About the time to which these words refer a change was made in the ecclesiastical constitution.  The senior minister ceased to preside over the eldership; and the Church was no longer governed, as heretofore, by the “blessed presbyters.”  It would appear that the synods which were held all over the Church for the suppression of the Montanist agitation, and in connexion with the Paschal controversy, [518:1] adopted a modified episcopacy.  As parties already in the presidential chair were, no doubt, permitted to hold office during life, this change could not have been accomplished instantaneously; but various circumstances concur to prove that it took place about the period now indicated.  The following reasons, among others, may be adduced in support of this view of the history of the ecclesiastical revolution.

I. The Montanists, towards the termination of the second century, created much confusion by their extravagant doctrines and their claims to inspiration.  These fanatics were in the habit of disturbing public worship by uttering their pretended revelations, and as they were often countenanced by individual elders, the best mode of protecting the Church from their annoyance soon became a question of grave and pressing difficulty.  Episcopacy, as shall afterwards be shewn, [518:2] had already been introduced in some great cities, and about this time the Churches generally agreed to follow the influential example.  It was, no doubt, thought that order could be more effectually preserved were a single individual armed with independent authority.  Thus, the system of government by presbyters was gradually and silently subverted.

II.  It is well known that the close of the second century is a transition period in the history of the Church.  A new ecclesiastical nomenclature now appeared; [519:1] the bishops acquired increased authority; and, early in the third century, they were chosen in all the chief cities by popular suffrage.  The alteration mentioned by Hilary may, therefore, have been the immediate precursor of other and more vital changes.

III.  Though Eusebius passes over in suspicious silence the history of all ecclesiastical innovations, his account of the bishops of Jerusalem gives good reason for believing that the law abolishing the claim of seniority came into operation about the close of the second century.  He classes together the fifteen chief pastors who followed each other in the holy city immediately after its restoration by Hadrian, [519:2] and then goes on to give a list of others, their successors, whose pastorates were of the ordinary duration.  He mentions likewise that the sixteenth bishop was chosen by election. [519:3] May we not here distinctly recognize the close of one system, and the commencement of another?  As the sixteenth bishop was appointed about A.D. 199, the law had, probably, been then only recently enacted.