the object of their choice, he was
at liberty to enter forthwith on the performance of his episcopal
duties. When the Roman soldiers made an emperor they appointed him by
acclamation, and the cheers which issued from their ranks as he stood up
before the legions and as he was clothed with the purple by one of
themselves, constituted the ceremony of his inauguration. The ancient
archdeacon was still one of the deacons; [582:2] as he was the chief
almoner of the Church, he required to possess tact, discernment, and
activity; and, in the fourth century, he was nominated to his office by
his fellow-deacons. Jerome assures us that, until the time of Heraclas
and Dionysius, the elders made a bishop just in the same way as in his
own day the soldiers made an emperor, or as the deacons chose one whom
they knew to be industrious, and made him an archdeacon.

In one of the letters purporting to have been written by Pius, bishop of
Rome, to Justus of Vienne, shortly after the middle of the second
century, there is a passage which supplies a singularly striking
confirmation of the testimony of Jerome. Even were we to admit that the
genuineness of this epistle cannot be satisfactorily established, it
must still be acknowledged to be a very ancient document, and were it of
somewhat later date than its title indicates, it should at least be
received as representing the traditions which prevailed respecting the
ecclesiastical arrangements of an early antiquity. In this communication
Pius speaks of his episcopal correspondent of Vienne as "_constituted by
the brethren_ and clothed with the dress of the bishops." [583:1] By
"the brethren," as is plain from another part of the letter, [583:2] he
understands the presbytery. And as the soldiers made a sovereign by
saluting him emperor, and arraying him in the purple; so the elders made
a president by clothing him with a certain piece of dress, and calling
him bishop. Thus, the statement of Jerome is exactly corroborated by the
evidence of this witness.

We may infer from the letter of Pius that in Gaul and Italy, as well as
in Egypt, the elders were in the habit of making their own bishop.
[583:3] There is not a particle of evidence to shew that any other
arrangement originally existed. The declaration of so competent an
authority as Jerome backed by the attestation of this ancient epistle
may be regarded as perfectly conclusive. [583:4] But other proofs
of the same fact are not wanting. F