Edited sentence: According to Duffy, there was not a single leader, but a group leadership that distributed tasks, such as a secretary responsible for correspondance.Duffy, Eamon.Eamon Duffy states that all of the evidence regarding the church in Rome during its first century reinforces this depiction of church authority.ISBN 0300091656.It speaks of a collective of "rulers" and "elders", but does not treat bishops as a distinct office.Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes.The early work The Shepherd of Hermas was a Roman work composed in the early second century.The early writings of Clement of Rome were not composed from a position of authority as the Bishop of Rome, but as an elder of the church serving as a literate member responsible for writing other communities.While the Christians of the city viewed themselves as a single church, the social reality was a loose confederation of house churches and (later) rented halls and baths.Yale University Press (2002)