ANTONINUS PIUS. PIUS, _Ninth_ BISHOP _of_ Rome. [Sidenote: Year of Christ 142. ] _Anicetus_ is placed next to _Hyginus_ by _Optatus_[185], St. _Augustin_[186], and _Epiphanius_[187]: But who would not, with _Eusebius_[188], rather follow _Irenæus_[189], and _Hegesippus_[190], naming _Pius_ immediately after _Hyginus_, since the former wrote in the Time of _Eleutherius_ the Second Bishop after _Anicetus_; and the latter lived at _Rome_ in the Time of _Anicetus_, and continued there till the Pontificate of _Eleutherius_. [Sidenote: Marcion _comes to_ Rome.] In the Time of _Pius_, _Marcion_, a Native of _Pontus_, and the Son of a Bishop of the holy Catholic Church, says _Epiphanius_[191], being excommunicated by his Father for debauching a Virgin, and finding he could by no means prevail upon the venerable Prelate to receive him again into the Church, abandoned his native City, supposed to be _Sinope_, and fled to _Rome_. Upon his Arrival there, he applied to the Elders of that Church, intreating them to admit him to their Communion. But those holy Men, who had been taught by the Disciples of the Apostles, instead of complying with his Request, returned him this Answer; [Sidenote: _The Power of receiving Appeals disowned by the Church of_ Rome.] We cannot admit you without Leave from your holy Father; nor can we, as we are all united in the same Faith, and the same Sentiments, undo what our holy Collegue your Father has done.--Thus _Epiphanius_[192]. Had _Bellarmine_ lived in those Days, he had taught them another Doctrine, a Doctrine which, however necessary, the Apostles had forgot to deliver to their Disciples; _viz._ That the See of _Rome_ was raised above all other Sees; that the Appeals of the whole Catholic Church were to be brought to it; that no Appeals were to be made from it; that it was to judge of the whole Church, but be judged by none. _Marcion_ did not apply to _Pius_, as the Reader must have observed, or at least did not apply to him alone, but to the Elders, who disclaimed all Power of reversing the Sentence of a particular Bishop or Judge. And is not this an evident and incontestable Proof that the Power of receiving Appeals was not known, or thought of, in those Days? And yet, who would believe it? _Bellarmine_ has the Assurance to allege this very Case as an Argument to prove in the Pope a Power of receiving Appeals[193]. But what would become of this Prerogative, should the Pope return the same Answer to every Appellant? [Sidenote: Pius _no Martyr_.]