apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

THE GENUINENESS. 395
does not write 'Polycarp and tlie other presbyters', but 'Polycarp and the
presbyters with him' (see in. p. 321), though even the former mode of
address would not have been inconsistent with his episcopal rank. As
it is, the position assigned to him in this passage corresponds exactly
with the representations in the Ignatian Epistles, as for instance in
Philad. 8, where ' '
the council of the bishop {uvv&piov mv Itvkjkottov)
is
equivalent to ' the bishop together with his presbyters
and counsellors'.
Nor again
is there any real difficulty
as assessors
in the extended area over
which the Ignatian letters assume the episcopal constitution to prevail.
I have given reasons in my Essay for believing that the spread of the
episcopate was not uniform throughout Christendom, and that some
churches, as for instance Philippi, had not yet adopted it. But throughout
Asia Minor and Syria, so far as we know, it was universal. Probably
also this was the case in the farther East. So hkewise, if the Gospel
had already been carried into Gaul\ as seems fairly probable, the
Gallican Churches would naturally adopt the organization which prevailed
in the communities of Asia Minor from which they were spiritually
descended. Again, though there are grounds for surmising that
the bishops of Rome were not at the time raised so far above their
presbyters as in the Churches of the East,
it
yet would be an excess of
scepticism, with the evidence before us, to
question the existence of the
in the Roman
episcopate as a distinct office from the presbyterate
Church. With these facts before us, we shall cease to regard the
expression, Ephes. 3, ' the bishops established in the farthest parts (Kara
ra irepara)',
as a stumblingblock. At the most it is a natural hyperbole,
not more violent than the language of S. Paul when, writing
to the
Thessalonians only a few months after their conversion, he declares that
their faith is ' spread abroad in every place ',
so that it is superfluous for
him to speak of it (i Thess. i. 8)^
It should be observed also that the conception of the episcopal
office itself is
wholly different from the ideas which prevailed
in the
^
See Galatian: p. 31 on the proba- (Fe/s/iaj'iats) and Iberia {'ip-rjpiais) and
bility that European Gaul is meant by among the Celts' (i. 10. 2), thus bearing
'
Galatia ' in 2 Tim. iv. 10. Moreover, witness to the wide spread of the Gospel
if S. Paul himself went to Spain, as there north of the Alps and west of Italy in his
is
good reason to believe he did, it is not time.
likely that a country lying intermediate ' So too Rom. i. 8 ^ ttIixtis v/xwp kutbetween
Italy and Spain would remain ayyeWeraL ev oX