[597:1] who wore simply ministers of
single congregations, and who were generally poor and uninfluential,
soon succumbed to the great city dignitaries. By a council held at
Ancyra in A.D. 314, or very shortly after the close of the Diocletian
persecution, they were forbidden to perform duties which they had
hitherto been accustomed to discharge, for one of its canons declares
that "country bishops must not ordain presbyters or deacons; neither
must city presbyters in another parish without the written permission of
the bishop." [597:2]

This canon illustrates the strangely anomalous condition of the Church
at the period of its adoption. It takes no notice of _country elders_,
as the proceedings of such an humble class of functionaries probably
awakened no jealousy; and it degrades country bishops, who
unquestionably belonged to the episcopal order, by placing them in a
position inferior to that of city presbyters. About sixty years before,
or in the middle of the third century, three of these country bishops
were deemed competent to ordain a bishop of Rome; [598:1] but now they
are deprived of the right of ordaining even elders and deacons. It is
easy to understand why city presbyters were still permitted, under
certain conditions, to exercise this privilege. As they constituted the
council of the city chief pastor, their influence was considerable; and
as they had, until a recent date, been accustomed even to take part in
his own consecration, it was deemed inexpedient to tempt so formidable a
class of churchmen to make common cause with the country bishops by
stripping both at once of their ancient prerogatives. The country
bishops, as the weaker party, were first subjected to a process of
spoliation. But the recognition of Christianity by Constantine gave an
immense impulse to the progress of the hierarchy, and the city
presbyters were soon afterwards deprived of the privilege now wrested
from the country bishops.

The current of events had placed the Church, about the middle of the
third century, in a position which it could not long maintain. As the
growth of Christianity in towns was steady and rapid, the bishop there
rose quickly into wealth and power; but, among the comparatively poor
and thinly-scattered population of the country, his condition remained
nearly stationary. When Cyprian, in A.D. 256, addressed the eighty-seven
bishops assembled in the Council of Carthage, and told them that they
were all on an