Unity is secured by the hierarchical organization of the ministry and the due submission of inferiors to authority. On this point the teaching of the… - John Bertram Peterson

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Unity is secured by the hierarchical organization of the ministry and the due submission of inferiors to authority. On this point the teaching of the Apostolic Fathers seems to stand for a marked development in advance of the practice of the Apostolic period. But it is to be noted that the familiar tone in which episcopal authority is treated precludes the possibility of its being a novelty.