adds, ' Quid enim facit excepta ordinatione episcopus quod presbyter non f aciat ? ' So also Const. Apost. viii. 28 iwl-
irpea^^Tepos x^'po^eTei oi/ x^'-f^' Tovei, Chrysost. Horn. xi. on 1 Tim. iii. 8 rri x"po'"o''^P /^opy VTrep^e^TiKaai Kal tovtu) jxbvop doKouffi irXeoveKTcTv Trpecr^vripovs. See Bingham ii. iii. 5, 6, 7, for other references.
2 Haer. Ixxv. 3 ; comp. Au- gustine Haer. § 53. See Words- worth Theoph. Angl. c. x.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 83
pride and love of power, it will nevertheless appear that the pressing needs of the Church were mainly instrumental in bringing about the result, and that this development of the episcopal office was a pro- vidential safeguard amid the confusion of speculative opinion, the distracting effects of persecution, and the growing anarchy of social life, which threatened not only the extension but the very existence of the Church of Christ. Ambition of office in a society where prominence of raiik involved prominence of risk was at least no vulgar and selfish passion.
This development will be conveniently connected Three with three great names, each separated from the co^ected other by an interval of more than half a century, with its and each marking a distinct stage in its progress. Ignatius, Irenaeus, and Cyprian, represent three suc- cessive advances towards the supremacy which was ultimately attained.
1. Ignatius of Antioch is commonly recognized 1. Iqna- as the staunchest advocate of episcopacy in the early ages. Even, though we should refuse to accept as TheSyriac genuine any portions which are not contained in the Syriac Version*, this view would nevertheless be amply justified. Confining our attenticm for the moment to the Syriac letters we find that to this father the chief value of episcopacy lies in the fact
^ In the earlier editions of is genuine ; but for the sake of
this work I assumed that the argument I have kept the tsvo
Syriac Version published by apart in the text, I hope before
Cure ton represented the Epistles long to give reasons for this
of Ignatius in their original change of opinion in my edition
form. I am now convinced of this father. [See p. 145 sq.,
that this is only an abridgment Additional Note C] and that the shorter Greek form
6—2
84 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
that it constitutes a visible centre of unit?/ in the Thebishop congregation. He seems in the development of the ^a^A^centre office to keep in view the same purpose which we of unity, may suppose to have influenced the last surviving Apostles in its institution. The withdrawal of the authoritative preachers of the Gospel, the personal disciples of the Lord, had severed one bond of union. The destruction of the original abode of Christendom, the scene of the life and passion of the Saviour and of the earliest triumphs of the Church, had re- moved another. Thus deprived at once of the per- sonal and the local ties which had hitherto bound individual to individual and church to church, the Christian brotherhood was threatened with schism, disunion, dissolution. ' Vindicate thine office with all diligence,* writes Ignatius to the bishop of Smyrna, .'in things temporal as well as spiritual. Have a care of unity, than which nothing is better\' ' The crisis requires thee, as the pilot requires the winds or the storm-tossed mariner a haven, so as to attain unto God^' ' Let not those who seem to be plausible and teach falsehoods dismay thee; but stand thou firm as an anvil under the hammer: 'tis the part of a great athlete to be bruised and to conquer^' ' Let nothing be done without thy consent, and do thou nothing without the consent of God^' He adds directions also, that those who decide on a life of virginity shall disclose their intention to the bishop only, and those who marry shall obtain his consent to their union, that 'their marriage may be according
1 Polyc. 1. » Folyc. 3.
2 Polyc. 2. "^ Polyc. 4.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 85
to the Lord and not according to lust\' And turn- ing from the bishop to the people he adds, * Give heed to your bishop, that God also may give heed to you. I give my life for those who are obedient to the bishop, to presbyters, to deacons. With them may I have my portion in the presence of God^' Writing to the Ephesians also he says that in re- ceiving their bishop Onesimus he is receiving their whole body, and he charges them to love him, and one and all to be in his likeness^, adding, 'Since love does not permit me to be silent, therefore I have been forward in exhorting you to conform to the will of God^'
From these passages it will be seen that St Ignatius values the episcopate chiefly as a security for good discipline and harmonious working in the Church. And, when we pass from the Syriac letters The Greek to the Short Greek, the standing ground is still 1^**^^^- unchanged. At the same time, though the point of view is unaltered, the Greek letters contain far stronger expressions than are found in the Syriac. Throughout the whole range of Christian literature, no more uncompromising advocacy of the episcopate can be found than appears in these writings. This cham- pionship indeed is extended to the two lower orders of the ministry^, more especially to the presbyters*^. But it is when asserting the claims of the episcopal Their ex- office to obedience and respect, that the language is exalSon
strained to the utmost. ' The bishops established in of the
episco-
1 Polyc. 5. 5 Magn, 13, Trail. 3, 7, Phi- ^^^^'
2 Pokjc. 6. lad. 4, 7, Smyrn. 8, 12.
3 Ephes. 1. « Ephes. 2, 20, 3Iagn. 2, 6, * Ephes. 8. Trail. 13.
86 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
the farthest parts of the world are in the counsels of Jesus Christ \' * Every one whom the Master of the house sendeth to govern His own household we ought to receive, as Him that sent him ; clearly therefore we ought to regard the bishop as the Lord Himself^.' Those 'live a life after Christ/ who 'obey the bishop as Jesus Christ^' * It is good to know God and the bishop ; he that honoureth the bishop is honoured of God ; he that doeth anything without the knowledge of the bishop serveth the devil ^' He that obeys his bishop, obeys * not him, but the Father of Jesus Christ, the Bishop of all' On the other hand, he that practises hypocrisy towards his bishop,
* not only deceiveth the visible one, but cheateth the Unseen*.' *As many as are of God and of Jesus Christ, are with the bishop^' Those are approved who are ' inseparate [from God], from Jesus Christ, and from the bishop, and from the ordinances of the Apostles^' ' Do ye all,' says this writer again,
* follow the . bishop, as Jesus Christ followed the Father®.* The Ephesians are commended accord- iugly, because they are so united with their bishop ' as the Church with Jesus Christ and as Jesus Christ with the Father.' 'If,* it is added, 'the prayer of one or two hath so much power, how much more the prayer of the bishop and of the whole Church ^'
* Wherever the bishop may appear, there let the multitude be, just as where Jesus Christ may be,
1 Ephes. 3. 6 Philad. 3.
2 EpJm. 6. 7 Trail. 7.
3 Trail. 2. 8 Smyrn. 8, comp. 3Iagn. 7. * Smyrn. 9. » Ephes. 5.
Magn. 3.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 87
there is the universal Church ^' Therefore 'let no man do anything pertaining to the Church without the bishop'"*.' * It is not allowable either to baptize or to hold a love-feast without the bishop : but whatsoever he may approve, this also is well pleasing to God, that everything which is done may be safe and valid'.' 'Unity of God,' according to this writer, consists in harmonious co-operation with the bishop*.
