is sufficient for our purpose;
and it clearly shews that the presiding elder did not begin to be known
by the title of bishop until about the middle of the second century.
Polycarp, who seems to have written about that time,[550:3] still uses
the terminology employed by the apostles. Justin Martyr, the earliest
father who has left behind him memorials amounting in extent to anything
like a volume, often speaks of the chief minister of the Church, and
designates him, not the bishop, but _the president_. [551:1] His
phraseology is all the more important as he lived for some time in Rome,
and as he undoubtedly adopted the style of expression once current in
the great city. But another writer, who was his contemporary, and who
also resided in the capital, incidentally supplies evidence that the new
title was then just coming into use. The author of the book called
"Pastor," when referring to those who were at the head of the
presbyteries, describes them as "THE BISHOPS, _that is_, THE PRESIDENTS
OF THE CHURCHES." [551:2] The reason why he here deems it necessary to
explain what he means by bishops cannot well be mistaken. The name, in
its new application, was not yet familiar to the public ear; and it
therefore required to be interpreted by the more ancient designation.
Could we tell when this work of Hermas was written, we could also
perhaps name the very year when the president of the eldership was first
called bishop. [551:3] It is now pretty generally admitted that the
author was no other than the brother of Pius of Rome, [551:4] the
immediate successor of Hyginus, so that he wrote exactly at the time
when, as appears from other evidences, the transition from presbytery to
prelacy actually occurred. His words furnish a very strong, but an
undesigned, attestation to the novelty of the episcopal regimen.

X. But, perhaps, the most pointed, and certainly the most remarkable
testimony to the fact that a change took place in the constitution of
the Roman Church in the time of Hyginus is furnished from a quarter
where such a voucher might have been, least of all, anticipated. We
allude to the _Pontifical Book_. This work has been ascribed to Damasus,
the well-known bishop of the metropolis of the West, who flourished in
the fourth century, but much of it is unquestionably of later origin;
and though many of its statements are apocryphal, it is often quoted as
a document of weight by the most distinguished writers of the Romis