by Matthew A. C. Newsome ©2003

Many times when Protestant and other non-Catholic Christians are discussing Church history, it is their proposition that the Catholic Church cannot be the true Church that Christ founded.  They claim that the Catholic Church, as an institution, developed at some later date.   One of the big difficulties with this theory is that no one can quite agree on when the Catholic Church was established.  Some Protestants who hold the first seven Ecumenical Councils to be valid argue that it was after that time (this leads to more problems, such as Protestant rejection of many of the Catholic doctrines expounded by those councils).  Perhaps the most popular claim is that the Catholic Church was an invention of Constantine, and developed during his reign after the legalization of Christianity.

     Dr. Carroll, author the Baptist church history entitled “The Trail of Blood,” makes the claim that Constantine called a council in 313 AD, the same year he issued the Edict of Milan, and this council first formed the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.  This theory breaks down, though, when one begins to read the history books and discovers that no Church council was held in 313.

     But the main problem with all of these theories is that, if they were true, one would expect to be able to find all of the doctrines that are specifically “Catholic” coming about only after the “invention” of the Catholic Church.  Whatever year one proposes as the beginning of Catholicism, one should expect to see none of these Catholic doctrines before it.  Even a cursory reading of the Church Fathers from the first, second, and third centuries shows that this is not the case.

     For our purposes here, let us address the specific claim that the Church hierarchy was not established until the reign of Constantine.  And since there was no council held in 313, like Dr. Carroll claims, let us take the date of a council that Constantine did call, the Council of Nicaea, in 325.

    The Church hierarchy is made up of bishops, priests, and deacons, in that order.  All of these positions are that of ordained ministry, but each of them has their special role in the Church.  Bishops are the successors of the Apostles.  They have the care of multiple congregations, and can appoint, ordain, and discipline priests and deacons.  Priests normally have jurisdiction over a single congregation and have the responsibility to teach, govern, and provide the sacraments to their flock.  Deacons serve as assistants to bishops and priests, and may have certain administrative tasks.

     All three offices -- bishop, priest and deacon -- are mentioned in the New Testament.  It should be noted that these titles were used rather fluidly in New Testament times, with a person possible being referred to as both a bishop and a deacon in different contexts.  The Greek word for bishop is episcopoi and is sometimes translated as “evangelist” or “overseer.”  The Greek for priest is presbuteroi and is sometimes translated as “elder.”  And the Greek for deacon is diakonoi and is sometimes translated as “servant” or “minister.”  You can see how this may lead to a certain confusion in the New Testament texts.  Paul, an apostle (and therefore at the top of the hierarchy), might refer to himself as a diakonoi simply to mean he is a servant, without meaning to apply to himself a specific title.  In fact, the Catholic Church today continues to see all levels of ordination – priest, bishop, right up the papacy – as servant positions.  Likewise a priest in charge of a single church may be referred to as an episcopoi because he oversaw that congregation.  But it becomes very clear from the writings of the early Church Fathers that three very distinctive types of ordained ministry existed, and that they existed in a hierarchical relationship to one another.

     Let’s look now at some early Church writings, from before 325 AD, to see if we do not find evidence of a Church hierarchy.

THE DIDACHE
    This document, sometimes called The Teachings of the Apostles, dates from around 80 AD.   In Chapter 15, we read, “Elect therefore for yourselves bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord, humble men and not covetous, and faithful and well tested; for they also serve you in the ministry of the prophets and teachers.  Do not therefore despise them, for they are the honored men among you along with the prophets and teachers.”

ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH
    St. Ignatius is a very important source of information about the first century Church.  He left for us perhaps the most prolific body of writing from the period just after the New Testament was written.  Moreover, he was a student of the Apostle John, and was ordained to the episcopacy by none other than St. Peter.  He was the second bishop of Antioch after Peter, its first bishop, left that city to found the church in Rome with Paul.  In other words, his Christian training was done at the hands of the Apostles themselves.  Ignatius was martyred in 110 AD.  Before his death, he wrote letters to various churches.  From them we learn much about the way the first century Church was structured.  From his Letter to the Magnesians:

“Now, therefore, it has been my privilege to see you in the person of your God-inspired bishop, Damas; and in the persons of your worthy presbyters, Bassus and Apollonius; and my fellow-servant, the deacon, Zotion. What a delight is his company! For he is subject to the bishop as to the grace of God, and to the presbytery as to the law of Jesus Christ.”

