A TREATISE

ON

THE EPISCOPATE

OF

THE ANTE NICENE CHURCH,

(WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE EARLY
POSITION OF THE ROMAN SEE).

BY THE REVEREND

GEORGE M. GORHAM, B.A.,

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,
AND CROSSE UNIVERSITY SCHOLAR.

Ecce qualis Episcopus.-ORIGEN, Hom. ii. in Numer.

CAMBRIDGE: J. DEIGHTON.
LONDON: GEORGE BELL, FLEET STREET.

M.DCCC.LIV.

Cambridge:

Printed at the University Press.

ΤΟ

THE RIGHT REVEREND

Samuel,

LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD,

THIS TREATISE ON EARLY EPISCOPACY

IS DEDICATED

IN GRATEFUL AND AFFECTIONATE VENERATION.

ETON COLLEGE,

January, 1854.

PREFACE.

HE following pages were originally com

THE

posed under the form of an Essay to which the Hulsean Prize was adjudged in the year 1853. The subject proposed by the Trustees was "The Position and History of the Christian Bishops, and especially of the Bishop of Rome, during the first three Centuries." In committing my Essay to the press, according to Mr Hulse's injunctions, I have made but very few alterations in its shape and matter: but I have given it a title which appears more exactly to suit the method, general rather than historical, in which I have discussed the subject.