To Evangelus

Ad Evangelum

Translated by Wm. Henry Fremantle, 1893.

Needless to say, priests and bishops are not identical; St. Jerome is stressing the close connection of these two orders of clergy in order to make his point that deacons are lower ranking. At the time, the seven deacons of Rome were extremely powerful officials of the local church.

Do you ask for proof of what I say? Listen to this passage: "Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons," [Ph. i. 1]. Do you wish for another instance? In the Acts of the Apostles Paul thus speaks to the priests [sacerdotes] of a single church: "Take heed unto yourselves and to all the flock, in the which the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops, to feed the church of God which He purchased with His own blood," [Acts xx. 28]. 

And lest any should in a spirit of contention argue that there must then have been more bishops than one in a single church, there is the following passage which clearly proves a bishop and a presbyter to be the same. Writing to Titus the apostle says: "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain presbyters in every city, as I had appointed thee: if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God," [Tit. i. 5-7 Vulgate]. And to Timothy he says: "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery," [Tim. iv. 14]. Peter also says in his first epistle: "The presbyters which are among you I exhort, who am your fellow-presbyter and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: feed the flock of Christ [Vulgate and Greek NT 'of God']...taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly, according unto God," [1 Pet. v. 1, 2]. In the Greek the meaning is still plainer, for the word used is episkopountes, that is to say, overseeing, and this is the origin of the name overseer or bishop.

But perhaps the testimony of these great men seems to you insufficient. If so, then listen to the blast of the gospel trumpet, that son of thunder, the disciple whom Jesus loved and who reclining on the Saviour's breast drank in the waters of sound doctrine. One of his letters begins thus: "The presbyter unto the elect lady and her children whom I love in the truth," [2 Joh. 1]; and another thus: "The presbyter unto the well-beloved Gaius whom I love in the truth," [3 Joh. 1]. When subsequently one presbyter was chosen to preside over the rest, this was done to remedy schism and to prevent each individual from rending the church of Christ by drawing it to himself. For even at Alexandria from the time of Mark the Evangelist until the episcopates of Heraclas and Dionysius the presbyters always named as bishop one of their own number chosen by themselves and set in a more exalted position, just as an army elects a general, or as deacons appoint one of themselves whom they know to be diligent and call him archdeacon. For what function, excepting ordination, belongs to a bishop that does not also belong to a presbyter? 

It is not the case that there is one church at Rome and another in all the world beside. Gaul and Britain, Africa and Persia, India and the East worship one Christ and observe one rule of truth. If you ask for authority, the world outweighs its capital [orbis major est urbe]. Wherever there is a bishop, whether it be at Rome or at Engubium, whether it be at Constantinople or at Rhegium, whether it be at Alexandria or at Zoan, his dignity is one and his priesthood is one. Neither the command of wealth nor the lowliness of poverty makes him more a bishop or less a bishop. All alike are successors of the apostles.

Episcopos fuisse contendat, audi et aliud testimonium, in quo manifestissime comprobatur eumdem esse Episcopum atque Presbyterum. Propter hoc reliqui te in Creta, ut quae deerant corrigeres, et constitueres Presbyteros per civitates, sicut et ego tibi mandavi. Si quis est sine crimine, unius uxoris vir, filios habens fideles, non in accusatione luxuriae, aut non subditos. Oportet enim Episcopum sine crimine esse, quasi Dei dispensatorem (Tit. 1. 5 et seqq.). Et ad Timotheum: Noli negligere gratiam quae in te est, quae tibi data est prophetiae, per impositionem manuum Presbyterii (1. Tim. 4. 14). Sed et Petrus in prima Epistola: Presbyteros, inquit, in vobis precor Compresbyter, et testis passionum Christi, et futurae gloriae quae revelanda est, particeps, regere gregem Christi, et inspicere non ex necessitate, sed voluntarie juxta Deum (1. Petr. 5). Quod quidem Graece significantius dicitur ἐπισκοποῦντες, id est, super intendentes, unde et nomen Episcopi tractum est.

