Ignatius Ep. to the Church of Trallis.
Quid vero Presbyterium nisi collegium Sacrum? consiliarii & con∣sessores Episcopi: quid item Diaconi nisi imitatores Angelicarum virtutem ei ministrantes ministerium purum & immaculatum ut San∣ctus Stephanus beato Jacobo, & Timotheus ac Linus Paulo, & Ana∣cletus at{que} Clemens Petro? qui igitur inobediens fuerit his Atheus & impius omninò fuerit & Christum improbans.
I the sooner quote this Epistle, because not questioned, and this matter, because its used by Ignatius demonstratively; in which he proves their Presbytery, consisting of a Bishop and two Presbyters, to agree with that of Paul, Timothy and Linus, Peter, Anacletus and Clemens, and so to be according to the Apostolical institution: This Epistle spoken of by Nicephor, lib. 3. cap. 29. Hyreneus. Eu∣sebius.
The reason why Irenaeus speaks so little of these things in his Five Books, Advers. Haeres. I suppose is, because he wrote a Book De Disciplina, mentioned by Hieron. de vita Iraenei, which with the true History of Egisip. and that Book of Josep. Antioch. called Speculum perfectae militiae ecclesiae Primitivae, are all lost; and the beginning of the first Lib. of Strom. of Clemens Alexandrinus, which was the Key of his Books of Stromes doubtless.