remarks upon the subject frequently drop incidentally
from his pen, and must be sought for up and down throughout his
commentaries and epistles; but he speaks as an individual who was quite
familiar with the topics which he introduces; and, whilst all his
statements are consistent, they are confirmed and illustrated by other
witnesses. As a presbyter, he seems to have been jealous of the honour
of his order; and, when in certain moods, he is obviously very well
disposed to remind the bishops that their superiority to himself was a
mere matter of human arrangement. One of his observations relative to
the original constitution of the Christian commonwealth has been often
quoted. "Before that, by the prompting of the devil, there were parties
in religion, and it was said among the people, I am of Paul, and I of
Apollos, and I of Cephas, the Churches were governed by the common
council of the presbyters. But, _after that each, one began to reckon
those whom he baptized as belonging to himself_ and not to Christ, it
was DECREED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE WORLD that one elected from the
presbyters should be set over the rest, that he should have the care
of the whole Church, that _the seeds of schisms_ might be destroyed."
[524:1]

Because Jerome in this place happens to use language which occurs in the
First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, we are not to understand him
as identifying the date of that letter with the origin of prelacy. Such
a conclusion would be quite at variance with the tenor of this passage.
The words, "I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas," [525:1]
are used by him rhetorically; he was accustomed to repeat them when
describing schisms or contentions; and he has employed them on one
memorable occasion in relation to a controversy of the fourth century.
[525:2] The divisions among the Corinthians, noticed by Paul, were
trivial and temporary; the Church at large was not disturbed by them;
but Jerome speaks of a time when the whole ecclesiastical community was
so agitated that it was threatened with dismemberment. The words
immediately succeeding those which we have quoted clearly shew that he
dated the origin of prelacy after the days of the apostles. "Should any
one think that the identification of bishop and presbyter, the one being
a name of age and the other of office, is not a doctrine of Scripture,
but our own opinion, let him refer to the words of the apostle saying to
the Philippians-'Paul an