may thus account for a few words to be found in them which were introduced at a later period. [547:3] Their tone and spirit, which are entirely different from the spurious productions ascribed to the same age, plead strongly in their favour as trustworthy witnesses.  The writer makes no lofty pretensions as a Roman bishop; he speaks of himself simply as at the head of an humble presbytery; and it would be difficult to divine the motive which could have tempted an impostor to fabricate such unpretending compositions.  Though given as the veritable Epistles of Pius by the highest literary authorities of Borne, they are certainly ill calculated to prop up the cause of the Papacy.  If their claims are admitted, they must be regarded as among the earliest authentic records in which the distinction between the terms bishop and presbyter is unequivocally recognized; and it is obvious that if alterations in the ecclesiastical constitution were made under Hyginus, they must have prepared the way for such a change in the terminology.  In one of these Epistles Pius gives the following piece of advice to his correspondent:—­“Let the elders and deacons respect you, not as a greater, but as the servant of Christ.” [548:1] This letter purports to have been written when its author anticipated the approach of death; and the individual to whom it is directed seems to have been just placed in the episcopal chair.  Had Pius believed that Justus had a divine right to rule over the presbyters, would he have tendered such an admonition?  A hundred years afterwards, Cyprian of Carthage, when addressing a young prelate, would certainly have expressed himself very differently.  He would, probably, have complained of the presumption of the presbyters, have boasted of the majesty of the episcopate, and have exhorted the new bishop to remember his apostolical dignity.  But, in the middle of the second century, such language would have been strangely out of place.  Pius is writing to an individual, just entering on an office lately endowed with additional privileges, who could not yet afford to make an arbitrary use of his new authority.  He, therefore, counsels him to moderation, and cautions him against presuming on his power.  “Beware,” says he, “in your intercourse with your presbyters and deacons, of insisting too much on the duty of obedience.  Let them feel that your prerogative is not exercised capriciously, but for good and necessary purposes.  Let the elders and deacons regard you, not so much in the light of a superior, as the servant of Christ.”

In another portion of this letter a piece of intelligence is communicated, which, as coming from Pius, possesses peculiar interest.  When the law was enacted altering the mode of succession to the presidency, it may be supposed that the proceeding was deemed somewhat ungracious towards those aged presbyters who might have soon expected, as a matter of right, to obtain possession of the seat of the moderator.  The death of Telesphorus, the