established by the apostles, it _is not easy to say, any farther than
may be gathered from the statements of Paul_." [331:4]

About A.D. 139, Telesphorus, who was then at the head of the Roman
presbytery, is said to have been put to death for his profession of the
gospel; but the earliest authority for this fact is a Christian
controversialist who wrote upwards of forty years afterwards; [332:1]
and we are totally ignorant of all the circumstances connected with the
martyrdom. The Church of the capital, which had hitherto enjoyed
internal tranquillity, began in the time of Hyginus, who succeeded
Telesphorus, to be disturbed by false teachers. Valentine, Cerdo, and
other famous heresiarchs, now appeared in Rome; [332:2] and laboured
with great assiduity to disseminate their principles. The distractions
created by these errorists seem to have suggested the propriety of
placing additional power in the hands of the _presiding presbyter_.
[332:3] Until this period every teaching elder had been accustomed to
baptize and administer the Eucharist on his own responsibility; but it
appears to have been now arranged that henceforth none should act
without the sanction of the president, who was thus constituted the
centre of ecclesiastical unity. According to the previous system, some
of the presbyters, who were themselves, perhaps, secretly tainted with
unsound doctrine, might have continued to hold communion with the
heretics; and it might have been exceedingly difficult to convict them
of any direct breach of ecclesiastical law; but now their power was
curtailed; and a broad line of demarcation was established between true
and false churchmen. Thus, Rome was the city in which what has been
called the Catholic system was first organized. Every one who was in
communion with the president, or bishop, was a catholic; [332:4] every
one who allied himself to any other professed teacher of the Christian
faith was a sectary, a schismatic, or a heretic. [333:1]