Bishops and Presbyters at Alexandria

Eric Waldram Kemp

doi:10.1017/S0022046900069645

Bishops and Presbyters at Alexandria

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011

Eric Waldram Kemp

Show author details

Eric Waldram Kemp: Affiliation:
Fellow and Chaplain of Exeter College, Oxford, and Canon of Lincoln Cathedral

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

At the end of the fourth century a theory is found in the works of several writers to the effect that the episcopate and the presbyterate are essentially one order, differentiated only by the presiding function of the bishop and the reservation to him of the right of ordination. In the East this view is expressed in the homilies of St. John Chrysostom on I Timothy where he says:

‘Discoursing of bishops, and having described their character, and the qualities which they ought to possess, and having passed over the order of presbyters, he proceeds to that of deacons. The reason of this omission was, that between presbyters and bishops there was no great difference. Both had undertaken the office of teachers and presidents in the Church, and what he has said concerning bishops is applicable to presbyters. For they are only superior in having the power of ordination, and seem to have no other advantage over presbyters.’

Type: Research Article
Information: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , October 1955 , pp. 125 - 142

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046900069645 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1955

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 125 note 1} John Chrysostom, Homily xi. on I Timothy (Translation as in The Library of the Fathers, 85).

^{page 126 note 1} S. Ambrosii Opera, Paris 1690Google Scholar (Maurist edition), ii. App. c. 241, 242, and Souter, A., A Study of Ambrosiaster (Texts and Studies, vii. 4, Cambridge 1905), 175 fGoogle Scholar.

^{page 126 note 2} S. Ambrosii Opera, ii. App. 295.

^{page 126 note 3} P.L., xxx. 841.

^{page 126 note 4} Ibid., 880.

^{page 126 note 5} Ibid., 896.

^{page 126 note 6} Souter, A., Pelagius's expositions of Thirteen Epistles of St. Paul (Texts and Studies, ix. 2, Cambridge 1926), 388, 486, 527Google Scholar.

^{page 126 note 7} Achelis, H., Die Canones Hippolyti, 1891 (Texte und Untersuchungen vi.) 61, 62Google Scholar.

^{page 127 note 1} See Prat, , ‘Les prèventions des diacres romains au quatrième siècle’ in Recherches de science religieuse, iii. (1912), 463–75Google Scholar.

^{page 127 note 2} A. Souter, Pseudo-Augustini Quaestiones Veteris et Novi Testamenti CXXVII, 1908 (C.S.E.L., l.) 196.

^{page 128 note 1} Hilberg, Sancti Eusebii Hieronymi Epistulae, iii. 1918 (C.S.E.L.), 308–12.

^{page 128 note 2} P. Batiffol, Études d'histoire et de Théologie Positive, i., 7th ed. 1926, 267–80.

^{page 129 note 1} Telfer, W., ‘Episcopal Succession In Egypt,’ in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, iii. (1952), 4Google Scholar.

^{page 130 note 1} Origenis opera, vii. ed. W. A. Baehrens (G.C.S., 1921) 208 f.

^{page 130 note 2} C. Gore, ‘On the Ordination of the early bishops of Alexandria’ in Journal of Theological Studies, iii. (1902), 281. Cf. Gore, The Church and the Ministry (New Edition 1919), 128.

^{page 130 note 3} Batiffol, op. cit., 275.

^{page 130 note 4} Telfer, op. cit., 5.

^{page 131 note 1} E.g., in no. 12 of the Commentariorum series on St. Matthew, ed. Klosterman (G.C.S., 1933), 22 f.

^{page 131 note 2} Ibid., no. 12 and 14 (22 f. and 26 ff.).

^{page 131 note 3} Telfer, op. cit., 5.

^{page 131 note 4} New Edition 1919, 127, note 2.

^{page 131 note 5} Ibid., 128, note 4.

^{page 132 note 1} Telfer, op. cit., 5.

^{page 132 note 2} Epiphanius, Panarion 69. ii, ed. Holl (G.C.S., iii.) 161.

^{page 132 note 3} Telfer, op. cit., 7.

^{page 133 note 1} Patrologia Orientalis, i. 106.

^{page 133 note 2} Ibid., 115. Cf. the Second Preface, not quoted by Dr. Telfer, which contains similar remarks (Ibid., 109).

^{page 133 note 3} Telfer, op. cit., 7.

^{page 133 note 4} Patrologia Orientalis, i. 152.

^{page 133 note 5} Ibid., 152 f.

^{page 133 note 6} Ibid., 153 f.

