Of St. Peter's connection with the Eternal City we know nothing certain,
except that he preached and suffered there. If bishops existed in his
time, there is some reason for thinking that the office was collegiate,
and that the committee of bishops was less important then in the
spiritual life of the community than at a later time. Not until the
second century did the episcopate become monarchical and the holder of
the office the supreme authority within the Church by which he was
elected. The change was complete by the time of Irenaeus, who wrote
_circa_ 180 A.D.; to him we owe our earliest catalogue of Roman
bishops, beginning with Linus and ending with Eleutherus, the twelfth
from Peter and the contemporary of Irenaeus. The later names in the list
are doubtless those of authentic bishops; the earlier may be in some
sense historical, the names of famous presbyters or of men who made
their mark on the old episcopal committee. A point of secondary interest
is that Irenaeus speaks of bishops, not of Popes; this title came into
use a hundred years after his time. More important is the fact that, in
the third century, when our documents become more copious, Rome is
generally recognised as first in dignity among the churches (_ecclesia
principalis_), but has no appellate jurisdiction and no legislative
powers. It is only admitted that, when disputes arise on points of
tradition, her testimony is entitled to special honour, as that of a
church which preserves the memory of Peter's teaching. As doctrinal
controversies become more acute and more fundamental, the importance of
tradition is emphasised, the authority of those who voice it is
magnified. Ultimately all the pretensions of the Holy See are founded on
the claim that she possesses the only undefiled tradition. But it was
not until long after the third century that the consequences of the
claim were realised even by the claimants.

If we were invited, at the present day, to suggest a means of conserving