uld be necessary to the
validity of all episcopal consecrations. There were still, however, many
districts in which the provincial synod had no fixed chairman. Hence an
ancient canon directs that at the ordination of a member of the
hierarchy, "_one of the principal bishops_ shall pray to God over the
approved candidate." [601:2] By a "principal bishop" we are to
understand the chief pastor of a principal or apostolic church; [601:3]
but in some provinces several such churches were to be found, and this
regulation attests that there no single ecclesiastic had yet acquired an
unchallenged precedence. As the close of the third century approached,
the ecclesiastical structure exhibited increasing uniformity; and one
dignitary in each region began to be known as the stated president of
the episcopal body. In one of the so-called apostolical canons, framed
probably before the Council of Nice, this arrangement is embodied. "The
bishops of every nation," says the ordinance, "ought to know who is the
_first among them_, and him they ought to esteem as their head, and not
do any great thing _without his consent_. ... But neither let him do
anything without the consent of all." [602:1]

This canon is apparently couched in terms of studied ambiguity, for the
expression "the first among the bishops of every nation" admits of
various interpretations. In many cases it probably meant the senior
bishop of the district; in others, it perhaps denoted the chief pastor
of the chief city of the province; and in others again, it may have
indicated the prelate of a great metropolis who had contrived to
establish his authority over a still more extensive territory. The rise
of the city bishops had completely destroyed that balance of power which
originally existed in the Church; and much commotion preceded the
settlement of a new ecclesiastical equilibrium. During the last forty
years of the third century the Christians enjoyed almost uninterrupted
peace; the chief pastors were meanwhile perpetually engaged in contests
for superiority; and about this time the bishops of Rome, of Alexandria,
and of Antioch, rapidly extended their influence. So rampant was the
usurping spirit of churchmen that even the violence of the Diocletian
persecution was not sufficient to check them in their career of
ambition. A contemporary writer, who was himself a member of the
episcopal order, bears testimony to this melancholy fact. "Some," said
he, "who were repute