BISHOP (Sax. bishop, from Gr. episcopos, a superintendent), in the Greek, Latin and Anglican churches, the title given to those who are of the highest order of the priesthood, to the successors of the 12 apostles, in distinc tion from the priests who are the successors of the 72 disciples; in the Methodist Episcopal and Moravian churches and in the Protestant churches of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, the title given to the highest officers in the ministry, who are not, however, regarded as a distinct order; in Germany the office is hardly more than titular and is conferred upon princes as well as ecclesiastics. The name was borrowed by the first Christians from the languages of Greece and Rome, in which it designated a civil magistrate. Thus, Cicero was at one time epsscopus or campania. In the New Testament the words bishop and presbyter, or priest, are sometimes inter changed, as in Acts xx, 17, 28; and Saint John, in his last two epistles, adopts the title of priest Yet, as maintained by Roman Cath olic writers, it does not follow because the names priest and bishop were then applied in distinctly, that there existed no distinction be tween the episcopate and the priesthood. °There might have been confusion in the names,' says Saint Thomas, ((but not in the character.' The identity of the original sig nification of the words and °bishop° was acknowledged by the Christian fathers Saint Jerome and Saint Augustine in the 5th century, and even by Pope Urban II at the end of the Ilth century, and it is not denied by many Episcopalians even at the present the Council of Trent, how ever, thedoctrine which placed presbyters and bishops originally on a footing of perfect equality in the early Church was declared a heresy, thus denying to the bishops of the Church the priority of rank which they claimed.
Those who adhere to the Episcopalian form of Church government and at the same time admit the original identity of presbyters and bishops, differ from the Presbyterians in their theory of the origin of the episcopal authority. The Episcopalians maintain that even before the words had a separate meaning attached to them the distinction between bishops and sub ordinate pastors existed in fact and was a regular ecclesiastical institution, those who held a peculiar authority over being ap pointed originally by the apostles. The Pres
byterians, on the other hand, believe that the authority that was undoubtedly conceded to certain of the Thishops° or °presbyters° when they met to consider the affairs of the Church, was not due to any formal appointment, but merely to the mutual agreement of the assem bled presbyters and that this distinction was no more a mark of respect paid to some member who was venerable by his age or dis tinguished by his piety. But, whichever of these two theories may be correct, there is no doubt of the fact that at a comparatively early period in the history of the Church a position of authority was acquired by the pastors of the Christian communities belonging to cer tain places, and that these came to be distin guished from the others by the name of bishops. The growth of this authority was favored by the doctrine which we find stated in the beginning of the 2d century with regard to the priestly dignity being a peculiarly divine institution. The more this doctrine was af firmed the higher grew the claims of the bishops. Ignatius of Antioch, who died about 115, had already declared every bishop to be a representative of Christ, in which we have the statement of the doctrine of the apostolic succession, that is to say, the doctrine of the transmission of the ministerial authority in uninterrupted succession from Christ to the apostles and through these from one bishop to another. By the foundation of new churches in the larger towns which were affiliated with the original churches and by the dependence of the presbyters in the country districts upon those having urban charges, the authority of the bishops came to be gradually extended over greater or lesser dioceses; and at the same time the bishops began to reserve to them selves peculiar privileges. As the early Church advanced and increased in growth, the offices and jurisdiction of the bishops devel oped correspondingly and by the 2d century their duties are clearly marked off from the subordinate clergy.