Bishops and Church Order

A school for sinners

Shelley titles his chapter on church organization "School for Sinners." The phrase captures the church's double task. It had to be holy and disciplined, yet able to welcome and restore weak, failing people. Structure grew out of that need. Who could baptize? Who decided who was readmitted after sin? Who guarded the teaching? Who handled the money for the poor?

The earliest pattern

In the New Testament, church leadership looks fluid. Paul mentions apostles, prophets, teachers, and people with gifts of healing and administration. Several New Testament books mention local leaders called presbyters (elders) and episkopoi ("overseers," which became our word "Bishop"), apparently as two names for the same group. There were also deacons ("servants"), who looked after practical matters, including some women such as Phoebe.

The Didache ("Teaching"), an early church manual probably from around AD 100, shows traveling apostles and prophets still visiting congregations. It warns that a prophet who stays more than two days or asks for money is a fraud. It also tells churches to appoint bishops and deacons for themselves.

One bishop per city

Gradually, in one city after another, a single leader emerged at the head of the presbyters: the bishop. This is called the "monarchical episcopate" (from "rule by one"). Its strongest early champion was Ignatius of Loyola of Antioch. In letters written about 108 on his way to martyrdom, he urged churches to do nothing without the bishop: "Where the bishop is, there let the people be, just as where Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church." For Ignatius, unity around one bishop was the church's best defense against division and false teaching.

By the late 100s this three-tier pattern was nearly universal:

• Bishop: leader of the church in a city. He presided at the Eucharist and baptism, taught, ordained clergy, disciplined sinners and controlled funds for the poor.
• Presbyters (priests): a council advising the bishop. Increasingly they led worship in his place as churches multiplied.
• Deacons: the bishop's assistants, especially in charity and administration. In big cities, deacons could be very powerful.

Below them grew "minor orders," readers, doorkeepers and exorcists, as well as orders of widows and virgins.

How a city church was organized, c. 250

Why bishops mattered

Bishops became central because they answered the problems of the age:

• Against heresy, Irenaeus of Lyon argued that bishops in succession from the apostles guaranteed true teaching (see Apostolic succession).
• Against division, the bishop was the visible center of unity.
• In persecution, bishops were the targets, and their courage or failure mattered.
• In discipline, bishops decided who could be restored after serious sin.

The North African bishop Cyprian of Carthage of Carthage (d. 258) pushed the idea further. In On the Unity of the Church (c. 251) he declared that "you cannot have God as your Father unless you have the church as your mother." There is "no salvation outside the church," he said, and the church is held together by the bishops. For Cyprian, all bishops shared one single office jointly, and they met in councils to decide difficult questions together.

The church of Rome

Among all the churches, Rome had a special standing. It was the capital of the empire. It was large and wealthy, famous for generosity to other churches. Above all, it was the church where both Peter and Paul had taught and died. Their tombs were there.

Signs of Rome's leading role appear early. Around 96, the Roman church sent a letter (1 Clement, traditionally by Clement of Rome) to the church in Corinth, urging it to restore leaders it had deposed. Irenaeus said every church should agree with Rome because of its "more powerful origin." Around 190 Bishop Victor I of Rome tried to force the churches of Asia to celebrate Easter on Rome's date, and to excommunicate them if they refused. Irenaeus and others told him off for being heavy-handed.

Later Catholic teaching sees the bishop of Rome as Peter's successor, with a special ministry of unity, the Papacy. Historians note that in this period the Roman bishop had great prestige but not yet the jurisdiction of the medieval popes. Cyprian himself, while honoring Rome, argued fiercely with Bishop Stephen of Rome about rebaptizing converts from schismatic groups, and refused to give way. The title "pope" (papa, father) was used for many bishops at this time. The bishop of Alexandria still uses it today.

Clergy and laity

A growing line separated the Clergy from the laity, the ordinary people (from Greek laos). By the 200s clergy were appointed through Ordination, the laying on of hands by the bishop with prayer. A church order called the Apostolic Tradition, traditionally attributed to Hippolytus of Rome of Rome, gives detailed prayers for ordaining bishops, presbyters and deacons. Increasingly the presbyter was seen as a "priest" offering the Eucharistic sacrifice, using language borrowed from the Old Testament.

The church also began to have money and property: cemeteries, buildings and funds for the poor. Around 251, a letter reports that the Roman church supported 46 presbyters, 7 deacons, many minor clergy, and more than 1,500 widows and needy people. It was by then a major social institution.

Women's ministries

In the New Testament, women hosted churches, prophesied, served as deacons and worked as missionaries. In the 100s and 200s, women still played vital roles as deaconesses, widows devoted to prayer and charity, and consecrated virgins. Women also stand among the most honored martyrs. But as offices became formal and tied to presiding at the Eucharist, the major orders were restricted to men. Some groups the mainstream rejected, such as Montanists and some Gnostics, gave women more prominent roles, which made women's leadership look suspicious to some bishops. Historians debate how much this change reflected Roman social norms about public roles for women.

Discipline and penance

A "school for sinners" needed a way to deal with sin after baptism. Serious sins, especially idolatry, murder and adultery, led to exclusion from Communion. After persecution created many "lapsed" Christians (see Persecution and Martyrs), bishops developed public Penance. Penitents wore sackcloth, stood at the church door, and asked for prayers for a set period before being readmitted, often only once in a lifetime. Debate raged over how strict to be. In Rome, Bishop Callistus I (c. 217–222) was criticized by Hippolytus for being too lenient. Hippolytus became perhaps the first "antipope," a rival bishop of Rome. They were later reconciled in exile and are both honored as saints.

Councils and synods

How did bishops settle questions that affected more than one city? From the mid-100s they began meeting in regional synods or councils. Bishops in Asia Minor met to discuss Montanism, and others met over the date of Easter. In North Africa, Cyprian held regular councils of dozens of bishops to decide questions such as how to treat the lapsed and whether to rebaptize converts from schismatic groups. Decisions were made by discussion and consensus, then communicated by letter to other churches.

This conciliar habit prepared the way for the great "ecumenical" (worldwide) councils of the next era, beginning with Nicaea in 325 (see Arius and the Council of Nicaea). It also established a principle that would be argued over for centuries. Is the highest authority in the church a single bishop, or the bishops gathered together?