e there proved that, in the time of Soter, Rome
already possessed a figured list of bishops, in which important events
were also entered.]

[Footnote 309: That the idea of the apostolic succession of the bishops
was first turned to account or appeared in Rome is all the more
remarkable, because it was not in that city, but rather in the East,
that the monarchical episcopate was first consolidated. (Cf. the
Shepherd of Hermas and Ignatius' Epistles to the Romans with his other
Epistles). There must therefore have been a very rapid development of
the constitution in the time between Hyginus and Victor. Sohm, l.c.,
tries to show that the monarchical episcopate arose in Rome immediately
after the composition of the First Epistle of Clement, and as a result
of it; and that this city was the centre from which it spread throughout
Christendom.]

[Footnote 310: See Pseudo-Cyprian's work "de aleat" which, in spite of
remarks to the contrary, I am inclined to regard as written by Victor;
cf. "Texte und Untersuchungen" V. I; see c. I of this writing: "et
quoniam in nobis divina et paterna pietas apostolatus ducatum contulit
et vicariam domini sedem caelesti dignatione ordinavit et originem
authentici apostolatus, super quem Christus fundavit ecclesiam, in
superiore nostro portamus."]

[Footnote 311: See report of the proceedings of the Royal Prussian
Academy of Science, 1892, p. 622 ff. To the material found there must be
added a remarkable passage given by Nestle (Zeitschrift fur
wissenschaftliche Theologie, 1893, p. 437), where the dates are reckoned
after Sixtus I.]

[Footnote 312: Cf. the 8th book of the Apostolic Constitutions with the
articles referring to the regulation of the Church, which in Greek MSS.
bear the name of Hippolytus. Compare also the Arabian Canones Hippolyti,
edited by Haneberg (1870) and commented on by Achelis (Texte und
Untersuchungen VI. 4). Apart from the additions and alterations, which
are no doubt very extensive, it is hardly likely that the name of the
Roman bishop is wrongly assigned to them. We must further remember the
importance assigned by the tradition of the Eastern and Western Churches
to one of the earliest Roman "bishops," Clement, as the confidant and
secretary of the Apostles and as the composer and arranger of their
laws.]

[Footnote 313: See my proofs in "Texte und Untersuchungen," Vol. II.,
Part 5. The canons of the Council of Nicaea presuppose the distinction of
higher and lo