kai boulen ekklesias Theou boule te kath' hekasten polin sunexetazon heurois an hoti tines men tes ekklesias bouleutai exioi eisi]--[Greek: ei tis estin en to panti polis tou Theou]--[Greek: en ekeine politeuesthai hoi de pantachou bouleutai ouden exion tes ek katataxeos huperoches, hen huperechein dokousi ton politon, pherousin en tois heauton ethesin; houto de kai archonta ekklesias hekastes poleos archonti ton en te polei sugkroteon; hina katanoesus, hoti kai epi ton sphodra apotugchanomenoo bouleton kai archonton ekklesias Theou, kai rhathumoteron para tous eutonoteros biountas ouden etton estin heurein hos epipan huperochen ten en te epi tas aretas prokope para ta ethe ton en tais polesi bouleuton kai archonton.]] [Footnote 259: Ritschl, Entstehung der altkatholischen Kirche pp. 362, 368, 394, 461, 555, 560, 576. Otto Ritschl, l.c., pp. 208, 218, 231. Hatch "Organisation of the early Christian Church," Lectures 5 and 6; id., Art. "Ordination," "Priest," in the Dictionary of Christian Antiquities. Hauck, Art. "Priester" in Herzog's Real-Encyklopaedie, 2nd ed. Voigt, l.c., p. 175 ff. Sohm, Kirchenrecht I. p. 205 ff. Louw, Het ontstaan van het Priesterschap in de christ. Kerk, Utrecht, 1892.] [Footnote 260: Clement of Rome was the first to compare the conductors of public worship in Christian Churches with the priests and Levites, and the author of the [Greek: Didache] was the first to liken the Christian prophets to the high priests. It cannot, however, be shown that there were any Christian circles where the leaders were directly styled "priests" before the last quarter of the 2nd century. We can by no means fall back on Ignatius, Philad. 9, nor on Iren., IV. 8. 3, which passage is rather to be compared with [Greek: Did.] 13. 3. It is again different in Gnostic circles, which in this case, too, anticipated the secularising process: read for example the description of Marcus in Iren., I. 13. Here, _mutatis mutandis_, we have the later Catholic bishop, who alone is able to perform a mysterious sacrifice to whose person powers of grace are attached--the formula of bestowal was: [Greek: metadounai soi thelo tes emes charitos ... lambane ap' emou kai di' emou charin], and through whose instrumentality union with God can alone be attained: the [Greek: apolutrosis] (I. 21.) is only conferred through the mystagogue. Much of a similar nature is to be found, and we can expressly say that the distinction between priestly mystagogues and laymen was of fundamental importance in many Gnostic societies (see also the writings of the Coptic Gnostics); it was different in the Marcionite Church. Tertullian (de bapt. 17) was the first to call the bishop "summus sacerdos," and the older opinion that he merely "played" with the idea is untenable, and refuted by Pseudo-Cyprian, de aleat. 2 ("sacerdotalis dignitas"). In his Antimontanist writings the former has repeatedly repudiated any distinction in principle of a particular