wer of enforcing it in
every case--unless the special prerogative of Rome to determine the
conditions of the "common unity" ([Greek: koine henosis]) in the vital
questions of the faith had been an acknowledged and well-established
fact? How could Victor have addressed such a demand to the independent
Churches, if he had not been recognised, in his capacity of bishop of
Rome, as the special guardian of the [Greek: koine henosis]?[329]
Thirdly, it was Victor who formally excluded Theodotus from Church
fellowship. This is the first really well-attested case of a Christian
_taking his stand on the rule of faith_ being excommunicated because a
definite interpretation of it was already insisted on. In this instance
the expression [Greek: huios monogenes] (only begotten Son) was required
to be understood in the sense of [Greek: Phusei Theos] (God by nature).
It was in Rome that this first took place. Fourthly, under Zephyrinus,
Victor's successor, the Roman ecclesiastics interfered in the
Carthaginian veil dispute, making common cause with the local clergy
against Tertullian; and both appealed to the authority of predecessors,
that is, above all, of the Roman bishops.[330] Tertullian, Hippolytus,
Origen, and Cyprian were obliged to resist the pretensions of these
ecclesiastics to authority outside their own Church, the first having to
contend with Calixtus, and the three others with Stephen.[331]

It was the Roman _Church_ that first displayed this activity and care;
the Roman bishop sprang from the community in exactly the same way as
the corresponding official did in other places.[332] In Irenaeus' proof
from prescription, however, it is already the Roman _bishops_ that are
specially mentioned.[333] Praxeas reminded the bishop of Rome of the
authority of his predecessors ("auctoritates praecessorum eius") and it
was in the character of _bishop_ that Victor acted. The assumption that
Paul and Peter laboured in Rome, that is, founded the Church of that
city (Dionysius, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Caius), must have conferred a high
degree of prestige on her bishops, as soon as the latter officials were
elevated to the position of more or less sovereign lords of the
communities and were regarded as successors of the Apostles. The first
who acted up to this idea was Calixtus. The sarcastic titles of
"pontifex maximus," "episcopus episcoporum," "benedictus papa" and
"apostolicus," applied to him by Tertullian in "de pudicitia" I. 13, are