Its completeness, 176 3. Its unity, 179 4. Its independence, 181 How the idea of perpetuity pervades all these qualities, 182 CHAPTER IV. TRANSMISSION OF SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY, AS WITNESSED IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH FROM A.D. 29 TO A.D. 325. The letter of St. Clement of Rome, 184 Description of this letter by St. Irenæus, 185 St. Clement urges the Roman military discipline as an example for Christian obedience, 186 Minute regulations given by Christ as to religious ordinances, 187 The descent of all spiritual order from above, 188 Example of Moses in establishing the Jewish Pontificate, 189 How the Apostles appointed everywhere Bishops with a rule of succession, 190 St. Clement fills up details omitted in the Gospel record, 190 How he attests the continuation of the Mosaic hierarchy of high priest, priest, and levite in the Christian Church, 191 How he says that Christian ordinances are to be observed more accurately than Mosaic, 193 How the Apostles carried out the descent of power from above, 194 Why St. Clement instances the origin of the Jewish hierarchy, 195 How St. Clement exercises the Primacy, 197 St. Ignatius of Antioch supplements St. Clement of Rome, 200 His statement as to Bishops throughout the world, combined with his statement as to the authority of the local Bishop, 201 The complete testimony of St. Clement and St. Ignatius, 203 The historian Eusebius notes three periods in the first ninety years, 205 Sum of his testimony as to the great Sees and the Episcopate, 206 How Tertullian describes the first propagation of the Church, 211 And how Irenæus, 213 Concordance with the Gospels of these statements of St. Clement, St. Ignatius, Eusebius, St. Irenæus, and Tertullian, 215 Bishops in every city and town of the Empire before the peace of the Church, 216 St. Peter, St. Paul, and the Apostles appointed everywhere local Bishops, 217 The Bishop universally said to wield a government, 218 Bishops sent out from Rome to convert the nations, 219 Episcopal government universal, 220 But the One Episcopate much more than this, 222 St.