[550:2] Pearson ("Vindiciae," par. ii. c. 13) has appealed to a letter from the Emperor Hadrian to the Consul Servianus as a proof that the terms bishop and presbyter had distinctive meanings as early as A.D. 134. The passage is as follows:—"Illi qui Serapim colunt, Christiani sunt; et devoti sunt Serapi, qui se Christi episcopos dicunt. Nemo illic Archisynagogus Judaeorum, nemo Samarites, nemo Christianorum Presbyter…. Ipse ille Patriarcha, quum Aegyptum venerit, ab aliis Serapidem adorare, ab aliis cogitur Christum." Such a testimony only shews that Pearson was sadly in want of evidence. This same letter has in fact often been adduced to prove that the terms bishop and presbyter were still used interchangeably, and such is certainly the more legitimate inference. See Lardner's remarks on this letter, Works, vol. vii. p. 99. Edit. London, 1838.
[550:3] "The Philippians appear to have continued to live under the same aristocratic constitution (of venerable elders) about the middle of the second century, when Polycarp addressed his Epistle to them."—Bunsen's Hippolytus, i. 369.
[551:1] [Greek: proestôs], Opera, pp. 97-99.
[551:2] "Episcopi, id est, praesides ecclesiarum."—Lib. iii. simil. ix. c. 27. There is a parallel passage to this in Tertullian, "De Baptismo," c. 17—"Summus sacerdos, qui est episcopus." This is, perhaps, the first instance on record in which a bishop is called the chief priest. Hence the necessity of the interpretation—"qui est episcopus." Pastor considered an explanation of the title "episcopus" equally necessary.
[551:3] Neander supposes this work to have been written A.D. 156. "General History," ii. 443.
[551:4] See Period II. sec. ii. chap. i. p. 368.
[552:1] So high indeed is its authority that many facts taken from it are recorded in the "Breviary." Even Bunsen appeals to it. See "Analecta Antenicaena," iii. 52, 53.
[552:2] Binius makes the following abortive attempt to explain the statement-"Quòd hierarchicus catholicae ecclesiaeae ordo, quo presbyteri episcopis, diaconi presbyteris, populus presbyteris et diaconis subditus est, ab Hygino compositus esse hic dicitur, non aliter intelligi potest, quâm quod Hyginus hierarchiae ecclesiasticae jam tempore apostolorum a Christo Domino constitutae, et a sanctis Patribus ipso antiquioribus comprobatae, quaedam duntaxat injuria temporum et scriptorum deperdita addiderit, vel eadem quae Divino jure instituta, et a patribus comprobata sunt, hac constitutione sua illustraverit." —Concilia, i. 65, 66.
[552:3] "Hic clerum composuit, et distribuit gradus."—Binii Concil. i. 65. Baronius, ad annum, 158.
[553:1] When referring to this statement Baronius says—"Porrò quod ad gradus cujusque ordinis in Ecclesia, quo ecclesiastica habetur composita hierarchia, jam a temporibus apostolorum haec facta esse, Ignatio auctore et aliis, tomo primo Annalium demonstravimus; verum aliqua antiquae formae ab Hyginio fuisse addita, vel eadem illustrata, aequum est aestimare."