[551:4] See Period II. sec. ii. chap. i. p. 368.

[552:1] So high indeed is its authority that many facts taken from it are recorded in the “Breviary.”  Even Bunsen appeals to it.  See “Analecta Antenicaena,” iii. 52, 53.

[552:2] Binius makes the following abortive attempt to explain the statement-"Quod hierarchicus catholicae ecclesiaeae ordo, quo presbyteri episcopis, diaconi presbyteris, populus presbyteris et diaconis subditus est, ab Hygino compositus esse hic dicitur, non aliter intelligi potest, quam quod Hyginus hierarchiae ecclesiasticae jam tempore apostolorum a Christo Domino constitutae, et a sanctis Patribus ipso antiquioribus comprobatae, quaedam duntaxat injuria temporum et scriptorum deperdita addiderit, vel eadem quae Divino jure instituta, et a patribus comprobata sunt, hac constitutione sua illustraverit.” —­Concilia, i. 65, 66.

[552:3] “Hic clerum composuit, et distribuit gradus.”—­Binii Concil. i. 65.  Baronius, ad annum, 158.

[553:1] When referring to this statement Baronius says—­“Porro quod ad gradus cujusque ordinis in Ecclesia, quo ecclesiastica habetur composita hierarchia, jam a temporibus apostolorum haec facta esse, Ignatio auctore et aliis, tomo primo Annalium demonstravimus; verum aliqua antiquae formae ab Hyginio fuisse addita, vel eadem illustrata, aequum est aestimare.”

[554:1] See Kaye’s “Tertullian,” p. 414.

[555:1] 1 Tim. v. 17.

[555:2] Euseb. iv. 11; iv. 19.  Dr Burton has well observed that Alexandria and Antioch were “the hotbeds from which nearly all the mischief arose, which, under the name of philosophy, inundated the Church in the second century.”—­Lectures, vol. ii. p. 103.

[556:1] Period II. sec. iii. chap. v. pp. 516, 517.

[556:2] “Quanquam sunt inter scriptores ecclesiasticos qui putaverint Polycarpum Romam venisse, ut quaereret de festo paschatis:  ex his Irenaei verbis luco clarius elucet, ob alias causas Ioannis apostoli discipulum Romam profectum esse.”—­Stieren’s Irenaeus, i. p. 826, note.

[557:1] Euseb. v. 24.

[557:2] Stieren’s “Irenaeus,” i. 827.

[557:3] First, as his senior; and secondly, as a disciple of the apostles.

[557:4] It was a standing rule of the Church that a strange bishop should be thus treated.  See “Didascalia,” by Platt, p. 97.

[559:1] “Paulatim vero, ut dissensionum plantaria evellerentur, ad unum omnem solicitudinem esse delatam.”—­Comment. in Tit.

[560:1] Period II. sec. iii. chap. 5, pp. 510, 512, 516, 520.

[560:2] But the presiding elders now began generally to be called bishops.

[560:3] Thus, though, as we may infer from the testimony of Tertullian, Christianity was planted in North Britain in the second century, the universal tradition is that originally there were no bishops in that country.  According to an ancient MS. belonging to the former bishops of St Andrews, and to be found in the “Life of William Wishart,” one of their number who lived in the thirteenth century, the first bishop created in Scotland was elected in A.D. 270.  See Jamieson’s “Culdees,” pp. 101, 101.