J. Reville (Les Origines de l'6piscopat, pp. 508- 519) is very firm on the authenticity of the Ignatian letters, but sets himself the task of minimizing the witness they bear to the three-grade hierarchy and principally to the monarchical episcopate. First of all he holds that this episcopate took its rise in Asia, and that in the time of Ignatius it did not exist or scarcely existed outside Asia ; he con- cedes, however, that Antioch had a monarchical episcopate. Let us say at the very beginning that nowhere — not even in his Letter to the Romans — does Ignatius lead us to think that the monarchical episcopate was found only in Syria or Asia : he even suggests that such an episcopate exists every- where, when he says to the Ephesians : ' Even as the bishops that are settled in the farthest parts of the earth are in the mind of Jesus Christ' (ol iirl(TKoiroi, ol Kara, to, -n-ipara dpicrd^vres, Eph. iii. 2 ; for the meaning of /card ra iripara, cf. Bom. vi. 1 : t4 iripara tov Kdafiov). Reville is wrong in saying that ' the monarchical episcopate makes its entry
into the history of the Church at the beginning of the 2nd cent.,' for in Ignatius' letters it is already an established institution. And even supposing Ignatius ' gives us his ideal rather than the ecclesi- astic reality of his time,' this ideal is merely the submission, union, and perfect conformity of all to the bishop in each church ; it is not the exist- ence of a single bishop, for that is already an accomplished fact in each church. ' Ignatius' testimony presents us with the monarchical episco- pate as firmly rooted, completely beyond dispute. . . . He speaks of the bishops as established in the farthest parts of the earth. He knows of no non-episcopal area' (Gore, op. cit., p. 300 f.). Harnack's conclusions on this point are hesitating (Entstehung tind Entwickelung der Kirchenverfass- ung, Leipzig, 1910, pp. 60-63).
Each church has common worship. ' If the prayer of one and another hath so great force, how much more that of the bisliop and of the whole Church?' {Eph. v. 2). The assembly is above all a gathering together for prayer, ' for thanksgiving to God and for his glory' (avv4pxfo-6oLi. els evxa-picTlav deov Kal els 86^av, xiii. 1), prayer for all men that they may find God (x. 1), for the other churches (xxi. 2), or for any private individual (xx. 1). In the assembly there is to be but one prayer, one supplication, one mind in common (Magn. vii. 1). 'And do ye, each and all, form yourselves into a chorus (xop6s yiveade) that being harmonious in concord and taking the keynote of God (xpC^iJ^o. deov) ye may in unison (crvficpuvoi) sing with one voice ' (^drjre iv tpufTJ ixiq., Eph. iv. 2 ; this metaphor is to be understood of the unanimity of the Christians in each church, but it presupposes also the use of singing in Christian assemblies). The bishop presides at the assembly (Smyrn. viii. 1-2) ; it is he who sits in the chief place {irpoKadripL^vov, Magn. vi. 1).
Ignatius does not tell us the procedure for the election of a deacon, presbyter, or bishop, but three times over {Philad. x. 1, Sinyrn. xi. 2, Polyc. vii. 2) the word x"po^<"'f''' is used to express the method by which the assembly elects an am- bassador to go to some distant church ; it is not a far cry to suppose that the members of the hier- archy were elected in the same way by the general vote. But Ignatius believes that God ratifies this choice and the one elected is the elect of God ; he congratulates the bishop of Philadelphia on having been invested with ' the ministry which pertaineth to the common weal {tt^v diaKoviau ttjv els rb koiv6v), not of himself or through men, nor yet for vain glory, but in the love of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ' {Philad. i. ; this is not an allusion to party factions, as R6ville maintains, but an echo of St. Paul [Gal P] and an assimilation of the episcopate to the apostolate).
Nowhere in Ignatius' Epistles is there any mention of Christians credited with personal charismata, nor is there any word of local or itinerant prophets such as we find in the apostolic [leriod (C. H. Turner, Studies in Early Church History, Oxford, 1912, p. 22 f.). The bishop, ac- cording to Ignatius, has the sole right of speaking in the name of the Spirit. As von DobschUtz says : ' It is interesting to see how in this quite Catholic- minded bishop [Ignatius], who thinks only of the great of the Old Testament past as prophets, there yet speaks to the Churches of Asia Minor a " minister of the spirit" {deo<t>6pos), living wholly in ecstasy and revelations {Eph. xxi.. Trail, v., Philad. vii., Polyc. ii.)' (Dobschiitz, Christian Life in the Primitive Church, p. 238).
Baptism is mentioned {Polyc. vi. 2) as a compact as binding as the relation of soldier to militia. No baptism may take place without the bishop {Smyrn. viii. 2). The Eucharist may not be cele-
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brated without the bishop : ' Let that be held a valid eiicharist which is under the bishop or one to whom he shall have committed it' (viii. 1). The one to whom the Eucharist is committed is someone lower than the bishop : apparently a presbyter. To celebrate the Eucharist is called dydirrjv iroieiv (viii. 2). Mention is made of it again in Eph. XX. 2 : ' . . . that ye may obey the bishop and the presbytery without distraction of mind ; breaking one bread (^va dprov KXwvres), which is the medicine of immortality (<f>dp/jLaKov ddavaa-ias) and the antidote that we should not die but live for ever in Jesus Christ.'