^{page 134 note 1} Patrologia Orientalis, i. 192.

^{page 134 note 2} Ibid., 206.

^{page 134 note 3} Ibid., 211.

^{page 134 note 4} Ibid., 401.

^{page 134 note 5} Ibid., 401 f.

^{page 134 note 6} Telfer, op. cit., 7.

^{page 135 note 1} See above p. 127 and note 2.

^{page 135 note 2} Telfer, op. cit., ii.

^{page 135 note 3} A. Souter, op. cit., 175.

^{page 135 note 4} A. Souter, The Earliest Latin Commentaries on the Epistles of St. Paul, 1927, 77.

^{page 135 note 5} MS. Bodley 68g, f. 86v., and MS. Bodley 756, f. 106, and Bodley Lyell empt. 9, f. 83. Prof. Dr. H. Vogels of Bonn tells me that the same reading is found in St. Gall cod. 101, and the Rev. A. W. Adams has pointed out that consilio is also the reading of the Monte Cassino MS. used in Spicilegium Casinense: Analecta Sacra et Profana iii. 2, although the editor has preferred to print concilio in his text.

^{page 136 note 1} Telfer, op. cit., 7 f.

^{page 136 note 2} P.L., lxviii. 1036–7.

^{page 136 note 3} Telfer, op. cit., 10 f.

^{page 136 note 4} Ibid., 12.

^{page 136 note 5} P.G., lxv. 341.

^{page 136 note 6} Butler, C., Lausiac History of Palladius (Texts and Studies vi, i. Cambridge 1898), 213Google Scholar.

^{page 136 note 7} ii. (1901), 613.

^{page 136 note 8} Journal of Theological Studies, iii. (1902), 279 f.

^{page 136 note 9} Telfer, op. cit., 11.

^{page 137 note 1} Cambridge Medieval History, i. (1911), 160.

^{page 137 note 2} E. W. Brooks, The Sixth Book of the Select Letters of Severus Patriarch of Antioch in the Syriac version of Athanasius of Nisibis (Translation, 1903), 11. ii. 3, 213.

^{page 138 note 1} P.G., cxi. 982.

^{page 138 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 138 note 3} Telfer, op. cit., 6; Gore, The Church and the Ministry (New Edition, 1919), 317.

^{page 138 note 4} Cf. Wordsworth, J., The Ministry of Grace, 1901, 137–9Google Scholar.

^{page 138 note 5} See above p. 127 f.

^{page 139 note 1} Dr. Telfer's remarks about the Church of Egypt at the end of the second century have not been discussed in this article as there seems to be little to add to what has been said on that subject by C. H. Roberts in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, xl. (1954) 92 ff. On the general history of the Church in Egypt the reader may be referred to Hardy, E. R., Christian Egypt: Church and People, New York, 1952Google Scholar.

^{page 140 note 1} Wordsworth, J., The Ministry of Grace, 1901, 142Google Scholar.

^{page 140 note 2} Journal of Theological Studies, iii. (1902), 278–82Google Scholar.

^{page 140 note 3} Telfer, op. cit., I.

^{page 141 note 1} Ibid.

^{page 141 note 2} Gore, op. cit., 281 f.

^{page 141 note 3} Pp. 129 f.

^{page 141 note 4} The Church and the Ministry, 295.

^{page 141 note 5} D. Stone, Episcopacy and Valid Orders in the Primitive Church: a Statement of Evidence, 1926, iii f.

^{page 141 note 6} Telfer, op. cit., 12.

^{page 142 note 1} The Church of England and the Churches of Norway, Denmark and Iceland, 1952, 30.

^{page 142 note 2} Telfer, op. cit., 12. Dr. G. G. Willis has drawn my attention to the misuse by Dr. Telfer on this page of a quotation from St. Augustine's De Baptismo. For the general context of the quotation see G. G. Willis, St. Augustine and the Donatist Controversy, 1950, 162–4.

^{page 142 note 3} In this connexion it is, perhaps, worth while to recall a statement by two scholars, now dead, J. Vernon Bartlett and A. J. Carlyle, made by them in a joint article in the Contemporary Review (August 1898), lxxiv. 255: ‘There are really only two theories of order that need serious consideration: those which make valid ministry depend either on appointment by the Christian society, more or less localised, or on a specific clerical order in the Christian society, self-perpetuated since its first members received their transmissible commission from the Apostles.’ Cf. Bright, W., Some Aspects of Primitive Church Life, 1898, 49Google Scholar.

Article contents

Bishops and Presbyters at Alexandria

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests