In the Jesuist groups of the first century, as we have seen, there were "bishops" or overseers, and other "presbyters" or elders, so named in simple imitation of the usages of other Greek-speaking religious societies, Jewish and Gentile, in the eastern parts of the empire. The bishop was at first merely the special supervisor and distributor of the "collection," whether of money or of other gifts, and was spiritually and socially on the same level with the presbyters and deacons. None was specially ordained, and ordinary members could at need even administer the eucharist. Teaching or preaching was not at first a special function of any member of a group, since any one could be a "prophet" (unless indeed the "prophets" were so named later, after the supervising priest or bishop in certain Egyptian temples, whose function was to distribute revenue); but discourses were for a time given by travelling apostles, who aimed at founding new groups, and who ministered the eucharist wherever they went. It lay in the nature of the case, however, that the function of the bishop should gain in moral authority because of its economic importance; and that the informal exhortations or "prophesyings" of the early days, which were always apt to degenerate into the hysterical glossolalia, or unintelligible "tongues," should be superseded by the regular preaching of ostensibly qualified men. In the first century these must have been few, and they would usually be made the acting bishops, who would gradually become more and more identified with the administration of the "mysteries," and would naturally repel "lay" interference. Here again there was pagan precedent, some of the pagan societies having a "theologos," while in all the "bishop" had a certain precedence and authority.