(Epist. lxxiii.) speaks of a large council held "many
years" before his time "under Agrippinus," one of his predecessors. This
bishop appears to have been contemporary with Tertullian.

[614:3] In his book "De Pudicitia," c. 10, he speaks of the "Pastor" of
Hermas as classed among apocryphal productions "_ab omni concilio
ecclesiarum_"--implying that it had been condemned by African councils,
as well as others.

[614:4] The prevalence of the Montanistic spirit in Asia Minor may
account for this.

[615:1] See Potter's "Antiquities of Greece," i. 106.

[615:2] See Mosheim's "Commentaries," cent. ii. sect. 22.

[616:1] "Per singulos annos seniores et praepositi in unum conveniamus."

[616:2] Cyprian, Epist. lxxv. pp. 302, 303.

[616:3] In Africa, however, this arrangement was not established even in
the fifth century. There, the senior bishop still continued president.

[617:1] This canon somewhat differs from the fifth of the Council of
Nice, as the latter requires the first meeting to be held "before Lent."
It is somewhat doubtful which canon is of higher antiquity.

[619:1] "Seniores et praepositi."--_Epist. Cypriani, Opera_, p. 302.

[619:2] "The Councils of the Church," by Rev. E.B. Pusey, D.D., p. 34
Oxford, 1857.

[619:3] Pusey, p. 58.

[619:4] Ibid. p. 66.

[619:5] Ibid. p. 95.

[619:6] As in the case of Athanasius at the Council of Nice.

[619:7] As witnesses and commissioners may still be heard by Church
courts.

[619:8] "Graviter commoti sumus ego et collegae mei qui praesentes
aderant et _compresbyteri nostri qui nobis assidebant"--Cyprian_, Epist.
lxvi. p. 245. "_Residentibus_ etiam viginti et sex _presbyteris,
adstantibus diaconibus et omni plebe."--Concil. Illiberit_.

[620:1] Euseb. vii. 30.

[621:1] Prov. xi. 14.

[621:2] Mosheim's "Institutes," by Soames, i. 150.

[624:1] See Mosheim's "Commentaries," cent. ii. sec. 39; American
edition by Murdock.

[624:2] Acts xxiv. 5.

[624:3] Euseb. iv. 5.

[625:1] The English name _Easter_ is derived from that of a Teutonic
goddess whose festival was celebrated by the ancient Saxons in the month
of April, and for which the Paschal feast was substituted.

[626:1] Pentecost, called Whitsunday or White-Sunday, on account of the
white garments worn by those who then received baptism, was observed as
early as the beginning of the third century. Origen, "Contra Celsum,"
book viii. Tertullian, "De Idololatria," c. 14. We have then no trace of