The Ancient Church: Its History, Doctrine, Worship, and Constitution

by W. D. Killen

[594:1] Epist. xxiv. pp. 79, 80.

[594:2] Epist. xxxiv. pp. 107, 108.

[594:3] Epist. xxxv. p. 111.

[595:1] Bishops and presbyters appear to have continued to ordain bishops in the time of Origen. His "Commentaries on Matthew," written according to his Benedictine editor in A.D. 245 (see Delarue's "Origen," iii. Praef.), speak of bishops and presbyters "committing whole churches to unfit persons and constituting incompetent governors."—Opera, iii. p. 753.

[595:2] It would appear that the five presbyters who opposed Cyprian constituted the majority of the presbytery. Cyprian, Epist. xl. pp. 119, 120. See also Sage's "Vindication of the Principles of the Cyprianic Age," p. 348.

[595:3] Euseb. vi. 29.

[596:1] Cyprian, Epist. xxxi. pp. 99, 100.

[596:2] Cyprian, Epist. iv. p. 31.

[596:3] Cyprian, Epist. xxxiii. p. 106, xxxiv. p. 107, lviii. p. 207, lxxi. p. 271, lxxvii. p. 327. Euseb. vii. 5.

[596:4] Thus we find him going so far as to complain that his presbyters "with contempt and dishonour of the bishop arrogate sole authority to themselves."—Epist. ix. p. 48.