And yet with all this extravagant exaltation of The pies the episcopal office, the presbyters are not put out however of sight. They form a council^ a 'worthy spiritual not for- coronal**' round the bishop. It is the duty of every individual, but especially of them, ' to refresh the bishop unto the honour of the Father and of Jesus Christ and of the Apostles''.' They stand in the same relation to him, 'as the chords to the lyre**.' If the bishop occupies the place of God or of Jesus Christ, the presbyters are as the Apostles, as the council of God^. If obedience is due to the bishop as the grace of God, it is due to the presbytery as the law of Jesus Christ ^l
It need hardly be remarked how subversive ofConsidera- the true spirit of Christianity, in the negation of j^g^g^^jjy" individual freedom and the consequent suppression this lan-
guage.
1 Smyrn. 8. very frequent in the Ignatian
'^ ib. ; comp. Magn. 4, Philad. Epistles.
7. 6 ^jagn. 13.
3 Smyrn. 8. 7 Trail. 12.
^ Polyc. 8 iv hbrrjTi 0eoD Koi ^ Ephes. 4 ; comp. the meta-
itnaKoirov (v. 1. iwiaKoirrj) : comp. phor in Philad. 1.
Philad. 3, 8. » Trail. 2, 3, 3Iagn. 6, Smyrn.
5 The word rrpea^vripiov, 8.
which occurs 1 Tim. iv. 14, is ^^ Magn. 2.
88 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
of direct responsibility to God in Christ, is the crushing despotism with which this language, if taken literally, would invest the episcopal office. It is more important to bear in mind the extenuating fact, that the needs and distractions of the age seemed to call for a greater concentration of authority in the episcopate ; and we might well be surprised, if at a great crisis the defence of an all-important institution were expressed in words carefully weighed and guarded. The same Strangely enough, not many years after Ignatius vancedin ^^^^ asserted the claims of the episcopate as a the inter- safeguard of orthodoxy, another writer used the Ebionism. same instrument to advance a very different form of Christianity. The organization, which is thus employed to consolidate and advance the Catholic Church, might serve equally well to establish a compact Ebionite community. I have already men- tioned the author of the Clementine Homilies as a staunch advocate of episcopacy \ His view of the sanctions and privileges of the office does not differ materially from that of Ignatius. 'The multitude of the faithful,' he says, * must obey a single person, that so it may be able to continue in harmony.' Monarchy is a necessary condition of peace ; this may be seen from the aspect of the world around : at present there are many kings, and the result is discord and war; in the world to come God has appointed one King only, that ' by reason of monarchy an indestructible peace may be established : therefore all ought to follow some one person as guide, prefer- ring him in honour as the image of God ; and this * See above, p. 46.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 89
guide must show the way that leadeth to the Holy City^' Accordingly he delights to speak of the bishop as occupying the place or the seat of Christ 2. Every insult, he says, and every honour offered to a bishop is carried to Christ and from Christ is taken up to the presence of the Father; and thus it is requited manifolds Similarly another writer of the Clementine cycle, if he be not the same, compares Christ to the captain, the bishop to the mate, and the presbyters to the sailors, while the lower orders and the laity have each their proper place in the ship of the Church ^
It is no surprise that such extravagant claims Monta- should not have been allowed to pass unchallenged, reaction In opposition to the lofty hierarchical pretensions against thus advanced on the one hand in the Ignatian vagance. letters on behalf of Catholicism and on the other by the Clementine writer in the interests of Ebionism, a strong spiritualist reaction set in. If in its mental aspect the heresy of Montanus must be regarded as a protest against the speculative subtleties of Gnosticism, on its practical side it was equally a rebound from the aggressive tyranny of hierarchical assumption. Montanus taught that the true suc- cession of the Spirit, the authorized channel of Divine grace, must be sought not in the hierarchical but in the prophetic order. For a rigid outward system he substituted the free inward impulse. Wildly fanatical as were its manifestations, this re- action nevertheless issued from a true instinct which rebelled against the oppressive yoke of external
1 Clem. Horn. iii. 61, 62. ^ ^-ft. m 66, 70.
2 ib. iii. 60, 66, 70. "* Clem. Horn. Ep. Clem. 15.
90
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
2. Ire-
The bishop the (lejw- sitary of primitive truth.
tradition and did battle for the freedom of the in- dividual spirit. Montanus was excommunicated and Montanism died out ; but though dead, it yet spake ; for a portion of its better spirit was infused into the Catholic Church, which it leavened and refreshed and invigorated.
2. iRENiEUS followed Ignatius after an interval of about two generations. With the altered cir- cumstances of the Church, the aspect of the episcopal office has also undergone a change. The religious atmosphere is now charged with heretical specu- lations of all kinds. Amidst the competition of rival teachers, all eagerly bidding for support, the per- plexed believer asks for some decisive test by which he may try the claims of the disputants. To this (juestion Irenseus supplies an answer. 'If you wish,' he argues, ' to ascertain the doctrine of the Apostles, apply to the Church of the Apostles. In the suc- cession of bishops tracing their descent from the primitive age and appointed by the Apostles them- selves, you have a guarantee for the transmission of the pure faith, which no isolated, upstart, self-con- stituted 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.
