[585:2] This was long the received doctrine. Thus, the author of the
"Questions on the Old and New Testament" says--"Quid est episcopus nisi
_primus presbyter_?"--_Aug. Quaest._ c. 101.

[585:3] "Onmis potestas et gratia in ecclesia constituta sit, ubi
praesident majores natu, qui et baptizandi et manum imponendi et
ordinandi possident potestatem."--_Firmilian, Epist. Cyprian_, Opera, p.
304.

[586:1] See Bunsen's "Hippolytus," ii. 351-357. See also Fabricius,
"Biblioth. Graecae," liber v. p. 208. Hamburg, 1723.

[586:2] The earliest of these canons was probably framed only a few
years before the middle of the third century. They were called
apostolical perhaps because concocted by some of the bishops of the
so-called apostolic Churches.

[586:3] The collection to which it belongs bears the designation of the
"Canons of _Abulides_,"--the name of _Hippolytus in Abyssinian_, as
their calendar shews. Bunsen, ii. 352. The canons edited by Hippolytus
were, no doubt, at one time acknowledged by the Western Church.

[586:4] Bunsen's "Hippolytus," iii. 43, and "Analecta Antenicaena," iii.
415.

[587:1] Eutychius intimates that the Alexandrian presbyters continued to
ordain their own bishop until the time of the Council of Nice. It is not
improbable that, until then, some of them may have continued to take
part in the ordination, and the statement of the Alexandrian patriarch
may be so far correct.

[587:2] See Bunsen, iii. 45.

[587:3] Where the bishop, as in the case contemplated in a canon quoted
in the text, had to depend for his official income on the contributions
of twelve families, it is plain that the elders could expect no
remuneration for their services. As the hierarchy advanced these ruling
elders disappeared. Hence Hilary says--"The synagogue, and afterwards
_the Church_, had elders, without whose counsel nothing was done in the
Church, which, by what negligence _it grew into disuse_ I know not;
unless, perhaps, by the sloth, or rather by the pride of the teachers,
while they alone wished to appear something."--_Comment on 1 Tim._ v. 1.
Some late writers have contended that these elders (_seniores_) were not
ecclesiastical officers at all, but civil magistrates of municipal
corporations peculiar to Africa. It must, however, be recollected that
Hilary was a _Roman_ deacon of the fourth century, and that he speaks of
them as belonging _to the Church_ before the civil establishment of
Christianity.

[590: