f
heretics, many, such as Mannulus, Polianus, Dativus, and Secundinus,
[577:4] were located in small towns or villages. Though, probably, some
of these pastors had not the care of more than twenty or thirty
Christian families, each had the same rank and authority as the bishop
of Carthage. "It remains," said Cyprian at the opening of the council,
"that we severally declare our opinion on this same subject, judging no
one, nor depriving any one of the right of communion if he differ from
us. For no one of us sets himself up as a bishop of bishops, or by
tyrannical terror forces his colleagues to a necessity of obeying;
inasmuch as every bishop in the free use of his liberty and power has
the right of forming his own judgment." [578:1] In other quarters of the
Church its episcopal guardians were equally numerous. Hence it is said
of the famous Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, that, to sustain his
reputation, he instigated "the bishops of the adjacent rural districts
and towns" to praise him in their addresses to the people. [578:2] Even
so late as the middle of the third century, the jurisdiction of the
greatest bishops was extremely limited. Cyprian of Carthage, in point of
position the second prelate in the Western Church, presided over only
eight or nine presbyters; [578:3] and Cornelius of Rome, confessedly the
most influential ecclesiastic in Christendom, had the charge of probably
not more than fourteen congregations. [578:4]

There were commonly several elders and deacons connected with every
worshipping society, and though these, as well as the bishops, began,
towards the close of the second century, to be called clergymen, [578:5]
and were thus taught to cherish the idea that the Lord was their
inheritance, it would be quite a mistake to infer that they all
subsisted on their official income. Not a few of them probably derived
their maintenance from secular employments, some of them being tradesmen
or artizans, and others in stations of greater prominence. Hyacinthus,
an elder of the Church of Rome in the time of bishop Victor, appears to
have held a situation in the Imperial household, [579:1] and Tertullian
complains that persons engaged in trades directly connected with the
support of idolatry were promoted to ecclesiastical offices. [579:2]
There was a time when even an apostle laboured as a tent-maker, but as
the hierarchical spirit acquired strength, and as the Church increased
in wealth and numbers, th