[547:3] Such as Missa and Titulus.  But that Pastor really did erect a place in which the Christians assembled for worship, as stated in one of these letters, is not improbable.  See Routh’s “Reliquiae,” i. 430.  Pearson objects to them on the ground that Eleutherius is spoken of in one of them as a presbyter, whereas Hegesippus describes him as deacon afterwards in the time of Anicetus.  See Euseb. iv. 22.  But it is not clear that Hegesippus here uses the word deacon in its strictly technical sense.  He may mean by it minister or manager, and may design to indicate that Eleutherius was the most prominent official personage under Anicetus, occupying the position afterwards held by the archdeacon.

[548:1] “Presbyteri et Diaconi, non ut majorem, sed ut ministrum Christi te observent.”

[549:1] That, in the time of Marcion, there were Roman presbyters who had been disciples of the apostles, see Tillemont, “Memoires,” tom. ii. sec. par. p. 215.  Edit.  Brussels, 1695.

[550:1] “Presbyteri illi qui ab apostolis educati usque ad nos pervenerunt, cum quibus simul verbum fidei partiti sumus, a Domino vocati in cubilibus aeternis clausi tenentur.”

[550:2] Pearson ("Vindiciae,” par. ii. c. 13) has appealed to a letter from the Emperor Hadrian to the Consul Servianus as a proof that the terms bishop and presbyter had distinctive meanings as early as A.D. 134.  The passage is as follows:—­“Illi qui Serapim colunt, Christiani sunt; et devoti sunt Serapi, qui se Christi episcopos dicunt.  Nemo illic Archisynagogus Judaeorum, nemo Samarites, nemo Christianorum Presbyter....  Ipse ille Patriarcha, quum Aegyptum venerit, ab aliis Serapidem adorare, ab aliis cogitur Christum.”  Such a testimony only shews that Pearson was sadly in want of evidence.  This same letter has in fact often been adduced to prove that the terms bishop and presbyter were still used interchangeably, and such is certainly the more legitimate inference.  See Lardner’s remarks on this letter, Works, vol. vii. p. 99.  Edit.  London, 1838.

[550:3] “The Philippians appear to have continued to live under the same aristocratic constitution (of venerable elders) about the middle of the second century, when Polycarp addressed his Epistle to them.”—­Bunsen’s Hippolytus, i. 369.

[551:1] [Greek:  proestos], Opera, pp. 97-99.

[551:2] “Episcopi, id est, praesides ecclesiarum.”—­Lib. iii. simil. ix. c. 27.  There is a parallel passage to this in Tertullian, “De Baptismo,” c. 17—­“Summus sacerdos, qui est episcopus.”  This is, perhaps, the first instance on record in which a bishop is called the chief priest.  Hence the necessity of the interpretation—­“qui est episcopus.”  Pastor considered an explanation of the title “episcopus” equally necessary.

[551:3] Neander supposes this work to have been written A.D. 156.  “General History,” ii. 443.