the
right, and that they retained it in all its integrity until the former
part of the preceding century. Some have thought that Jerome has here
expressed himself indefinitely, and that he did not know the exact date
at which the arrangement he describes ceased at Alexandria. But his
testimony, when fairly analysed, can scarcely be said to want precision;
for he obviously speaks of Heraclas and Dionysius as bishops _by
anticipation_, alleging that a custom which anciently existed among the
elders of the Egyptian metropolis was maintained until the time when
these ecclesiastics, who afterwards successively occupied the episcopal
chair, sat together in the presbytery. The period, thus pointed out, can
be easily ascertained. Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria, after a long
official life of forty-three years, died about A.D. 232, [581:1] and it
is well known that Heraclas and Dionysius were both members of his
presbytery towards the close of his episcopal administration. It was,
therefore, shortly before his demise that the new system was introduced.
In certain parts of the Church the arrangement mentioned by Jerome
probably continued somewhat longer. Cyprian apparently hints at such
cases of exception when he says that in "_almost_ all the provinces,"
[581:2] the neighbouring bishops assembled, on the occasion of an
episcopal vacancy, at the new election and ordination. It may have been
that, in a few of the more considerable towns, the elders still
continued to nominate their president.

When the erudite Roman presbyter informs us that "_even_ at Alexandria"
[581:3] the elders formerly made their own bishop, his language
obviously implies that such a mode of creating the chief pastor was not
confined to the Church of the metropolis of Egypt. It existed wherever
Christianity had gained a footing, and he mentions this particular see,
partly, because of its importance--being, in point of rank, the second
in the Empire--and partly, perhaps, because the remarkable circumstances
in its history, leading to the alteration which he specifies, were known
to all his well-informed contemporaries. Jerome does not say that the
Alexandrian presbyters inducted their bishop by imposition of hands,
[582:1] or set him apart to his office by any formal ordination. His
words apparently indicate that they did not recognize the necessity of
any special rite of investiture; that they made the bishop by election;
and that, when once acknowledged as