sias tou Alexandreon demou, kai ean eugnomon he ho
toutou akouon kai philalethos exetaze ta pragmata, thaumasetai ton kai
bouleusamenon kai anousai dunethenta pantachou sustesasthai ekklesias
tou Theou, paroikousas ekklesias ton kath' 'ekasten polin demon houto de
kai boulen ekklesias Theou boule te kath' hekasten polin sunexetazon
heurois an hoti tines men tes ekklesias bouleutai exioi eisi]--[Greek:
ei tis estin en to panti polis tou Theou]--[Greek: en ekeine
politeuesthai hoi de pantachou bouleutai ouden exion tes ek katataxeos
huperoches, hen huperechein dokousi ton politon, pherousin en tois
heauton ethesin; houto de kai archonta ekklesias hekastes poleos
archonti ton en te polei sugkroteon; hina katanoesus, hoti kai epi ton
sphodra apotugchanomenoo bouleton kai archonton ekklesias Theou, kai
rhathumoteron para tous eutonoteros biountas ouden etton estin heurein
hos epipan huperochen ten en te epi tas aretas prokope para ta ethe ton
en tais polesi bouleuton kai archonton.]]

[Footnote 259: Ritschl, Entstehung der altkatholischen Kirche pp. 362,
368, 394, 461, 555, 560, 576. Otto Ritschl, l.c., pp. 208, 218, 231.
Hatch "Organisation of the early Christian Church," Lectures 5 and 6;
id., Art. "Ordination," "Priest," in the Dictionary of Christian
Antiquities. Hauck, Art. "Priester" in Herzog's Real-Encyklopaedie, 2nd
ed. Voigt, l.c., p. 175 ff. Sohm, Kirchenrecht I. p. 205 ff. Louw, Het
ontstaan van het Priesterschap in de christ. Kerk, Utrecht, 1892.]

[Footnote 260: Clement of Rome was the first to compare the conductors
of public worship in Christian Churches with the priests and Levites,
and the author of the [Greek: Didache] was the first to liken the
Christian prophets to the high priests. It cannot, however, be shown
that there were any Christian circles where the leaders were directly
styled "priests" before the last quarter of the 2nd century. We can by
no means fall back on Ignatius, Philad. 9, nor on Iren., IV. 8. 3, which
passage is rather to be compared with [Greek: Did.] 13. 3. It is again
different in Gnostic circles, which in this case, too, anticipated the
secularising process: read for example the description of Marcus in
Iren., I. 13. Here, _mutatis mutandis_, we have the later Catholic
bishop, who alone is able to perform a mysterious sacrifice to whose
person powers of grace are attached--the formula of bestowal was:
[Greek: metadounai soi thelo tes emes charitos ... lambane ap' emou kai
di' emo