Parva tibi videntur tantorum virorum testimonia? Clangat tuba Evangelica, filius tonitrui, quem Jesus amavit plurimum, qui de pectore Salvatoris doctrinarum fluenta potavit (Joan. 21): Presbyter, Electae dominae et filiis ejus, quos ego diligo in veritate (2. Joan. 1). Et in alia Epistola: Presbyter, Gaio carissimo, quem ego diligo in veritate (3. Joan. 1). Quod autem postea unus electus est, qui caeteris praeponeretur, in schismatis remedium factum est: ne unusquisque ad se trahens Christi Ecclesiam rumperet. Nam et Alexandriae a Marco Evangelista usque ad Heraclam et Dionysium Episcopos, Presbyteri semper unum ex se electum, in excelsiori gradu collocatum, Episcopum nominabant: quomodo si exercitus Imperatorem faciat: aut Diaconi eligant de se, quem industrium noverint, et Archidiaconum vocent. Quid enim facit excepta ordinatione Episcopus, quod Presbyter non faciat?

Nec altera Romanae urbis Ecclesia, altera totius orbis existimanda est. Et Galliae, et Britanniae, et Africa, et Persis, et Oriens et India, et omnes barbarae nationes, unum Christum adorant, unam observant regulam veritatis. Si auctoritas quaeritur, orbis major est Urbe. Ubicumque fuerit Episcopus, sive Romae, sive Eugubii, sive Constantinopoli, sive Rhegii, sive Alexandriae, sive Tanis, ejusdem meriti, ejusdem est et Sacerdotii. Potentia divitiarum, et paupertatis humilitas, vel sublimiorem, vel inferiorem Episcopum non facit. Caeterum omnes Apostolorum successores sunt.

But even in the church of Rome the deacons stand while the presbyters seat themselves, although bad habits have by degrees so far crept in that I have seen a deacon, in the absence of the bishop, seat himself among the presbyters and at social gatherings give his blessing to them [contrary to the eighteenth canon of Nicæa --trans.]. 

Those who act thus must learn that they are wrong and must give heed to the apostles' words: "it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables," [Acts vi. 2]. They must consider the reasons which led to the appointment of deacons at the beginning. They must read the Acts of the Apostles and bear in mind their true position.

Of the names presbyter and bishop the first denotes age, the second rank. In writing both to Titus and to Timothy the apostle speaks of the ordination of bishops and of deacons, but says not a word of the ordination of presbyters; for the fact is that the word bishops includes presbyters also. Again when a man is promoted it is from a lower place to a higher. Either then a presbyter should be ordained a deacon, from the lesser office, that is, to the more important, to prove that a presbyter is inferior to a deacon; or if on the other hand it is the deacon that is ordained presbyter, this latter should recognize that, although he may be less highly paid than a deacon, he is superior to him in virtue of his priesthood. In fact as if to tell us that the traditions handed down by the apostles were taken by them from the Old Testament, bishops, presbyters and deacons occupy in the church the same positions as those which were occupied by Aaron, his sons, and the Levites in the temple. [Cf. Clement, ad Cor. I. xl]

Caeterum etiam in Ecclesia Romae, Presbyteri sedent, et stant Diaconi: licet paulatim increbrescentibus vitiis, inter Presbyteros, absente Episcopo, sedere Diaconum viderim: et in domesticis conviviis, benedictiones Presbyteris dare. Discant qui hoc faciunt, non se recte facere, et audiant Apostolos: Non est dignum, ut relinquentes verbum Dei, ministremus mensis (Actor. 6. 2). Sciant quare Diaconi constituti sint. Legant Acta Apostolorum, recordentur conditionis suae. Presbyter et Episcopus, aliud aetatis, aliud dignitatis est nomen. Unde et ad Titum, et ad Timotheum de ordinatione Episcopi et Diaconi dicitur (Tit. 1; 1. Tim. 3): de Presbyteris omnino reticetur: quia in Episcopo et Presbyter continetur. Qui provehitur, de minori ad majus provehitur. Aut igitur ex Presbytero ordinetur Diaconus, ut Presbyter minor Diacono comprobetur, in quem crescit ex parvo, aut si ex Diacono ordinatur Presbyter, noverit se lucris minorem, Sacerdotio esse majorem. Et ut sciamus traditiones Apostolicas sumptas de veteri Testamento, quod Aaron et filii ejus atque Levitae in Templo fuerunt, hoc sibi Episcopi et Presbyteri et Diaconi vindicent in Ecclesia.

• The St. Pachomius Orthodox Library, St. Philip of Moscow, 1998 - http://www.voskrese.info/spl/jerome146.html