But whatever may be doubtful, one thing is certain, that Irenæus _did_ succeed Pothinus as bishop of Lyons. Of his conduct in his own particular Church we have no means of judging, for no record has survived to tell us of anything he did there. It appears certain, from the expression of Eusebius(38), ἐπεσκόπει τῶν κατὰ Γαλλίαν παροικιῶν, that he was primate, or, at least, had influence over several dioceses in Gaul; as παροικία in the early writers commonly signifies _a diocese_(39). This idea is farther confirmed by the use of a parallel expression(40), to describe the jurisdiction of the bishop of Alexandria. It is well known that, in the time of Athanasius, the number of dioceses under him was near a hundred(41); of these, between seventy and eighty were in Egypt, and sixteen within seventy miles of Alexandria, and in the same civil province of Ægyptus Prima. Over all these, the bishop of Alexandria exercised a control more complete than that of any other patriarch of those times. I mention these circumstances to show that, at the time to which Eusebius refers, his archiepiscopal province must have been considerable. And as the ecclesiastical station of Irenæus is described in the same terms, it almost amounts to demonstration, that he held a similar pre‐eminence. The only difference is, that Irenæus is said to have ruled the παροικιῶν κατὰ Γαλλίαν, and the bishop of Alexandria those κατ᾽ Ἀλεξάνδρειαν. But this expression only shows that the Churches in Egypt emanated from Alexandria, and were permanently dependent upon it; whilst those in Gaul emanated from no point within the country, nor were permanently dependent upon any one church. If any one should suppose that the term παροικία is used with regard to Alexandria in its modern sense of _parish_, and that Eusebius is speaking of the extent of the single diocese of Alexandria, I will only say, that that whole diocese contained only fourteen pastors, that the city contained sixteen churches(42); and that Socrates, who wrote more than one hundred years after Eusebius, when describing the distinction of the pastoral charges in the diocese of Alexandria, merely says(43), that they were _like_ παροικίαι: so that this word had retained its meaning of _diocese_ even to that period.