al result of
the problem which thus arose was the theory of an objective transference
of the _charisma veritatis_ from the Apostles to the bishops. This
notion preserved the unique personal importance of the Apostles,
guaranteed the apostolicity, that is, the truth of the Church's faith,
and formed a dogmatic justification for the authority already attained
by the bishops. The old idea that God bestows his Spirit on the Church,
which is therefore the holy Church, was ever more and more transformed
into the new notion that the bishops receive this Spirit, and that it
appears in their official authority. The theory of a succession of
prophets, which can be proved to have existed in Asia Minor, never got
beyond a rudimentary form and speedily disappeared.]

[Footnote 136: This theory must have been current in the Roman Church
before the time when Irenaeus wrote; for the list of Roman bishops, which
we find in Irenaeus and which he obtained from Rome, must itself be
considered as a result of that dogmatic theory. The first half of the
list must have been concocted, as there were no monarchical bishops in
the strict sense in the first century (see my treatise: "Die aeltesten
christlichen Datirungen und die Anfaenge einer bischoflichen
Chronographie in Rom." in the report of the proceedings of the Royal
Prussian Academy of Science, 1892, p. 617 ff). We do not know whether
such lists were drawn up so early in the other churches of apostolic
origin (Jerusalem?). Not till the beginning of the 3rd century have we
proofs of that being done, whereas the Roman community, as early as
Soter's time, had a list of bishops giving the duration of each
episcopate. Nor is there any evidence before the 3rd century of an
attempt to invent such a list for Churches possessing no claim to have
been founded by Apostles.]

[Footnote 137: We do not yet find this assertion in Tertullian's
treatise "de praescr."]

[Footnote 138: Special importance attaches to Tertullian's treatise "de
pudicitia," which has not been sufficiently utilised to explain the
development of the episcopate and the pretensions at that time set up by
the Roman bishop. It shows clearly that Calixtus claimed for himself as
bishop the powers and rights of the Apostles in their full extent, and
that Tertullian did not deny that the "doctrina apostolorum" was
inherent in his office, but merely questioned the "potestas
apostolorum." It is very significant that Tertullian (c. 21) s