“Take care to do all things in harmony with God, with the bishop presiding in the place of God, and with the presbyters in the place of the council of the apostles, and with the deacons, who are most dear to me, entrusted with the business of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father from the beginning and is at last made manifest.”

“Take care, therefore, to be confirmed in the decrees of the Lord and of the apostles, in order that in everything you do, you may prosper in body and in soul, in faith and in love, in Son and in Father and in Spirit, in beginning and in end, together with your most reverend bishop; and with that fittingly woven spiritual crown, the presbytery; and with the deacons, men of God. Be subject to the bishop and to one another as Jesus Christ was subject to the Father, and the apostles were subject to Christ and to the Father; so that there may be unity in both body and spirit.”

From his Letter to the Trallians:

“Indeed, when you submit to the bishop as you would to Jesus Christ, it is clear to me that you are living not in the manner of men but as Jesus Christ, who died for us, that through faith in his death you might escape dying. It is necessary, therefore—and such is your practice that you do nothing without the bishop, and that you be subject also to the presbytery, as to the apostles of Jesus Christ our hope, in whom we shall be found, if we live in him. It is necessary also that the deacons, the dispensers of the mysteries [sacraments] of Jesus Christ, be in every way pleasing to all men. For they are not the deacons of food and drink, but servants of the Church of God. They must therefore guard against blame as against fire.”

“In like manner let everyone respect the deacons as they would respect Jesus Christ, and just as they respect the bishop as a type of the Father, and the presbyters as the council of God and college of the apostles. Without these, it cannot be called a church. I am confident that you accept this, for I have received the exemplar of your love and have it with me in the person of your bishop. His very demeanor is a great lesson and his meekness is his strength. I believe that even the godless do respect him.”

“He that is within the sanctuary is pure; but he that is outside the sanctuary is not pure. In other words, anyone who acts without the bishop and the presbytery and the deacons does not have a clear conscience.”

From his Letter to the Philadelphians:

“For all who belong to God and to Jesus Christ are with the bishop.  And those, too, will belong to God who have returned, repentant, to the unity of the Church so as to live in accordance with Jesus Christ.  Make no mistake, brethren.  No one who follows another into schism inherits the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9).  No one who follows a heretical doctrine is on the side of the passion.”

“I cried out while I was in your midst, I spoke with a loud voice, the voice of God: ‘Give heed to the bishop and the presbytery and the deacons.’ Some suspect me of saying this because I had previous knowledge of the division certain persons had caused; but he for whom I am in chains is my witness that I had no knowledge of this from any man. It was the Spirit who kept preaching these words, ‘Do nothing without the bishop, keep your body as the temple of God, love unity, flee from divisions, be imitators of Jesus Christ, as he was imitator of the Father’.”

From his Letter to the Smyrneans:

“[Shun schisms, as the source of troubles.]  Let all follow the bishop as Jesus Christ did the Father, and the priests, as you would the Apostles.  Reverence the deacons as you would the command of God.  Apart from the bishop, let no one perform any of the functions that pertain to the Church.  Let that Eucharist be valid which is offered by the bishop or by one to whom the bishop has committed this charge.  Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be; as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.  It is not lawful to baptize or give communion without the consent of the bishop.  On the other hand, whatever has his approval is pleasing to God.  Thus, whatever is done will be safe and valid.”

ST. CLEMENT OF ROME
    The next source we will look at is St. Clement of Rome.  St. Clement was the fourth pope, the third Bishop of Rome after St. Peter (following Linus and Cletus).  Clement was ordained as a bishop by Peter himself.  During his pontificate, Clement wrote a letter to the church in Corinth.  Historians date this letter to around 96 AD.  This letter was, before the New Testament canon was firmly established, read as scripture in many churches.  This speaks volumes regarding the recognition of the authority of the Bishop of Rome, as does the fact that his authority and jurisdiction were honored even while the Apostle John was still alive (John died in the year 100).

“Our Apostles also knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would be contention over the bishop’s office.  So, for this cause, having received complete foreknowledge, they appointed the above-mentioned men, and afterwards gave them a permanent character, so that, as they died, other approved men should succeed to their ministry.  Those, therefore, who were appointed by the Apostles or afterwards by other eminent men, with the consent of the whole Church, and who ministered blamelessly to the flock of Christ in humility, peaceably and nobly, being commended for many years by all – these men we consider are not justly deposed from their ministry.”

“It is disgraceful, beloved, very disgraceful, and unworthy of your training in Christ, to hear that the stable and ancient Church of the Corinthians, on account of one or two persons, should revolt against its presbyters.  And this report has come not only to us, but also to those who dissent from us.  The result is that blasphemies are brought upon the name of the Lord through your folly, and danger across for yourselves.”

ST. HEGESIPPUS
     St. Hegesippus was a second century convert to Catholicism from Judaism.  He appears to have been from around Palestine, but traveled to Corinth and Rome and learned the faith from the bishops there.  He left behind five volumes of writings, called his Memoirs, in which he set out to record authentic Apostolic teaching, as handed on through the succession of the bishops.  These writings were known to survive at least until the sixteenth century in some libraries.  Most of what we know about him currently comes from the writings of St. Eusebius of Caesarea, called the Father of Church History, who lived from about 260 to 341 AD.  In his Ecclesiastical History, he tells of the writings of Hegesippus.

“And in his Memoirs he tells us that on a journey as far as Rome he associated with very many bishops, and that he had received the same teaching from all.  In fact, we may listen to what he says, when, after some remarks on the epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, he adds as follows:
     “And the church of the Corinthians continued in the true doctrine until Primus was bishop at Corinth. . . . With them I associated on my voyage to Rome, and I abode with the Corinthians many days; during which we were refreshed together in the true doctrine.  But when I came to Rome, I made for myself a succession-list as far as Anicetus; whose deacon was Eleutherus.  And from Anicetus Soter received the succession and in every city that which the Law and the Prophets and the Lord preach is faithfully followed.”

ST. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
     We do not know when this early Greek theologian was born, but he died in 215 AD.  He was head of the catechetical school of Alexandria.  He left behind many writings on Christian faith.  Those who accuse the Catholic Church of being corrupted by paganism should read his Hortatory Discourse to the Greeks in which he contrasts Christianity with the vileness of pagan rites.  The following quote comes from his Stromata, or “Miscellanies,” written about 208 AD.

"Even here in the Church the gradations of bishops, presbyters, and deacons happen to be imitations, in my opinion, of the angelic glory and of that arrangement which, the scriptures say, awaits those who have followed in the footsteps of the apostles and who have lived in complete righteousness according to the gospel.”

ST. HIPPOLYTUS
     Like Clement, we do not know when this saint was born, but he died around 236 AD.  He was a priest in the Church of Rome, and at one time a schismatic Bishop of Rome.  Despite this, the Catholic Encyclopedia calls him “the most important theologian and the most prolific religious writer of the Roman Church in the pre-Constantinian era.”  He was reconciled with the Catholic Church just before his martyrdom.  The following text comes from The Apostolic Tradition, written in 215.

"When a deacon is to be ordained, he is chosen after the fashion of those things said above, the bishop alone in like manner imposing his hands upon him as we have prescribed. In the ordaining of a deacon, this is him: he is not ordained to the priesthood, but to serve the bishop and to fulfill the bishop’s command. He has no part in the council of the clergy, but is to attend to his own duties and is to acquaint the bishop with such matters as are needful. . . .
    "On a presbyter, however, let the presbyters impose their hands because of the common and like Spirit of the clergy. Even so, the presbyter has only the power to receive [the Spirit], and not the power to give [the Spirit]. That is why a presbyter does not ordain the clergy; for at the ordaining of a presbyter, he but seals while the bishop ordains.
    "Over a deacon, then, let the bishop speak thus: ‘O God, who have created all things and have set them in order through your Word; Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom you sent to minister to your will and to make clear to us your desires, grant the Holy Spirit of grace and care and diligence to this your servant, whom you have chosen to serve the Church and to offer in your holy places the gifts which are offered to you by your chosen high priests, so that he may serve with a pure heart and without blame, and that, ever giving praise to you, he may be accounted by your good will as worthy of this high office: through your Son Jesus Christ, through whom be glory and honor to you, to the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit, in your holy Church, both now and through the ages of ages. Amen’."

