[590:1] Thus, Firmilian speaks of “seniores et praepositi,” and of the Church “ubi praesident majores natu.”—­Cyprian, Opera, p. 302 and 304.

[590:2] Justin Martyr, Opera, p. 99.

[590:3] In the days of Origen the episcopal office was not unfrequently coveted for its wealth.  Origen, Opera, iii. p. 501.  See also Cyprian, Epist. lxiv. p. 240.

[591:1] Comment, in Matt., Opera, iii. p. 723.

[591:2] See Period II. sec. i. chap. v. p. 354.

[592:1] Euseb. vi. 43.

[592:2] Tertullian, “Praescrip.  Haeret.” c. 41.  This office, even in the fourth century, was often committed to mere children—­a sad proof that the importance of reading the Word effectively was not duly appreciated.

[592:3] Origen makes mention of them, Opera, ii. p. 453; and Firmilian, Cyprian, Epist. 1xxv. p. 306.

[592:4] Cyprian, Epist. lii. p. 150.

[592:5] As in the case of Fabian of Rome.  Euseb. vi. 29.

[593:1] Bingham, i. 356, 359.

[593:2] Cyprian, Epist. lv. pp. 177, 178; xl. pp. 119, 120.

[593:3] Epist. xxxiii. p. 105.

[594:1] Epist. xxiv. pp. 79, 80.

[594:2] Epist. xxxiv. pp. 107, 108.

[594:3] Epist. xxxv. p. 111.

[595:1] Bishops and presbyters appear to have continued to ordain bishops in the time of Origen.  His “Commentaries on Matthew,” written according to his Benedictine editor in A.D. 245 (see Delarue’s “Origen,” iii.  Praef.), speak of bishops and presbyters “committing whole churches to unfit persons and constituting incompetent governors.”—­Opera, iii. p. 753.

[595:2] It would appear that the five presbyters who opposed Cyprian constituted the majority of the presbytery.  Cyprian, Epist. xl. pp. 119, 120.  See also Sage’s “Vindication of the Principles of the Cyprianic Age,” p. 348.

[595:3] Euseb. vi. 29.

[596:1] Cyprian, Epist. xxxi. pp. 99, 100.

[596:2] Cyprian, Epist. iv. p. 31.

[596:3] Cyprian, Epist. xxxiii. p. 106, xxxiv. p. 107, lviii. p. 207, lxxi. p. 271, lxxvii. p. 327.  Euseb. vii. 5.

[596:4] Thus we find him going so far as to complain that his presbyters “with contempt and dishonour of the bishop arrogate sole authority to themselves.”—­Epist. ix. p. 48.

[596:5] Epist. xlix. p. 143.  See Neander’s “General History,” i. 307, and Burton’s “Lectures on the Ecc.  Hist, of the First Three Centuries,” ii. 331.  Burton repudiates the attempts of Bingham and others to explain away this proceeding.

[597:1] They are called so for the first time in the Council of Ancyra.  They had before always been called simply bishops.  It has been remarked that we never find any chorepiscopi among the African bishops, though many of them occupied as humble a position as those so designated elsewhere.

[597:2] Canon xiii., “Canones Apost. et Concil.  Berolini,” 1839.