proclaimed the
sovereignty of the bishops, were not surpassed in the third century by
Cyprian himself. (5) Rome was the first place, and that at a very early
period, to date occurrences according to her bishops; and, even outside
that city, churches reckoned, not according to their own, but according
to the Roman episcopate.[311] (6) The Oriental Churches say that two
bishops of Rome compiled the chief apostolic regulations for the
organisation of the Church; and this is only partially wrong.[312] (7)
The three great theologians of the age, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and
Origen, opposed the pretensions of the Roman bishop Calixtus; and this
very attitude of theirs testified that the advance in the political
organisation of the Church, denoted by the measures of Calixtus, was
still an unheard-of novelty, but immediately exercised a very important
influence on the attitude of other Churches. We know that the other
communities imitated this advance in the succeeding decades. (8) The
institution of lower orders of clergy with the corresponding distinction
of _clerici maiores_ and _minores_ first took place in Rome; but we know
that this momentous arrangement gradually spread from that city to the
rest of Christendom.[313] (9) The different Churches communicated with
one another through the medium of Rome.[314]

From these considerations we can scarcely doubt that the fundamental
apostolic institutions and laws of Catholicism were framed in the same
city that in other respects imposed its authority on the whole earth;
and that it was the centre from which they spread, because the world had
become accustomed to receive law and justice from Rome.[315] But it may
be objected that the parallel development in other provinces and towns
was spontaneous, though it everywhere came about at a somewhat later
date. Nor do we intend to contest the assumption in this general sense;
but, as I think, it can be proved that the Roman community had a direct
and important share in the process and that, even in the second century,
she was reckoned the first and most influential Church.[316] We shall
give a bird's-eye view of the most important facts bearing on the
question, in order to prove this.

No other community made a more brilliant entrance into Church history
than did that of Rome by the so called First Epistle of Clement--Paul
having already testified (Rom. I. 8) that the faith of this Church was
spoken of throughout the whole world. Tha