ST. CYPRIAN
     St. Cyprian was the Bishop of Carthage, the first bishop of that city to be martyred, in 258 AD.  A convert to Christianity (he was baptized at the Easter Vigil in 246), he rapidly rose through the ranks of the clergy to become Bishop of Carthage in 248 (possibly early 249).  He faithfully led the Carthagian church during the time of the Novatian schism, when a priest named Novatian set himself up as anti-pope, in opposition to the rightful Bishop of Rome, St. Cornelius.  Because of this, Cyprian left much in his writings on the subject of Christian Unity.  He writes, for example, of the the fact that Christ specifically built His Church upon Peter, even though he gave His gifts to all the Apostles.  “That He might display unity, He established by His authority the origin of the same unity as beginning from one.  Surely the rest of the Apostles also were that which Peter was, endowed with an equal partnership of office and of power, but the beginning proceeds from unity, that the Church of Christ may be shown to be one” (On the Unity of the Catholic Church, Ch. 4).  The following quote comes from one of his letters (No. 33).

“Our Lord, whose precepts and admonitions we ought to observe, describing the honor of a bishop and the order of His Church, speaks in the Gospel, and says to Peter: ‘I say unto you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  And I will give unto you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven’ (Mt. 16:16-18).  Thence, through the changes of times and successions, the ordering of bishops and the plan of the Church flow onwards; so that the Church is founded upon these same rulers.  Since this, then, is founded on the divine law, I marvel that some, which daring temerity, have chosen to write to me as if they wrote in the name of the Church; when the Church is established in the bishop and the clergy, and all who stand fast in the faith.”

THE COUNCIL OF ELVIRA
     This council was held in the year 300 (some scholars have it a few years later), in the city of Elliberis in Spain.  It was the first council to be held in Spain, and was attended by nineteen bishops and twenty-six priests.  This local council was not a dogmatic council, but a disciplinary one.  Its eighty-one canons tell us much about the rites, practices, and customs of Spanish Christians in the period immediately before the legalization of Christianity under Constantine.  They touch on matters such as marriage, baptism, the mass, and Christian relations with pagans, Jews, and heretics. They also contain the oldest recorded ecclesial ordinance on the celibacy of the clergy.  For our purposes of the Church hierarchy, we look to canon 18.

"Bishops, presbyters, and deacons may not leave their own places for the sake of commerce, nor are they to be traveling about the provinces, frequenting the markets for their own profit. Certainly for the procuring of their own necessities they can send a boy or a freedman or a hireling or a friend or whomever, but, if they wish to engage in business, let them do so within the province."

THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA
     And finally we come to the Council of Nicaea, called by Constantine to address the Arian heresy that was not only threatening to divide Christendom, but the Roman Empire as well.  Since this council was actually called by Constantine (with the consent of Pope Sylvester, and presided over by his legate), many assume that it must have been here that the church hierarchy was “established.”  While the Council of Nicaea did indeed address matters of the hierarchy, it was a hierarchy that was already long in place, as we can see by reading the Church Fathers that came before it.  Canon 18 of the council speaks clearly on the relationship between bishop, priest, and deacon.

"It has come to the knowledge of the holy and great synod that, in some districts and cities, the deacons administer the Eucharist to the priests, whereas neither canon nor custom permits that they who have no right to offer [the Eucharistic sacrifice] should give the Body of Christ to them that do offer [it]. And this also has been made known, that certain deacons now touch the Eucharist even before the bishops. Let all such practices be utterly done away, and let the deacons remain within their own bounds, knowing that they are the ministers of the bishop and the inferiors of the priests. Let them receive the Eucharist according to their order, after the priests, and let either the bishop or the priest administer to them."

IN CONCLUSION
     And so we see plainly shown in the writings of the ante-Nicene Fathers that the Church hierarchy of bishop, priest, and deacon was long in place before Nicaea, before Constantine, and before the legalization of Christianity.  If one is looking for the date of the founding of the Catholic Church, it makes no sense to point to this era, for the structure that existed after it also existed before.
     What changed after Christianity was made legal was largely cosmetic.  Instead of hiding in houses and celebrating mass in private dwellings, glorious cathedrals could now be constructed, dedicated to the sole purpose of worship.  And with Christian gatherings now allowed in public, the message of the gospel could spread like never before.  The bishops, priests and deacons found themselves ministering to much larger flocks as the Catholic Church grew, but they ministered to them in the same ways as they were ordained for through Apostolic succession, since the time of Christ.
     If you are looking for the beginning of the Catholic Church, you need look no further than He who founded it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Information for this article comes from:

The Teachings of the Church Fathers, by John R. Willis, S.J., originally published in 1966, republished in 2002 by Ignatius Press, San Francisco.

Catholic Answers
http://www.catholic.com

The Catholic Encyclopedia
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen