maintaining the original identity of bishops and presbyters in the New Testament.^ In the episcopal or cathedral churches the pkesbtters still formed the council of the bishop. In town and country con- gregations, where no bishop officiated, they were more inde- pendent. Preaching, administration of the sacraments, and care of souls were their functions. In l^orth Africa they were for a long time not allowed to preach in the presence of the bishop ; until Angustine was relieved by his bishop of this restriction. The seniores p>l<^bis in the African church of the fom'th and fifth centuries were not clergymen, but civil person- ages and other prominent members of the congregation.^ ' HieroD. Comm. ad Tit. i. */ : "Idem est ergo presbyter qui episcopus, et autc- quam diaboli instinctu studia iu religione fierent . . . communi presbyterorum consilio ecclesise gubernabantur," etc. Comp. Epist. ad Evangelum presbyterum (Ep. 146, ed. Vail. Opera, i. 1074 sqq. ; Ep. 101, ed. Bened.), and Epist. ad Oceanum (Ep. 69, ed. Vail., Ep. 82, ed. Bened.). In the latter epistle he i-emarks: " Apud veteres iidem episcopi et presbyteri fuerunt, quia illud nomen dignitatis est, hoc ajtatis.'* ^ Chrysostom, Horn. i. in Ep. ad Philipp. (Phil. i. 1, on the words aw iirtaKOTrois, which imply a number of bishops, i. e. presbyters in one and the same congregation), observes : Tuvs Tvpecr^vTepous outws eicaKeae ' rare yap reus (Kotviovovv tu7s ovojjLaai. Of the same opinion are Theodoret, ad Phil. i. 1, and ad Tim. iii. 1 ; Ambrosiastor, ad Eph. iv. 11 ; and the author of the pseudo-Angustinian Questiones V. et N. T., qu. 101. Comp. on this whole subject of the original identity of imaKoiros and irpeff^vrepos, my History of the Apostolic Church, § 132 (Engl, translation, p. 522- 531), and Rich. Rothe : Anfange der christlichen Kirche, i. p. 207-217. ^ Optatus of Mileve calls them, indeed, ecclesiasticos vivos ; not, however, in the sense of clerici, from whom, on the contrary, he distinguishes them, but in the broad sense of catholic Christians as distinguished from heathens and heretics. Comp. on these seniores plebis, or lay elders, as they are called, the discussion of Dr. Kothe ; Die Anfange der christl. Kirche u. ihrcr Verfassung, vol. i. p. 227 sqq. § 52. TUE LOWEE CLEKGY. 259 In the fourth century arose the office of archjpresbyter, whose duty it was to preside over the worship, and sometimes to take the place of the bisliop in his absence or incapacity. The DEACONS, also called Levites, retained the same func- tions which they had held in the preceding period. In the West, they alone, not the lectors, were allowed to read in public worship the lessons from the Gospels ; which, contain- ing the words of the Lord, were placed above the Ej^istles, or the words of the apostles. They were also j)ermitted to bap- tize and to preach. After the pattern of the church in Jerusa- lem, the number of deacons, even