1 See especially iii. cc. 2, 3, 4, iv. 26. 2 sq., iv. 32. 1, v. preef., v. 20. 1, 2.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 91
This view is not peculiar to Irengeus. It seems The same
to have been advanced earlier by Hegesippus, for in by Hege-
a detached fragment he lays stress on the succession sippusand
° "^ . , Tertul-
of the bishops at Rome and at Corinth, adding that lian.
in each church and in each succession the pure faith was preserved^; so that he seems here to be contro- verting that 'gnosis falsely so called' which else- where he denounces^. It is distinctly maintained by Tertullian, the younger contemporary of Irenseus, who refers, if not with the same frequency, at least with equal emphasis, to the tradition of the apo- stolic churches as preserved by the succession of the episcopate^.
3. As two generations intervened between 3. Cy- Ignatius and Irenaeus, so the same period roughly speaking separates Irenaeus from Cyprian. If with Ignatius the bishop is the centre of Christian unity, if with Irenaeus he is the depositary of the apostolic tradition, with Cyprian he is the absolute vicegerent The of Christ in things spiritual. In mere strength ^^ ^i'^eqlrent language indeed it would be difficult to surpass of Christ. Ignatius, who lived about a century and a half earlier. With the single exception of the sacerdotal view of the ministry which had grown up mean- while, Cyprian puts forward no assumption which this father had not advanced either literally or sub- stantially long before. This one exception however is all important, for it raised the sanctions of the episcopate to a higher level and put new force into old titles of respect. Theoretically therefore it may be said that Cyprian took his stand on the combi-
1 In Euseb. H. E. iv. 22. See '^ Euseb. H. E. iii. 32.
above, p. 61. "* Tertull. de Praescr. 32.
92 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
nation of the ecclesiastical authority as asserted by Ignatius with the sacerdotal claim which had been Influence developed in the half century just past. But the on the"pi^ ^^^^ influence which he exercised in the elevation of scopate. the episcopate consisted not in the novelty of his theoretical views, but in his practical energy and success. The absolute supremacy of the bishop had remained hitherto a lofty title or at least a vague ill-defined assumption : it became through his ex- ertions a substantial and patent and world-wide fact. The first prelate whose force of character vibrated throughout the whole of Christendom, he was driven not less by the circumstances of his position than by his own temperament and conviction to throw all his energy into this scale. And the permanent result was much vaster than he could have antici- pated beforehand or realized after the fact. Forced into the episcopate against his will, he raised it to a position of absolute independence, from which it has never since been deposed. The two great controversies in which Cyprian engaged, though immediately arising out of questions of discipline, combined from opposite sides to consolidate and enhance the power of the bishops \ First con- The first question of dispute concerned the troversy. treatment of such as had lapsed during the recent persecution under Decius. Cyprian found himself
1 The influence of Cyprian also Rettberg Thascius Cacilius
on the episcopate is ably stated Cyprianus p. 367 sq., Huther
in two vigorous articles by Cyprian's Lehre von der Kirche
Kayser entitled Cyprien ou p. 59 sq. For Cyprian's work
VAutonomie de VEpiscopat in generally see Smith's Diet, of
the Revue de Theologie xv. pp. Christ. Biogr. s. v. 138 sq., 242 sq. (1857). See
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 93
on this occasion doing battle for the episcopate Treatment against a twofold opposition, against the confessors J^apsed who claimed the right of absolving and restoring these fallen brethren, and against his own presbyters who in the absence of their bishop supported the claims of the confessors. From his retirement he launched his shafts against this combined array, where an aristocracy of moral influence was leagued with an aristocracy of official position. With signal determination and courage in pursuing his aim, and with not less sagacity and address in discerning the means for carrying it out, Cyprian had on this occasion the further advantage, that he was defend- ing the cause of order and right. He succeeded moreover in enlisting in his cause the rulers of the most powerful church in Christendom. The Roman clergy declared for the bishop and against the presbyters of Carthage. Of Cyprian's sincerity no reasonable question can be entertained. In main- taining the authority of his office he believed himself to be fighting his Master's battle, and he sought success as the only safeguard of the integrity of the Church of Christ. In this lofty and disinterested spirit, and with these advantages of position, he entered upon the contest.
It is unnecessary for my purpose to follow out the conflict in detail : to show how ultimately the positions of the two combatants were shifted, so that from maintaining discipline against the champions of too great laxity Cyprian found himself protecting the fallen against the advocates of too great severity ; to trace the progress of the schism and the attempt to establish a rival episcopate ; or to unravel the
94 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
entanglements of the Novatian controversy and lay
open the intricate relations between Rome and
Power of Carthage^ It is sufficient to say that Cyprian's
in^his^own victory was complete. He triumphed over the
church de- confessors, triumphed over his own presbyters, tri-
nmphed over the schismatic bishop and his party.
It was the most signal success hitherto achieved for
the episcopate, because the battle had been fought
and the victory won on this definite issue. The
absolute supremacy of the episcopal office was thus
established against the two antagonists from which
it had most to fear, against a recognised aristocracy
of ecclesiastical office and an irregular but not less
powerful aristocracy of moral weight.
The position of the bishop with respect to the individual church over which he ruled was thus defined by the first contest in which Cyprian en- Second gageil. The second conflict resulted in determining versy. Re- ^^^ relation to the Church universal. The schism baptism of which had grown up during the first conflict created the difficulty which gave occasion to the second. A question arose whether baptism by heretics and schismatics should be held valid or not. Stephen the Roman bishop, pleading the immemorial custom of his church, recognised its validity. Cyprian in- sisted on rebaptism in such cases. Hitherto the bishop of Carthage had acted in cordial harmony with Rome : but now there was a collision. Stephen,
^ The intricacy of the whole antagonists, varying and even
proceeding is a strong evidence interchanged with the change
of the genuineness of the letters of circumstances, are very na-
and other documents which tural, but very unlike the in-
contain the account of the con- vention of a forger who has a
troversy. The situations of the distinct side to maintain.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 95
inheriting the haughty temper and aggressive policy of his earlier predecessor Victor, excommunicated those who differed from the Roman usage in this matter. These arrogant assumptions were directly met by Cyprian. He summoned first one and then . another synod of African bishops, who declared in his favour. He had on his side also the churches of Asia Minor, which had been included in Stephen's edict of excommunication. Thus the bolt hurled by Stephen fell innocuous, and the churches of Africa and Asia retained their practice. The principle asserted in the struggle was not unimportant. As Relations in the former conflict Cyprian had maintained the bishops to independent supremacy of the bishop over the officers ^^^ U"^- and members of his own congregation, so now he church contended successfully for his immunity from any <^6""6"- interference from without. At a later period indeed Rome carried the victory, but the immediate result of this controversy was to establish the independence and enhance the power of the episcopate. Moreover this struggle had the further and not less important consequence of defining and exhibiting the relations of the episcopate to the Church in another way: As the individual bishop had been pronounced indis- pensable to the existence of the individual com- munity, so the episcopal order was now put forward as the absolute indefeasible representative of the universal Church. Synods of bishops indeed had been held frequently before; but under Cyprian's guidance they assumed a prominence which threw all existing precedents into the shade. A ' one un- divided episcopate ' was his watchword. The unity of the Church, he maintained, consists in the
96 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
unanimity of the bishops ^ In this controversy, as
in the former, he acted throughout on the principle,
distinctly asserted, that the existence of the episcopal
office was not a matter of practical advantage or
ecclesiastical rule or even of apostolic sanction, but
an absolute incontrovertible decree of God. The
triumph of Cyprian therefore was the triumph of
this principle.
Cyprian's The greatness of Cyprian's influence on the epi-
viewofthe gcopate is indeed due to this fact, that with him the
episco- '^ ••11
pate. statement of the principle precedes and necessitates
the practical measures. Of the sharpness and dis- tinctness of his sacerdotal views it will be time to speak presently; but of his conception of the epi- scopal office generally thus much may be said here, that he regards the bishop as exclusively the repre- sentative of God to the congregation and hardly, if at all, as the representative of the congregation before God. The bishop is the indispensable channel of divine grace, the indispensable bond of Christian brotherhood. The episcopate is not so much the roof as the foundation-stone of the ecclesiastical edifice ; not so much the legitimate development as the primary condition of a churchy The bishop is
1 De Unit. Eccl. 2 ' Quam he argues (Epist. 43) that, as
unitatem firmiter tenere et vin- there is one Church, there must
dicare debemus maxime episco- be only ' unum altare et unum
pi qui in ecclesia praesidemus, saeerdotium (i.e. one episco-
ut episcopatum quoque ipsum pate).' Corap. also Epist. 46,
unum atque indivisum jJrobe- 55, 67.
mus'; and again 'Episcopatus ^ Epist. 66 'Scire debes epi-
unus est, cujus a singulis in scopum in ecclesia esse et eccle-
solidum pars tenetur : ecclesia siam in episcopo, et si quis cum
quoque una est etc' So again episcopo non sit, in ecclesia non
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 97
appointed directly by God, is responsible directly to God, is inspired directly from God^ This last point deserves especial notice. Though in words he frequently defers to the established usage of con- sulting the presbyters and even the laity in the appointment of officers and in other matters affecting the well-being of the community, yet he only makes the concession to nullify it immediately. He pleads a direct official inspiration" which enables him to dispense with ecclesiastical custom and to act on his own responsibility. Though the presbyters may still have retained the shadow of a controlling power over the acts of the bishop, though the courtesy of language by which they were recognised as fellow- presbyters^ was not laid aside, yet for all practical ends the independent supremacy of the episcopate was completely established by the principles and the measures of Cyprian.
In the investigation just concluded I have en- The power
of the
esse'; Epist. 33 ' Ut ecclesia rebellarunt.'
super episcopos constituatur et ^ See esp. Epist. 3, 43, 55,
omnis actus ecclesiae per eosdem 59, 73, and above all 66 {Ad
praepositosgubernetur.' Hence Pupianum).
the expression ' nee episcopum ^ ;^pist. 38 ' Expectanda non
nee ecclesiam cogitans,' Epist. sunt testimonia humana, cum
41 ; hence also 'honor episcopi' praecedunt divina suffragia';
is associated not only with Epist. 39 'Non humana sufifra-
' ecclesiae ratio' (jBpisf. 33) but gatione sed divina dignatione
even with ' timor Dei' {Epist. conjunctum'; Epist. 40 ' Ad-
15). Compare also the language monitos nos et iustructos sciatis
{Epist. 59) ' Nee ecclesia istic dignatione divina ut Numidicus
cuiquam clauditur nee episcopus presbyter adscribatur presbyte-
alicui denegatur,' and again rorum etc'
{Epist. 43) ' Soli cum episcopis ^ See above, p. 77, note 1. non sint, qui contra episcopos
L. 7
98 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
bishops a deavoured to trace the changes in the relative practical^ position of the first and second orders of the conveni- ministry, by which the power was gradually con- centrated in the hands of the former. Such a development involves no new principle and must be regarded chiefly in its practical bearings. It is plainly competent for the Church at any given time to entrust a particular office with larger powers, as the emergency may require. And, though the grounds on which the independent authority of the episcopate was at times defended may have been false or exaggerated, no reasonable objection can be taken to later forms of ecclesiastical polity because the measure of power accorded to the bishop does not remain exactly the same as in the Church of the subapostolic ages. Nay, to many thoughtful and dispassionate minds even the gigantic power wielded by the popes during the middle ages will appear justifiable in itself (though they will repudiate the false pretensions on which it was founded, and the false opinions which were associated with it), since only by such a providential concen- tration of authority could the Church, humanly speaking, have braved the storms of those ages of and un- anarchy and violence. Now however it is my with sacer- purpose to investigate the origin and growth of dotahsm. .^ j^g^ principle, which is nowhere enunciated in the New Testament, but which notwithstanding has worked its way into general recognition and seriously modified the character of later Christianity. The progress of the sacerdotal view of the ministry is one of the most striking and important phenomena in the history of the Church.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 99
It has been pointed out already that the sacer- No sacer- dotal functions and privileges, which alone are in the New mentioned in the apostolic writings, pertain to all Testa- believers alike and do not refer solely or specially to the ministerial office. If to this statement it be objected that the inference is built upon the silence of the Apostles and Evangelists, and that such reasoning is always precarious, the reply is that an exclusive sacerdotalism (as the word is commonly understood) ^ contradicts the general tenour of the Gospel. But indeed the strength or weakness of an argument drawn from silence depends wholly on the circumstance under which the silence is maintained. And in this case it cannot be con- sidered devoid of weight. In the Pastoral Epistles for instance, which are largely occupied with questions relating to the Christian ministry, it seems scarcely possible that this aspect should have been overlooked, if it had any place in St Paul's teaching. The Apostle discusses at length the requirements, the responsibilities, the sanctions, of the ministerial office : he regards the presbyter as an example, as a teacher, as a philanthropist, as a ruler. How then, it may well be asked, are the
1 In speaking of sacerdotalism, tian ministry, may have borne I assume the term to have essen- this innocent meaning. But tially the same force as when at a later date it was certainly applied to the Jewish priest- so used as to imply a sub- hood. In a certain sense (to stantial identity of character be considered hereafter) all offi- with the Jewish priesthood, i.e. cers appointed to minister 'for to designate the Christian minis- men in things pertaining to ter as one who offers sacrifices God ' may be called priests ; and makes atonement for the and sacerdotal phraseology, sins of others, when first applied to the Chris-
7—2
100
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
Its rapid spread at a later date.
sacerdotal functions, the sacerdotal privileges, of the office wholly set aside ? If these claims were recog- nised by him at all, they must necessarily have taken a foremost place. The same argument again applies with not less force to those passages in the Epistles to the Corinthians, where St Paul asserts his apostolic autho- rity against his detractors. Nevertheless, so entirely had the primitive conception of the Christian Church been supplanted by this sacerdotal view of the minis- try, before the northern races were converted to the Gospel, and the dialects derived from the Latin took the place of the ancient tongue, that the languages of modern Europe very generally supply only one word to represent alike the priest of the Jewish or Heathen ceremonial and the presbyter of the Christian ministry \
^ It is a significant fact that in those languages which have only one word to express the two ideas, this word etymolo- gically represents ' presbyterus ' and not ' sacerdos,' e.g. the French pretre, the German priester, and the English priest ; thus showing that the sacer- dotal idea was imported and not original. In the Italian, where two words prete and sacerdote exist side by side, there is no marked difference in usage, ex- cept ihoX prete is the more com- mon. If the latter brings out the sacerdotal idea more pro- minently, the former is also ap- plied to Jewish and Heathen priests and therefore distinctly involves this idea. Wiclif 'aver-
sion of the New Testament naturally conforms to the Vul- gate, in which it seems to be the rule to translate irpea^v- repot by * presbyteri ' (in Wiclif ' preestes ') where it obviously denotes the second order in the ministry (e.g. Acts xiv. 23, 1 Tim. V. 17, 19, Tit. i. 5, James v. 14), and by 'seniores' (in Wiclif ' eldres ' or ' elder men ') in other passages : but if so, this rule is not always successfully applied (e.g. Acts xi. 30, xxi. 18, 1 Pet. v. 1). A doubt about the meaning may explain the anomaly that the word is translated ' presbyteri,' * preestes,' Acts xv. 2, and ' seniores,' 'elder men,' Acts xv. 4, 6, 22, xvi. 4 ; though the per-
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY',
'ALmOi'UM
For, though no distinct traces of sacerdotalism are visible in the ages immediately after the Apostles, yet having once taken root in the Church it shot up rapidly into maturity. Towards the close of the second century we discern the first germs appearing above the surface : yet, shortly after the middle of the third, the plant has all but attained its full growth. The origin of this idea, the progress of its development, and the conditions favourable to its spread, will be considered in the present section of this essay.
A separation of orders, it is true, appeared at Distioc- a much earlier date, and was in some sense involved *j^" of the in the appointment of a special ministry. This, from the and not more than this, was originally contained ^^ ^ in the distinction of clergy and laity. If the sacer- dotal view of the ministry engrafted itself on this distinction, it nevertheless was not necessarily implied or even indirectly suggested thereby. The term 'clerus,' as a designation of the ministerial office, did not owing to any existing associations convey the idea of sacerdotal functions. The word not de- is not used of the Aaronic priesthood in any special the^Le-^^ sense which would explain its transference to the vitical Christian ministry. It is indeed said of the Levites, hood, that they have no 'clerus' in the land, the Lord Himself being their 'clerus'\ But the Jewish
sons intended are the same. In reformed Church from Tyndale
Acts XX. 17, it is rendered in downward translate irpea^^repoL
Wiclif s version ' the grettist uniformly by ' elders.'
men of birthe,' a misunder- i Deut. x. 9, xviii. 1, 2 ;
standing of the Vulgate ' ma- comp. Num. xxvi. 62, Deut. xii.
jores natu.' The English ver- 12, xiv. 27, 29, Josh. xiv. 3.
sions of the reformers and the Jerome {Epist. lii. 5, i. p. 258)
. 102 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
priesthood is never described conversely as the special * clerus ' of Jehovah : while on the other hand the metaphor thus inverted is more than once applied to the whole Israelite peopled Up to this point therefore the analogy of Old Testament usage would have suggested * clerus ' as a name rather for the entire body of the faithful than for the ministry specially or exclusively. Nor do other references to the clerus or lot in connexion with the Levitical priesthood countenance its special application. The tithes, it is true, were assigned to the sons of Levi as their 'clerus '2; but in this there is nothing distinctive, and in fact the word is employed much more prominently in describing the lands allotted to the whole people. Again the courses of priests and Levites selected to conduct the temple-service were appointed by lot^; but the mode adopted in distributing a particular set of duties is far too special to have supplied a distinctive name for the whole order. If indeed it were an established fact that the Aaronic priesthood at the time of the Christian era commonly bore the name of * clergy,' we might be driven to explain the designation in this or in some similar way ; but apparently no evidence of any such usage exists'*, and it is there- says, * Propterea vocantur cle- ^ Deut. iv. 20 eXpui avrip Xadv rici, vel quia de sorte sunt ^yKK-qpov : comp. ix. 29 oh-ot. Domini, vel quia ipse Dominus Xa6y aov koI KXrjpds <xov. sors, id est pars, clericorum est.' ^ Num. xviii. 21, 24, 26. The former explanation would ^ i Chron. xxiv. 5, 7, 31, xxv. be reasonable, if it were sup- 8, 9.
ported by the language of the 4 q^ Qib other hand Xa6s is
Old Testament : the latter is used of the people, as contrasted plainly inadequate. either with the rulers or with
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 103
fore needless to cast about for an explanation of a fact which itself is only conjectural. The origin of the term clergy, as applied to the Christian ministry, must be sought elsewhere.
And the record of the earliest appointment made Origin of by the Christian Church after the Ascension of the a name for Lord seems to supply the clue. Exhorting the *^6 Chris- assembled brethren to elect a successor in place of ministry. Judas, St Peter tells them that the traitor 'had been numbered among them and had received the lot {Kkrjpov) of the ministry': while in the account of the subsequent proceedings it is recorded that the Apostles ' distributed lots ' to the brethren, and that ' the lot fell on Matthias and he was added to the eleven Apostles^' The following therefore seems to be the sequence of meanings, by which the word /cXrJpo? arrived at this peculiar sense : (1) the lot by which the office was assigned; (2) the office thus assigned by lot ; (3) the body of persons holding the office. The first two senses are illus- trated by the passages quoted from the Acts; and from the second to the third the transition is easy and natural. It must not be supposed however that the mode of appointing officers by lot prevailed
the priests. From this latter Ezek. vii. 22) ; comp. Clem,
contrast comes XalV<:6s, 'laic' Rom. 40,
or ' profane,' and XatVc6w * to ^ Acts i. 17 ^Xaxev rbv KXijpou,
profane ' ; which, though not 26 ^dojKav K\iqpovs avrocs kuI
found in the lxx., occur fre- ^ireaep 6 KXrjpos irrlMaddiav. In
quently in the versions of ver. 25 KXrjpop is a false reading.
Aquila, Symmachus, and Theo- The use of the word in 1 Pet.
dotion (\aiVc6s, 1 Sam. xxi. 4, v. 3 KaraKvpie^ovres tCov Kk-fjpdyv
Ezek. xlviii. 15; Xaiff6w, Deut. (i.e. the flocks assigned to them)
XX. 6, xxviii. 30, Ruth i. 12, does not illustrate this meaning.
104 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
generally in the early Church. Besides the case of Matthias no other instance is recorded in the New Testament ; nor is this procedure likely to have been commonly adopted. But just as in the passage quoted the word is used to describe the office of Judas, though Judas was certainly not selected by lot, so generally from signifying one special mode of appointment to office it got to signify office in the Church generally^ If this account of the application of * clerus ' to the Christian ministry be correct, we should expect to find it illustrated by a corresponding progress in the actual usage of the word. And this is in fact the case. The sense ' clerical appointment or office ' chronologically precedes the sense 'clergy.' The former meaning occurs several times in Irenseus. He speaks of Hyginus as ' holding the ninth clerus of the episcopal succession from the Apostles^'; and of Eleutherus in like manner he says, 'He now occupies the clerus of the episcopate in the tenth place from the Apostles^' On the other hand the
^ See Clem. Alex. Qiiis div. ^ Iren. iii. 3. 3. In this pas-
salv. 42, where KK-qpovv is ' to sage however, as in the preced-
appoint to the ministry'; and ing, the word is explained by a
Iren. iii. 3. 3 K\r}poC<r6ai ttju qualifying genitive. In Hippol.
iiriaKoirrjv. A similar extension Haer. ix. 12 (p. 290), ijp^avTo
of meaning is seen in this same iiria-KOTroi Kal irpefffiiTepoL koL
word KXijpos applied to land. SidKouoi dlyafxoi Kal Tpiyafxoi ku-
Signifying originally a piece of dl(XTaadai ets kX^povs, it is used
ground assigned by lot, it gets absolutely of 'clerical offices.'
to mean landed property gene- The Epistle of the Gallican
rally, whether obtained by as- Churches (Euseb. H. E. v. 1)
signment or by inheritance or speaks more than once of the
in any other way. kXtjpos tCov jxaprupuv, i.e. the
2 Iren. i, 27, 1. order or rank of martyrs : comp.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 105
earliest instance of ' clerus,' meaning clergy, seems to occur in Tertullian^ who belongs to the next generation. ,
It will thus be seen that the use of ' clerus ' to No sacer- denote the ministry cannot be traced to the Jewish ^^^^ ^^^^ priesthood, and is therefore wholly unconnected by the with any sacerdotal views. The term does indeed recognise the clergy as an order distinct from the laity; but this is a mere question of ecclesiastical rule or polity, and involves no doctrinal bearings. The origin of sacerdotal phraseology and ideas must be sought elsewhere.
Attention has been already directed to the Silence of absence of any appeal to sacerdotal claims in the gtoiic^^ Pastoral Epistles. The silence of the apostolic fathers on fathers deserves also to be noticed. Though the dotalism. genuine letters of all three may be truly said to hinge on questions relating to the ministry, no dis- tinct traces of this influence are visible. St Clement, Clement, as the representative of the Roman Church, writes to the Christian brotherhood at Corinth, offering friendly counsel in their disputes and rebuking their factious and unworthy conduct towards certain pres- byters whom, though blameless, they had ejected from office. He appeals to motives of Christian love, to principles of Christian order. He adduces a large number of examples from biblical history
Test. xii. Patr. Levi 8. See again 'Extollimur et inflamur
Ritschl p. 390 sq., to whom I adversus clerum.' Perhaps
am indebted for several of the however earlier instances may
passages which are quoted in have escaped notice. In Clem,
this investigation. Alex. Quis div. salv. 42 the
1 e.g. de Monog. 12 ' Unde word seems not to be used in
enim episcopi et clerus ? ' and this sense.
106 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
condemnatory of jealousy and insubordination. He urges that men, who had been appointed directly by the Apostles or by persons themselves so appointed, ought to have received better treatment. Dwelling at great length on the subject, he nevertheless ad- vances no sacerdotal claims or immunities on behalf of the ejected ministers. He does, it is true, adduce the Aaronic priesthood and the Temple service as showing that God has appointed set persons and set Import of places and will have all things done in order. He rison'wSh ^^^ before illustrated this lesson by the subordina- the Aaron- tion of ranks in an army, and by the relation of the hood. different members of the human body : he had insisted on the duties of the strong towards the weak, of the rich towards thie poor, of the wise towards the ignorant, and so forth : he had enforced the appeal by reminding his readers of the utter feebleness and insignificance of man in the sight of God, as represented in the Scriptures of the Old Testament; and then follows the passage which contains the allusion in question : ' He hath not commanded (the offerings and ministrations) to be performed at random or in disorder, but at fixed times and seasons; and where and through whom He willeth them to be performed, He hath ordained by His supreme will. They therefore who make their offerings at the appointed seasons are accept- able and blessed, since following the ordinances of the Master they do not go wrong. For to the high priest peculiar services are entrusted, and the priests have their peculiar office assigned to them, and on Levites peculiar ministrations are imposed : the lay- man is bound by lay ordinances. Let each of you.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 107
brethren, in his own rank give thanks to God, retain- ing a good conscience, not transgressing the ap- pointed rule of his service (XeLTovpyla^) etc.^' Here it is clear that in St Clement's conception the sanc- tion possessed in common by the Aaronic priesthood and the Christian ministry is not the sacerdotal consecration, but the divinely appointed order. He passes over in silence the numerous passages in the Old Testament which enjoin obedience to the priests; while the only sentence (§ 42) which he puts forward as anticipating and enforcing the authority of the Christian ministry is a misquoted and misinterpreted verse from Isaiah ; 'I will establish their overseers (bishops) in righteousness and their ministers (dea- cons) in faith I' Again a little later he mentions in illustration the murmuring of the Israelites which was rebuked by the budding of Aaron's rod^ But here too he makes it clear how far he considers the analogy to extend. He calls the sedition in the one
1 Clem. Rom. 40, 41. Ne- suspected passage, may be re-
ander {Church History, i. p. garded as decisive on this point.
272 note, Bohn's translation) 2 ig_ jx. 17, where the A.V.
conjectures that this passage is correctly renders the original,
an * interpolation from a hier- ' I will also make thy officers
archical interest,' and Dean (lit. magistrates) peace and thine
Milman {Hist, of Christianity, exactors (i.e. task -masters)
III. p. 259) says that it is 're- righteousness'; i.e. there shall
jected by all judicious and im- be no tyranny or oppression,
partial scholars.' At the risk The tax departs from the ori-
of forfeiting all claim to ju- ginal, and Clement has altered
diciousness and impartiality one the lxx. By this double di-
may venture to demur to this vergence a reference to the two
arbitrary criticism. Indeed the orders of the ministry is ob-
recent discovery of a second tained.
independent ms and of a Syriac ^ Clem. Rom. 43. Version, both containing the
108 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
case 'jealousy concerning the priesthood,' in the other 'strife concerning the honour of the episco- pate \' He keeps the names and the offices distinct. The significance of this fact will be felt at once by comparing his language with the expressions used by any later writer, such as Cyprian, who was pene- trated with the spirit of sacerdotalism 2. Ignatius. Of St Ignatius, as the champion of episcopacy,
much has been said already. It is sufficient to add here, that he never regards the ministry as a sacer- dotal office. This is equally true, whether we accept as genuine the whole of the seven letters in the Short Greek, or only those portions contained in the Syriac version. While these letters teem with passages enjoining the strictest obedience to bishops, while their language is frequently so strong as to sound almost profane, this father never once appeals to sacerdotal claims^, though such an appeal would have made his case more than doubly strong. If it
' Contrast § 43 ipfjXov i/xire- stance, the writer seems to be
abvTos irepl riji lepuxrdprjs with maintaining the superiority of
§ 44 ^pts iarai eirl tov duofxaros the new covenant, as repre-
T^s ima-KOTTTjs. The common sented by the great High-Priest
feature which connects the two {dpxi-epeijs) in and through whom
offices together is stated in the the whole Church has access to
words, §43iVa/A^ dxarao-Tao-ia God, over the old dispensation
y^v7}TaL. of the Levitical priesthood
2 See below, p. 119 sq. [Upeh). If this interpretation
'^ Some passages are quoted be correct, the passage echoes
in Greenwood Cathedra Petri the teaching of the Epistle to
I. p. 73 as tending in this direc- the Hebrews, and is opposed to
tion, e.g. Philad. 9 koXoI Kal ol exclusive sacerdotalism. On the
iepeis, Kpeiaaov hk b a/)xtepci5s nieaning of duaiaaTripioi' in the
K.T.X. But rightly interpreted Ignatian Epistles see below,
they do not favour this view. p. 130, note 1. In the passage quoted for in-
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 109
be ever safe to take the sentiments of an individual writer as expressing the belief of his age, we may infer from the silence which pervades these letters, that the sacerdotal view of the ministry had not yet found its way into the Christian Church.
When we pass on to the third apostolic father, the same phenomenon is repeated. Polycarp, like Polycarp. Clement and Ignatius, occupies much space in dis- cussing the duties and the claims of Christian ministers. He takes occasion especially to give his correspondents advice as to a certain presbyter who had disgraced his office by a grave offence \ Yet he again knows nothing, or at least says nothing, of any sacerdotal privileges which claimed respect, or of any sacerdotal sanctity which has been violated.
Justin Martyr writes about a generation later. Justin He speaks at length and with emphasis on the ^^ ^^ eucharistic offerings. Here at least we might expect to find sacerdotal views of the Christian ministry propounded. Yet this is far from being the case. He does indeed lay stress on sacerdotal functions, but these belong to the whole body of the Church, and are not in any way the exclusive right of the clergy. ' So we,' he writes, when arguing against maintains Trypho the Jew, * who through the name of Jesus g°j prS^- have believed as one man in God the maker of the hood, universe, having divested ourselves of our filthy garments, that is our sins, through the name of His first-born Son, and having been refined (irvpcoOevTefi) by the word of His calling, are the true high -priestly race of God, as God Himself also beareth witness, saying that in every place among the Gentiles are ^ See PMlippians p. 63 sq.
110 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
men offering sacrifices well-pleasing unto Him and pure (Mai. i. 11). Yet God doth not receive sacrifices from any one, except through His priests. Therefore God anticipating all sacrifices through this name, which Jesus Christ ordained to be offered, I mean those offered by the Christians in every region of the earth with (eVl) the thanksgiving (the eucharist) of the bread and of the cup, beareth witness that they are well-pleasing to Him; but the sacrifices offered by you and through those your priests He rejecteth, saying, " And your sacrifices I will not accept from your hands etc. (Mai. i. 10) "^' The whole Christian people therefore (such is Justin's conception) have not only taken the place of the Aaronic priesthood, but have become a nation of high-priests, being made one with the great High- Priest of the new covenant and presenting their eucharistic offerings in His name.
Another generation leads us from Justin Martyr to Irenaeus. When Irenseus writes, the second cen- tury is very far advanced. Yet still the silence which has accompanied us hitherto remains unbroken. And here again it is important to observe that Irenajus, if he held the sacerdotal view, had every motive for urging it, since the importance and au- thority of the episcopate occupy a large space in his teaching. Nevertheless he not only withholds this title as a special designation of the Christian minis- try, but advances an entirely different view of the priestly office. He recognises only the priesthood of moral holiness, the priesthood of apostolic self- denial. Thus commenting on the reference made 1 Dial. c. Tryph. c. 116, 117, p. 344.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 111
by our Lord to the incident in David's life where the king and his followers eat the shew-bread, 'which it is not lawful to eat save for the priests alone,' Irenseus remarks^; * He excuseth His disciples by the words of the law, and signifieth that it is lawful for priests to act freely. For David had been called to be a priest in the sight of God, although Saul carried on a persecution against him ; for all just men belong to the sacerdotal orderl Now all apo- stles of the Lord are priests, for they inherit neither lands nor houses here, but ever attend on the altar and on God': ' Who are they,' he goes on, 'that have left father and mother and have renounced all their kindred for the sake of the word of God and His- covenant, but the disciples of the Lord ? Of these Moses saith again, " But they shall have no inherit- ance; for the Lord Himself shall be their inherit- ance"; and again, '*The Priests, the Levites, in the whole tribe of Levi shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel : the first-fruits (fructificationes) of the Lord are their inheritance ; they shall eat them." For this reason also Paul saith, " I require not the gift, but I require the fruit." The disciples of the Lord, he would say, were allowed when hungry to take food of the seeds (they had sown): for "The
1 Haer. iv. 8. 3. and does not suit the context.
'^ This sentence is cited by The close conformity of their John Damascene and Antonius quotations from the Ignatian irds /SatrtXeus 5i/caios iepaTiKrjv letters is a sufficient proof that ix^i To^tv; but the words were these two writers are not in- quoted doubtless from memory dependent authorities ; see the by the one writer and borrowed passages in Cureton's Corp. by the other from him. ^aa-iXeds Igtiat. -p. 180 aq. is not represented in the Latin
112 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
labourer is worthy of his food.'" Again, striking upon the same topic in a later passage^ and com- menting on the words of Jeremiah (xxxi. 14), " I will intoxicate the soul of the priests the sons of Levi, and my people shall be filled with my good things," he adds, 'we have shown in a former book, that all disciples of the Lord are priests and Levites: who also profaned the Sabbath in the temple and are blameless.' Thus Irenieus too recog- nises the whole body of the faithful under the new dispensation as the counterparts of the sons of Levi under the old. The position of the Apostles and Evangelists has not yet been abandoned. Explana- A few years later, but still before the close of the
passage^n Century, Polycrates of Ephesus writes to Victor of
Poly- Rome. Incidentally he speaks of St John as 'having crates . .
been made a priest' and 'wearing the mitre'-; and
this might seem to be a distinct expression of sacer- dotal views, for the ' mitre ' to which he alludes is doubtless the tiara of the Jewish high-priest. But it may very reasonably be questioned if this is the correct meaning of the passage. Whether St John did actually wear this decoration of the high-priestly office, or whether Polycrates has mistaken a sym- bolical expression in some earlier writer for an actual fact, or whether lastly his language itself should be treated as a violent metaphor, I have had occasion
^ Ilaer. v. 34. 3. ...tov irodrjpr] rrjs aXrjdelas /cat to
- In Euseb. H. E. v. 24 6s HraXov rrjs TriVrews k.t.\. See
iyevrjdr] lepeOs t6 iriToXov ire^o- also, as an illustration of the
pcKUis. Comp. TertuU. adv. Jud. metaphor, Tertull. Monoy. 12
14 'exornatus podere et mitra,' 'Cum ad peraequationem disci-
Test. xii. Patr. Levi 8 dvaaras plinae sacerdotalis provocamur,
ivSvffai TT}v o-toXtjv ttjs iepareias deponimus infulas.^
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 113
to discuss above \ But in any case the notice is explained by the language of St John himself, who regards the whole body of believers as high-priests of the new covenant 2; and it is certain that the contemporaries of Polycrates still continued to hold similar language ^ As a figurative expression or as a literal fact, the notice points to St John as the veteran teacher, the chief representative, of a ponti- fical race. On the other hand, it is possible that this was not the sense which Polycrates himself attached to the figure or the fact: and if so, we have here perhaps the earliest passage in any extant Christian writing where the sacerdotal view of the ministry is distinctly put forward.
Clement of Alexandria was a contemporary of Clement Polycrates. Though his extant writings are con- ^^^^ ^^^"' siderable in extent and though they are largely occupied with questions of Christian ethics and social life, the ministry does not hold a prominent place in them. In the few passages where he mentions it, he does not betray any tendency to sacerdotal or even to