new order. In place
of the New Testament standard of a plurality of elders, or bishops,
jointly teaching and guiding the local church, we find recognition of
an office which was superior to that of the presbyters and to whose
incumbents alone the term "bishop" was applied. A few extracts from
his writings will make clear this recognition of a threefold order of
the ministry--bishops, elders, and deacons. "Wherefore, it is fitting
that ye should run together in accordance with the will of your
bishop, which thing also ye do. For your justly renowned presbytery,
worthy of God, is fitted exactly to the bishop as the strings are to
the harp" (To the Ephesians, chap. 4). "He is subject to the bishop
as to the grace of God, and to the presbytery as to the will of Jesus
Christ" (To the Magnesians, chap. 2). And again, in the same epistle
he says, "I exhort you to study to do all things with a divine
harmony, while your bishop presides in the place of God, and your
presbytery in the place of the assembly of the apostles" (chap. 6).
"In like manner, let all reverence the deacons as the appointment of
Jesus Christ, and the bishop as Jesus Christ, who is the Son of the
Father, and the presbyters as the Sanhedrin of God, and assembly of
the apostles. Apart from these there is no church" (To the Trallians,
chap. 3). To the Smyrnaeans he writes: "See that ye all follow
the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father.... Let no man do
anything connected with the church without the bishop" (chap. 8). "It
is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a
love-feast; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that is also pleasing
to God" (chap. 8). "It is well to reverence both God and the bishop.
He who honors the bishop has been honored of God; but he who does
anything without the knowledge of the bishop, does [in reality] serve
the devil" (chap. 9).

That this early recognition of a superior order of ministers was a
distinct innovation is also shown from the literature of that period.
In the Shepherd of Hermas, dating from the first part of the second
century, elders and presbyters are distinctly named but no bishop
in contrast therewith. In the so-called "Teaching of the Twelve
Apostles," also dating from the first part of the second century,
bishops and deacons only are named as teachers and leaders of the
church, showing that the original signification of the term "bishop"
is here retained. Clement of Rome, in his fi